One of the things I get asked about fairly often is how to run L10 meetings with warehouse teams.
My answer is usually:
You probably shouldn’t run them exactly the same way you run an L10 with your leadership team.
That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in EOS.
I do.
In fact, I’m a big believer in following the EOS process. The structure, the accountability and the discipline behind an L10 are extremely valuable.
But there’s an important distinction between following the process and being rigid about the format.
The problem with putting warehouse employees in a conference room
Imagine taking a group of warehouse employees who spend their day picking orders, receiving inventory, loading trucks and moving product around the building.
Then you bring them into a conference room.
You put everyone around a table.
You pull up an agenda.
And you tell them they’re going to have a formal L10 meeting.
Sometimes it works.
But I’ve found that it often doesn’t.
The environment can feel unnatural. People can become less comfortable speaking up. The conversation can become more formal than it needs to be.
And if the people in the room aren’t comfortable saying what’s actually going on, you’ve lost one of the biggest benefits of the meeting.
You can have a perfectly executed agenda and still have a bad meeting.
Try taking the meeting to the warehouse
One thing I’ve found to be much more effective is a simple stand-up meeting right in the warehouse.
Same day.
Same time.
Same place.
Same basic agenda.
But instead of pulling everyone away from the operation and putting them into a conference room, you have the conversation where the work is actually happening.
It changes the feel of the meeting.
It’s less formal.
It’s more conversational.
And people tend to be more comfortable talking about what is actually happening.
Someone can point to a particular area and say, “This is where we’re having a problem.”
Someone can identify an inventory issue they’ve been seeing.
Someone can bring up a process that’s slowing them down.
You’re not just talking about the operation.
You’re standing in it.
That doesn’t mean throwing the L10 out the window
This is where I think it’s important not to confuse flexibility with a lack of structure.
I still want the same basic discipline.
The meeting happens every week.
It’s at the same time.
It’s in the same place.
The right people are there.
You talk about what’s going well.
You talk about what’s not going well.
You review priorities.
You identify issues.
And most importantly, you solve the issues that actually need to be solved.
The format changes.
The discipline doesn’t.
That’s an important distinction.
The goal isn’t to have an L10 meeting
The goal is to have a better-running warehouse.
The L10 is simply a tool to help you accomplish that.
If the team leaves the meeting having talked about the real problems, identified what needs to happen and created accountability for getting it done, the meeting worked.
I don’t particularly care whether everyone was sitting around a conference table while it happened.
In fact, sometimes getting out of the conference room is exactly what makes the meeting work.
This applies beyond warehouses
I’ve seen this principle apply to other departments too.
A leadership team may need a very structured meeting.
A warehouse team may work better standing in a circle on the warehouse floor.
A sales team may have a different rhythm.
A production team may need to spend more time looking at what’s happening on the floor.
The underlying management system can stay consistent while the way you deliver it changes.
That’s not abandoning the process.
It’s making the process work for the people who actually have to use it.
And in operations, that’s usually the point.
Don’t confuse following the system with following the format.
The system should create clarity, accountability and problem-solving.
The format should help make that happen.
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