A leadership team at a 40 person professional services firm was constantly in reactive mode and struggling to solve the important things. By implementing a BOS based Shared Issues List and weekly meeting format they found focus, strategic effectiveness, and improved team engagement.
I was part of the leadership team at a successful professional services firm with about 40 consultants. The business was doing okay, but we struggled with reactive management, often having lots of ad hoc meetings to handle the crisis of the day.
Our team meetings usually revolved around whatever fire was burning hottest at the moment. By the end of the hour, we'd talked about many different things but never actually resolved anything important. The real strategic issues kept getting pushed aside week after week.
Sound familiar? As someone who's worked with many different teams and companies, I can tell you this challenge is universal: urgent always crowds out important, and critical business issues get buried under daily operational noise.
When we implemented a Business Operating System framework, one of the fundamental practices we adopted was an Issues list, shared across the leadership team. It was a game-changer.
The concept is straightforward - create a shared list where anyone can capture issues, concerns, or items needing feedback that need leadership attention. Sounds simple, but the magic happens in how you use it.
There are a few simple principles:
Within a few weeks, our Issues List contained some of the most important topics we needed to address as Leaders of the company, and our weekly meetings were becoming focused on resolving these important issues.
Three months later, the transformation was remarkable. For the first time in years, we were actually talking about the things that mattered most to our business.
Here's what changed for us:
Fewer Things Fell Through the Cracks: Strategic issues that previously got lost in the daily hustle now had a home. We used to have important conversations in hallways or parking lots, and then forget about them. Now everything got captured and addressed systematically.
Meetings were focused, strategic, and effective: Instead of starting with whatever crisis du jour appeared, our Weekly Team Meetings (WTMs) now followed a structured 90-minute agenda. After quickly reviewing data, rocks, headlines, and to-dos in the first 25 minutes, we dedicated a full 60 minutes to selecting the highest priority Issues from our list and driving them to resolution.
Team Alignment Increased: With everyone contributing to and seeing the same Issues List, we developed a shared understanding of business priorities. We operated less in our silos and more as a cohesive team with joint leadership responsibility.
Team Engagement and Happiness Increased: As we got the important things done and saw progress our work became more fulfilling and enjoyable. Trust amongst the team increased. We all became more engaged and happier, which then rippled out to the entire company.
The Shared Issues List didn't solve our problems, but it created the structure for our leadership team to solve problems systematically. We always had smart people with good ideas. We just needed a way to make sure we were talking about the right things at the right time.
This simple tool transformed our leadership from reactive crisis management to proactive strategic thinking.
If your leadership team is stuck in reactive mode, constantly fighting fires instead of building your business, you're not alone. The Shared Issues List is just one component of a complete Business Operating System that can transform how your team operates.
Curious about how you can implement the benefits of a BOS in your own business? Let's Talk.