Quarterly planning is where dreams meet deadlines. It’s that crucial moment every 90 days when you lift your head from daily operations and ask: Are we winning? What’s next? How do we get there?
Too many companies treat quarterly planning as a checkbox exercise. They gather the team, review some numbers, set vague goals, and wonder why nothing changes. EOS transforms quarterly planning from a ritual into a rocket engine for growth.
The 90-Day Sweet Spot
Annual goals feel distant. Weekly tasks feel urgent. Quarterly Rocks live in the productivity sweet spot—long enough to accomplish something meaningful, short enough to maintain urgency. This 90-day pulse matches human psychology and business cycles perfectly.
Your brain can grasp 90 days. You can envision what success looks like three months out. Market conditions stay relatively stable. Team members remain engaged. It’s the ideal timeframe for translating vision into action.
EOS One becomes your command center for this rhythm. Set Rocks at the start of each quarter, review them weekly in Level 10s, and celebrate completion at quarter’s end. This creates a sustainable pulse of planning, execution, and achievement.
Preparing for Powerful Planning
Great quarterly planning starts before anyone enters the room. Two weeks out, start gathering intelligence. What were last quarter’s results? Which Rocks got completed? What issues keep surfacing in Level 10s?
Use your Scorecard trends to spot patterns. Are certain metrics consistently off track? That’s a planning priority. Are some numbers crushing it? Figure out how to replicate that success elsewhere. Data drives better decisions than gut feelings.
Create a pre-planning To-Do list in EOS One. Assign team members to prepare specific analyses: customer feedback themes, competitive intelligence, operational bottlenecks. When everyone arrives prepared, planning moves faster and goes deeper.
The Quarterly Planning Agenda That Works
Start with a celebration. Review last quarter’s Rock completion. Who delivered? What worked? This positive momentum carries into forward planning. Recognition reinforces the behavior you want repeated.
Next, face reality. Review your V/TO together. Are you on track for your 1-year plan? Your 3-year picture? If not, what needs to change? This context prevents quarterly planning from becoming disconnected from long-term vision.
The heart of planning: setting next quarter’s Rocks. Start at the company level. What are the 3-7 most important things that must get done to move the company forward? Be ruthless about prioritization. Everything can’t be most important.
Then cascade down. Each leadership team member sets 1-3 individual Rocks that support company Rocks. The head of sales might own “Implement new CRM” while the company Rock is “Increase customer retention 20%.” Clear connection, specific ownership.
Solving the Right Problems
Every quarter, issues accumulate that are too big for weekly Level 10s. Quarterly planning provides space to tackle these strategic challenges. Maybe it’s a broken process, a people issue, or a market shift.
Use the IDS process, but go deeper. You have hours, not minutes. Get to the true root causes. Design comprehensive solutions. Create Rocks that address core issues, not just symptoms. This is strategic problem-solving, not tactical firefighting.
Document these discussions in EOS One. Big strategic decisions need institutional memory. When someone asks, “Why did we decide that?” six months later, you’ll have the answer. Clarity beats confusion every time.
Making Rocks Rock-Solid
Weak Rocks kill quarters. “Improve customer service” isn’t a Rock—it’s a wish. “Implement customer response SLA of 2 hours for all tier-1 tickets” is a Rock. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound.
Each Rock needs clear done criteria. What does completion look like? Who will know? How will we measure it? Without crystal clarity, Rocks become moving targets that never quite get finished.
Use EOS One to document Rock details. Include success metrics, key milestones, and dependencies. When someone owns a Rock, they should know exactly what victory looks like. Ambiguity is the enemy of achievement.
The People Component
Quarterly planning isn’t just about what—it’s about who. Review your Accountability Chart. Do you have the right people in the right seats to achieve these Rocks? If not, that becomes a Rock itself.
Discuss capacity honestly. Can Sarah handle three Rocks while covering for Tom’s departure? Should we delay the website redesign until after the product launch? Better to set fewer Rocks and complete them than overcommit and fail.
This is also when you address people issues that have been simmering. Use the The People Analyzer. Are all team members above The Bar? If not, create a Rock to address it. Quarterly planning provides air cover for tough people decisions.
Building Momentum Through Cascading
Company Rocks should cascade through the organization. If the company Rock is “Launch Version 2.0,” supporting Rocks might include “Complete beta testing” (Product), “Create launch campaign” (Marketing), and “Train support team” (Customer Success).
This alignment transforms individual effort into organizational momentum. Everyone rows in the same direction. Weekly Level 10s reinforce this alignment as departments report on their supporting Rocks.
Document the cascade in EOS One. Visual alignment prevents confusion and conflicting priorities. When everyone sees how their Rock connects to company success, engagement soars.
The Follow-Through Factor
The best quarterly plan means nothing without execution. Before leaving the planning session, schedule key milestones. When will you review Rock progress? Who presents updates? What happens if a Rock goes off track?
Create recurring To-Dos for Rock check-ins. Maybe it’s a monthly deep dive or a mid-quarter adjustment session. Regular reviews prevent end-of-quarter surprises. Course corrections happen while there’s still time to recover.
Your Level 10 meetings become execution engines. Every week, every person reports Rock status: on track or off track. Binary clarity. When something’s off track, it immediately enters IDS. No hiding, no hoping—just solving.
Measuring Planning Effectiveness
Track your quarterly planning metrics. What percentage of Rocks get completed? How many carry over to next quarter? Are company Rocks or individual Rocks more successful? This data improves future planning.
Add “Planning Effectiveness” to your Scorecard. Maybe it’s Rock completion rate or post-quarter satisfaction scores. What gets measured gets improved. If planning isn’t producing results, treat it like any other issue—IDS it.
Survey the team after each quarterly planning. What worked? What dragged? Were the right people in the room? Did we tackle the right issues? Continuous improvement applies to planning process too.
The Compound Effect
Quarterly planning compounds. Each successful quarter builds confidence for the next. Teams learn what’s truly achievable in 90 days. Rock-setting becomes more precise. Execution becomes more reliable.
This rhythm creates predictable progress. Instead of annual lurches forward, you get steady quarterly advances. Momentum builds. Culture strengthens. Results multiply.
EOS One captures this progression. Review Rocks from four quarters ago. See how far you’ve come. Celebrate the journey while planning the next leg. This historical view provides perspective and motivation.
Making It Happen
Transform your next quarterly planning from a meeting into a mission. Block a full day. Get offsite if possible. Eliminate distractions. This investment of time pays massive dividends in focused execution.
Prepare thoroughly. Review religiously. Execute relentlessly. The quarterly planning rhythm becomes your competitive advantage. While competitors react to change, you’re creating it, one Rock at a time.
Start here: Look at your calendar. Schedule your next quarterly planning session. Make it sacred—no exceptions, no excuses. Then use EOS One to track what happens when planning meets discipline.
Quarterly planning isn’t about predicting the future—it’s about creating it. Use your 90-day pulse to turn vision into reality, one Rock at a time. Your future self will thank you.
