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How to Run a Quarterly Planning Session for EOS Teams

A step-by-step guide to running a productive quarterly planning session — from setting company rocks to cascading individual goals and preparing your team for the next 90 days.

January 28, 20266 min read

Why Quarterly Planning Is Different From Annual Planning

Annual plans look good on paper. By March, reality has diverged enough that the plan is decorative.

Quarterly planning works differently. You're committing to the next 90 days — a short enough horizon that the plan stays relevant, long enough to accomplish something meaningful. Teams that run tight quarterly cycles beat those that rely on annual plans because they course-correct four times a year instead of once.

This guide walks you through running an effective quarterly planning session from start to finish.

Before the Session: What to Prepare

Review last quarter's rocks

Before setting new rocks, score the last quarter. Go through each rock and mark it done or not done. Don't debate it — binary.

Calculate your completion rate. Most EOS teams aim for 80%+. Below 70% means you're setting too many rocks or not at the right difficulty. Above 90% consistently means you might not be pushing hard enough.

For each incomplete rock, ask one question: Was this rock the right priority, or did we get distracted? The answer informs this quarter's planning.

Pull your data

Come to the session with:

  • Scorecard trends for the last 12 weeks
  • Revenue vs. target
  • Key operational metrics
  • Open issues from the IDS list
  • Any unresolved people issues

You can't plan the next quarter in a vacuum. You need to know where you are.

Pre-read the V/TO

Review your Vision/Traction Organizer before the session. The 1-year plan and 3-year picture are your context. Every Company Rock should ladder up to at least one of your 1-year goals.

The Quarterly Session Agenda

A typical quarterly planning session runs 4–8 hours for a leadership team of 3–10 people. Here's the structure:

Part 1: Check-in and mindset reset (30 min)

Start with each person sharing one personal and one professional update since last quarter. This transition ritual is more powerful than it looks — it shifts people from operational mode into strategic mode.

Then do a quick team health check: Is anything not being said that should be? This surfaces relationship dynamics before they derail planning.

Part 2: Review last quarter (60 min)

  • Score each Rock: done / not done
  • Review Scorecard trends — which numbers were consistently red? Yellow? What patterns do you see?
  • What was the biggest win from last quarter?
  • What was the biggest miss? What caused it?

Be honest. If a rock was "90% done," it's not done. Partial credit kills the EOS accountability culture.

Part 3: Vision check (30 min)

Open the V/TO. Ask:

  • Are we still headed where we said we were headed?
  • Is our 1-year plan still accurate?
  • Has anything changed in the market that requires us to update our 3-year picture?

Make any needed updates. Document them.

Part 4: Issues discussion (60 min)

Surface the most important issues facing the company this quarter. These are systemic problems, market changes, or strategic questions — not operational to-dos.

Use IDS:

  1. Identify the real issue (often one level deeper than what's described)
  2. Discuss the issue to get everyone's perspective
  3. Solve it with a clear decision or Company Rock

Not all issues become rocks. Some get resolved in the discussion. Some become to-dos. The most important ones become quarterly priorities.

Part 5: Set Company Rocks (60 min)

This is the heart of the session. Based on your vision review and issues discussion, identify 3–7 Company Rocks for the quarter.

Each Rock needs:

  • A clear, specific title (not "grow sales" — "close 5 enterprise contracts by June 30")
  • A single owner (one person is accountable)
  • A done-when statement (what does completion look like?)
  • A due date (almost always the last day of the quarter)

Write the rocks on a shared screen or whiteboard. Get consensus on each one. If the leadership team can't agree that a rock is important, it probably isn't.

Part 6: Individual Rocks (45 min)

After company rocks are set, each person sets their own 3–7 Individual Rocks. Individual rocks:

  • Should support at least one Company Rock
  • Can also include personal development priorities
  • Need the same owner/done-when structure

Give each person 10 minutes to draft their rocks, then go around and share. Team members can ask clarifying questions: "How does this connect to Company Rock #2?"

Part 7: Wrap-up and commitment (30 min)

  • Review all Company Rocks and Individual Rocks together
  • Confirm: does everyone have a first step they can take this week?
  • Set the date for the first weekly Level 10 meeting of the quarter
  • Rate the session 1–10 and capture feedback

Common Quarterly Planning Mistakes

Starting with brainstorming instead of data

If you skip the Scorecard review and V/TO check-in, you're guessing. The data tells you what's not working. That should drive your priorities.

Setting too many rocks

Eight rocks is not a priority list — it's a wish list. Anything over 7 and accountability diffuses. Start with 5 and add one only if you cut another.

Vague done-when statements

"Improve the sales process" has no done-when. "Implement CRM stage gates and train 5 reps by March 31" does. The difference is whether you can evaluate completion objectively.

Skipping the Issues discussion

Teams that skip IDS and go straight to setting rocks end up with the same rocks as last quarter. The issues discussion is what surfaces the real priorities.

Not scheduling the follow-up

After the quarterly session, the next Level 10 meeting must be scheduled before people leave the room. If the rhythm doesn't start immediately, it loses momentum.

Using Taskspace for Quarterly Planning

Taskspace is built for the EOS quarterly rhythm. Before your planning session:

  • Pull the Scorecard view for the last 12 weeks — patterns are immediately visible
  • Export your rocks from last quarter with status to review completion rates
  • Review the Issues board for unresolved items to bring into the planning discussion

After the session:

  • Create Company Rocks with owner, due date, and done-when statement
  • Create Individual Rocks for each team member
  • Schedule the recurring Level 10 meeting
  • Update your V/TO if vision or 1-year plan changed

When the quarter is underway, Taskspace keeps everything connected: rocks link to milestones, tasks link to rocks, EOD reports surface blockers, and the Scorecard tracks your weekly measurables.

What Makes a Quarter Successful

The planning session isn't what makes a quarter successful — the execution and accountability rhythm is.

A team that runs a mediocre quarterly planning session but shows up to the Level 10 every week, scores their rocks honestly, and resolves their issues will outperform a team with a perfect planning session that loses discipline by week four.

The quarterly session sets the rocks. The weekly Level 10 keeps them moving. Both matter.


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