The Issues List is a central, shared list of unresolved issues, obstacles, ideas, or opportunities that need to be addressed by the team.  In EOS, “Issues” is one of the six key business components, and companies maintain multiple issues lists (e.g., a leadership team issues list and departmental ones). An issue could be anything from a key employee concern, a client problem, a process inefficiency, or an idea for growth – essentially any topic that the team needs to prioritize and solve.

The Issues List is used to capture and organize all the important topics that could impede execution or that require strategic decisions. By getting issues out of heads and onto a list, it creates transparency and ensures they won’t be forgotten. Each week, teams use the list to decide what to discuss in their problem-solving portion of the meeting. They tackle the highest priority issues using a method like IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve). This practice ensures continuous improvement: obstacles are systematically removed and opportunities evaluated. It also fosters an open culture where calling out problems is encouraged (since there’s a formal place to put them).

Issues List Development Process

In contrast to the other documents an issue list isn’t “developed” it’s something that’s maintained and grows and evolves over CEOe.   That noted, a rough process for managing that:

1. Capture: Encourage leaders and team members to add items to the issues list whenever they come across something that’s blocking progress or a decision that needs to be made. This could be done in a shared document or dedicated software. It’s important to make it “safe” to log issues – the list can include big strategic questions down to minor process annoyances.
2. Prioritize: Before each weekly leadership team meeting, the team should quickly prioritize the list. Which 2-3 issues are most urgent or impactful? Rank them so that during the meeting you address the top issues first. Less critical issues stay on the list for future meetings or until they escalate.
3. Resolve: In the weekly meeting, take the top issue and work through it: Identify the root cause, Discuss possible solutions, and agree on a Solve (an action or decision) to resolve it. Once an issue is solved or a decision is made, mark it off the list. If it’s not fully solved, it might stay on the list or spawn a new action item. Maintain separate issues lists as needed (long-term strategic issues vs. short-term tactical ones) to keep discussions focused. Regularly grooming and working this list prevents build-up of unresolved problems and keeps the organization agile.