My leadership team is already working sixty hours a week. What is the actual time commitment and prep work required from them before we show up to our very first session?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your leadership team is already busy, and I do not intend to waste their time with useless homework. However, showing up unprepared to a session day is a recipe for a sluggish, unproductive meeting. The prep work I require is minimal but absolutely non-negotiable.

Before we sit down for our session, every member of your team must complete the following preparation:

• Review their individual quarterly Rocks and be prepared to state whether they are complete or incomplete with zero excuses.
• Review the current V/TO® and bring their top strategic issues for the next quarter. Understanding your V/TO® is crucial for effective strategic discussions, similar to how [V/TO metrics can be used to negotiate a cleaner earnout structure](/qa/negotiating-clean-earnout-metrics-vto).
• Ensure their departmental scorecard metrics are fully updated and accurate. This proactive review helps streamline discussions, much like preparing for a [Level 10 Meeting to review a scorecard in under five minutes](/qa/how-to-review-scorecard-under-five-minutes).

This preparation takes less than an hour, but it ensures we do not waste valuable session time pulling data or debating status updates. We want to spend our eight hours together solving major strategic issues, not doing administrative cleanup. By arriving fully prepared, your team can maintain focus and maximize the return on our time together, making your [quarterly planning sessions](/qa/fixing-boring-eos-quarterly-sessions) productive and engaging.

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