EOS L10 meeting agenda: the real-world picture
For this study, TenTenor sampled 1,000 real L10 meetings to see how the familiar EOS agenda plays out in practice.
Independent research by TenTenor. Not affiliated with or endorsed by EOS Worldwide.
If you run on EOS, you know the shape of a Level 10 Meeting (L10): short updates, an hour to identify, discuss and solve issues (IDS), and five minutes to close. Mark O’Donnell’s walkthrough from EOS Worldwide lays out that standard 90-minute agenda.
TenTenor analyzes real meetings from recordings and transcripts. For this study, we selected a random sample of 1,000 L10 meetings to see how teams use the agenda in practice.
In 57% of the 90-minute meetings that included IDS, teams spent less than the planned hour on it. Updates sometimes ran long, but many meetings also finished well short of their planned length. Here is where the time went.
How much time teams spent on IDS in EOS L10s
The standard agenda puts IDS after five short sections: the segue, scorecard, rock review, customer and employee headlines, and To-Do List. Each gets five minutes. That leaves 60 minutes for IDS and five to close.
Higher parts of the curve show more common IDS durations. Based on 553 meetings planned for 90 minutes. The shaded band marks 55–65 minutes; percentages use exact meeting counts.
Show the numbers
| IDS minutes | Meetings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under 55 | 237 | 42.9% |
| 55–65 | 198 | 35.8% |
| Over 65 | 118 | 21.3% |
| Total | 553 | 100% |
The median was 57 minutes, so roughly half the meetings spent less time on IDS and half spent more. About a quarter gave it 45 minutes or less. That is a substantial difference in the time available to work through an Issues List.
The 60-minute format gives IDS 30 minutes. Those meetings spent a median 31 minutes on it, helped by getting through the earlier sections faster. But a shorter format leaves less room for a busy Issues List. If issues regularly carry over, check whether the team needs a longer meeting.
Small overruns delay the start of IDS
In a 90-minute L10, IDS should start by minute 25. One meeting in five reached it at least five minutes late.
The opening segue was the most common section to run long. It took seven minutes or more in roughly a third of meetings. Scorecard reviews and headlines also frequently exceeded their five-minute slots.
Share of 90-minute L10s where each five-minute section took at least seven minutes. Each percentage counts only meetings that included that section.
Show the numbers
| Agenda section | Meetings taking 7+ minutes |
|---|---|
| Segue | 33% |
| Scorecard | 25% |
| Rock review | 13% |
| Headlines | 26% |
| To-Do List | 22% |
A couple of extra minutes can seem harmless. Across several sections, they add up.
Finishing early is far more common than overruns
Late starts were only part of the picture. Many meetings also used less time than their calendar slot allowed.
To estimate the time available for IDS, we subtracted the time spent before it and reserved five minutes to close. An average of nine available minutes went unused, in both meeting formats.
Nine minutes a week adds up to almost eight hours over a year. That is an opportunity when unresolved issues remain. A team that has dealt with its priorities may have a good reason to finish early; the timing data alone cannot tell us which happened.
The closing section also tended to be short: a median three minutes in 90-minute meetings and two in 60-minute meetings. Teams rarely left enough room to confirm the To-Dos, agree on messages to share with the wider team, and rate the meeting.
428 meetings. Median length: 53 minutes. The band marks within five minutes of the plan.
Show the numbers
| Minutes | Meetings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under 55 | 227 | 53.0% |
| 55–65 | 177 | 41.4% |
| Over 65 | 24 | 5.6% |
| Total | 428 | 100% |
558 meetings. Median length: 86 minutes. The band marks within five minutes of the plan.
Show the numbers
| Minutes | Meetings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under 85 | 246 | 44.1% |
| 85–95 | 278 | 49.8% |
| Over 95 | 34 | 6.1% |
| Total | 558 | 100% |
Higher parts of each curve show more common meeting lengths. Both charts use the same scale. Timing runs from the first agenda item to the close.
Want to run better L10s? Here are some tips
- Reach IDS by minute 25. Notice which updates turn into discussions, and move those discussions to IDS.
- Check the Issues List before finishing early. If important issues remain, use the time already set aside to work through them.
- Protect the final five minutes. Close with clear actions and messages, even when the discussion runs long.
TenTenor times each part of your L10 against your agenda, so you can see where your team spends its time.