There was a time when I genuinely disliked meetings.
Not because I didn’t value communication. Not because I didn’t want alignment. But because they always seemed to drain more energy than they created. We would gather in a room, sit down with good intentions, and before long we were deep in conversations, revisiting old frustrations, or circling the same problems we had already “talked about” the week before. We’d leave with vague ideas and very little clarity.
And as the business owner, that weighed on me.
When you’re responsible for the vision, the culture, and the health of a company, you feel the drag of inefficiency more than anyone else. I could sense that something wasn’t working in our meetings, but I didn’t yet have language for what was missing.
What was missing was structure.
When I was introduced to EOS and the concept of a Level 10 Meeting, I didn’t fully understand at first how something so simple could change so much. A 90-minute weekly meeting with a set agenda didn’t sound revolutionary. But in practice, it transformed the way we operate.
Before EOS: We Were Talking, But Not Solving
Before implementing Level 10 meetings, we had plenty of communication. We cared deeply about the business and about each other. But our meetings lacked boundaries and direction. We would jump from topic to topic depending on who felt most urgent in the moment. The loudest issue often got the most time, and the quieter, more systemic problems would quietly linger.
In property management especially, this is dangerous.
Our world is full of moving parts — owners with expectations, residents with emotions, maintenance timelines, leasing pressure, compliance, cash flow. If you don’t have a disciplined way to identify and solve issues, you end up operating in reaction mode. You address symptoms instead of root causes. You put out fires but never fireproof the building.
That’s where we were.
We were working hard. But we weren’t always working clearly.
Why Structure Changes the Emotional Climate of a Team
This is the part that fascinates me most, especially given my background in psychology.
Teams don’t just need communication. They need predictability.
Uncertainty creates anxiety, even if people don’t consciously name it that way. When team members aren’t sure when issues will be addressed, how performance is measured, or whether their concerns will be heard, it creates a low-grade tension in the background of the workday. It shows up as defensiveness, over-explaining, avoidance, or sometimes disengagement.
Ambiguity is stressful.
Structure reduces that stress.
When a team knows there is a designated place to bring problems, a consistent time to review numbers, a clear way to assign accountability, and a defined end to the meeting — something shifts internally. The nervous system relaxes. People don’t have to fight for airtime or wonder if their concern will be forgotten. They trust the process.
The Level 10 works because it removes ambiguity.
And when you remove ambiguity, you remove a tremendous amount of unspoken anxiety.
What Our L10 Rhythm Looks Like Now
Today, we run one weekly Leadership L10 along with separate departmental L10s. Each department head leads their own meeting, and then our leadership team comes together for a shared session each week. We’re very intentional about protecting time — no team member sits in more than one weekly L10, and leadership participates in no more than two. There may be additional 1:1 meetings for training or development, but those are strategic, focused, and capped at an hour. Meetings shouldn’t consume the organization; they should sharpen it.
L10 Agenda We Use
- Segue — “Good News” (5 Minutes)
- Scorecard (5-10 Minutes)
- Rock Review (5 Minutes)
- Customer & Employee Headlines (5 Minutes)
- To-Do Review (5 Minutes)
- IDS — Identify, Discuss, Solve (60 Minutes)
- Conclude (5 Minutes)
We begin with what EOS calls the Segue or as we like to call it “Good News” — each person shares one professional win and one personal win. You learn what excites your team. You hear about children’s soccer games, new workouts, leasing victories, successful owner conversations. You see the whole human, not just the role on the Accountability Chart.
Then we move to the scorecard. Every team member has at least one weekly number. No one has more than three. We are disciplined about this because too many numbers dilute focus. The scorecard has removed so much emotion from our conversations. If a number is off, we don’t spiral. We don’t shame. We don’t dramatize. We simply acknowledge that it may be an issue.
Rocks come next — our 90-day priorities. In our company, only the leadership team holds Rocks. The rest of our team is fully focused on execution. Each week we ask a simple question: are we on track or off track? If we’re consistently off track, we don’t rationalize it. We treat it as an issue to solve.
We also review customer and employee headlines — everything from birthdays and team outings to new properties onboarding, owners selling, upcoming move-ins, or weather preparations. This section often surfaces patterns. Something mentioned casually may reveal a deeper operational weakness. When that happens, the facilitator asks, “Is this an issue?” If the answer is yes, it goes on the issues list.
Then we review last week’s to-dos. They are either done or not done. Each to-do has one owner and a seven-day timeline. Accountability is clear and visible.
And then we enter IDS — Identify, Discuss, Solve. My favorite section because I love solving problems.
What I’ve learned is that the issues brought to the table are rarely the real issues. Someone might say, “Owner is frustrated about…,” but as we discuss , we may uncover inconsistent communication standards or unclear expectations set.
Because we have a framework, we stay with the conversation long enough to uncover the root cause. And once we identify it, we solve it in a way that is meant to prevent recurrence. Sometimes that means updating a process. Sometimes it means changing a policy. Occasionally, it means having a difficult conversation or even letting go of a misaligned client.
Figuring out the solution usually ends up as a to-do, and is assigned to a team member who has seven days to complete it. We will check back in the next week to ensure it was done.
At the end of each meeting, we recap the to-dos and then everyone rates the meeting on a scale from one to ten. A true ten means we started and ended on time, stayed focused, and solved the most important issues in the room. If it’s not a ten, we ask why. That feedback helps us continuously refine how we run our meetings. The goal is for everyone to walk away feeling like it was time well spent — productive, efficient, and worth stepping away from their day-to-day work — with real clarity around the solutions we agreed on.
Why My Team No Longer Dreads Meetings
The most telling change is this: our team values these meetings.
Issues don’t linger for months. Frustrations don’t build silently. Numbers aren’t mysterious. Accountability isn’t personal. People know when and where to raise concerns. They trust that if something is dropped on IDS, it will be addressed.
If You Want to Start Your First L10
If you’re reading this and thinking your meetings could use this kind of clarity, I would encourage you not to overcomplicate the beginning.
Commit to a consistent weekly 90-minute block. Follow the core agenda, even if it feels awkward at first. Assign a facilitator to keep everyone on track and a scribe to capture notes and to-dos. Give each team member at least one meaningful KPI. Protect your IDS time fiercely — even if you only solve one real issue in your first few meetings.
It will feel clunky in the beginning. That’s normal. Structure takes repetition before it becomes culture. But if you stay disciplined, you will begin to feel the difference.
And so will your team.
Final Thoughts
Looking back, the Level 10 wasn’t just a new meeting format. It was a leadership shift for me. It required me to trust structure instead of emotion, to prioritize root causes instead of surface conversations, and to create an environment where clarity is more important than comfort.
Running a business will always involve people, complexity, and unexpected challenges. But structure creates safety. And safety allows teams to do their best work.
For our company, the L10 became the anchor point of our week. It’s where clarity is restored, alignment is reinforced, and the next seven days are defined.
And I truly can’t imagine leading without it now.
