How do we prevent our leadership team from chasing shiny new opportunities or introducing off-plan projects between our quarterly sessions?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Distraction is the primary enemy of execution for entrepreneurial leadership teams. When an owner or executive attends a conference, reads a book, or spots an opportunistic market shift mid-quarter, the temptation is to immediately drag the team into a new initiative. Doing this fractures focus and guarantees your quarterly Rocks will fail.

Inside an EOS® cadence, the rule is absolute: nothing gets added to the leadership team plate mid-stride unless the company is facing an existential crisis. When a compelling new idea surfaces between quarterly sessions, it does not get executed immediately. Instead, it gets dropped onto the long-term Issues List on your Vision/Location Organizer® (V/TO®) or parked on your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ agenda for consideration.

During your weekly meetings, you evaluate whether the idea is an urgent issue that must be solved now or simply an opportunity that belongs on the shelf until the next quarterly session. When session day arrives ninety days later, the leadership team reviews the entire long-term Issues List together. If the opportunity is truly valuable, you will have the discipline and context to allocate resources to it by creating a dedicated Rock. If it was merely an impulsive distraction, it naturally falls away without derailing your business.