5 Common Questions About Departmental Quarterlies

As leadership teams begin to roll out the Entrepreneurial Operating System^® (EOS^®) to the rest of the company, they’re usually excited about getting the entire organization running on EOS. But as the EOS Foundational Tools™ start rolling out, leadership teams often discover they have several questions about applying the tools at the departmental level.

One of the areas that raises questions is Departmental Quarterly Sessions. If you are going to be creating Departmental Plans, you may want to also hold Departmental Quarterly Sessions. Here are five of the most common questions people ask about Departmental Quarterlies.

FAQs About Departmental Quarterly Sessions

1) Should we start holding Departmental Quarterly Sessions? If so, when?

A conversation about whether or not to have a Departmental Quarterly should occur when you’re about to set Rocks with your direct reports. Some teams don’t have Departmental Quarterlies at all, they set Rocks in their Level 10 Meetings™, and some teams schedule a separate meeting and follow the Quarterly Agenda. If you decide to do the latter, you will need to decide if you are having the meeting onsite or offsite, and which agenda items to follow. More on that below.

2) Should Departmental Quarterlies be held before or after the leadership team Quarterly?

Either way is fine. The leadership team should decide what works best for your team. The most common approach is to hold Departmental Quarterlies after the Leadership Team Quarterly. This is because new departmental Rocks will align better with the company Rocks once they have been established for the company and the leadership team first.

3) What’s the agenda?

Your department will set the agenda for the Quarterly Session, together. The Quarterly Agenda can consist of any of the following items:

• Check-In
• Review Prior Quarter (the first time through, your department won’t have any rocks to review)
• V/TO™
• EOS Tools (which ones, if any, need to be discussed?)
• Rocks
• IDS™
• Next Steps
• Conclude

Think of the agenda as an adapted version of the leadership team’s Quarterly Session.

4) How long should they be?

Departmental Quarterlies can be anywhere from two to eight hours long, but most are three or four hours long. Larger departments tend to have longer sessions, simply because more people are participating.

5) Who should participate?

Your Accountability Chart clarifies who should participate: the department leader and all their direct reports. For example, if the Operations leader has five direct reports, then the six of them (including the Operations leader) should be participating in the Departmental Quarterly. If any of the direct reports have people who report to them, those people should not participate in the departmental quarterly.

Lead Departmental Quarterlies with Confidence

These are the most common questions I get around running departmental quarterlies. As you roll out your Quarterlies, remember that every team moves at a different pace. These five guidelines are just that – do what’s right for your team, not what is typical. Add “Departmental Quarterly” to your Issues List and IDS it the next time you plan to set your departmental Rocks.

Next Steps

• Download a copy of the Accountability Chart from the EOS Toolbox™ to help you discover the right structure for your company.
• Check the strength of your company with the Organizational Checkup™.
• Download a copy of the EOS V/TO™ to help you clarify, simplify, and achieve your vision.