We have a busy quarter ahead. What is the bare minimum preparation my leadership team must complete before we walk into a quarterly session with you so we do not waste the first two hours getting up to speed?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

We do not want to spend the first two hours of our session day catching up or digging through messy spreadsheets. To prevent this, your leadership team must complete a few specific preparation steps.

First, your team must review their quarterly Rocks and update their final status. This must be a clean, binary answer: did you hit the Rock, or did you miss it? There is no such thing as a ninety-five percent complete Rock.

Second, each leader must review the weekly scorecard and pull out any chronic, unresolved issues that need to be brought to the session day. These go directly onto our issues list.

Third, you must complete your departmental reviews. Your leaders must look at their teams through the lens of your Core Values and the Accountability Chart, noting any people issues or structural bottlenecks that are holding them back.

Finally, everyone must arrive with their minds clear and ready to participate. This means scheduling a strategic pause the afternoon before our session day to clear your inbox and delegate urgent issues. If you walk into our session checking your phone and worrying about an active client crisis, you will not have the mental white space required for high-level strategic thinking. Arrive fully prepared, with your operational data updated, so we can spend our limited time together solving your biggest strategic challenges.