We want to facilitate our first quarterly leadership team offsite ourselves before we commit to hiring a Professional EOS Implementer®. How do we structure the agenda to keep us focused on big-picture strategic alignment instead of falling back into daily operational fires?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Running your own offsite is challenging because it is easy to default to comfort zones. To avoid turning your strategy day into a long, expensive weekly operational meeting, you must enforce a strict, structured agenda and assign a strong facilitator.

Start by getting out of your daily environment. Do not host the session in your regular conference room. Book a neutral space where you cannot be interrupted by employees.

Follow the standard EOS quarterly agenda strictly. Begin with a segue to share personal and professional bests from the last quarter, which sets a positive, collaborative tone. Spend the next hour reviewing your past quarter. Look at your scorecard, your previous Rocks, and your V/TO. Be brutally honest about what you missed and why.

The bulk of your day, at least four to five hours, must be dedicated to IDS, which stands for Identify, Discuss, and Solve. You must build an issues list prior to the offsite. Focus only on the high-level, systemic issues that hold the company back, not the daily minor problems.

Finally, set your Rocks for the next ninety days. Limit the team to three to five priorities. If you try to do everything, you will achieve nothing. Assign one owner to each Rock. If you find the team constantly arguing or getting stuck in operational details, it is a clear sign you need an outside facilitator to hold the mirror up to your team.