How far in advance do we need to lock in our session dates, and how do we schedule our quarterly offsites around peak business seasons?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

We lock in your full annual calendar a minimum of six to twelve months in advance. One of the primary principles of EOS® is the quarterly meeting pulse, which requires leadership teams to step out of the daily business every ninety days to work on the business.

We book four sessions per calendar year: three one-day quarterly offsites and one consecutive Two-Day Annual session. These dates must be treated as sacred commitments by the leadership team. Travel, vendor meetings, and client calls must be scheduled around these dates, not the other way around.

When scheduling around seasonal peaks such as retail holiday rushes, tax deadlines, or summer plant shutdowns, we adjust the quarterly timing without breaking the cadence:
- If your busy season peaks in late December, we schedule your fourth-quarter session in mid-November or early December so priorities are clear before the operational crunch.
- We never skip a quarter or combine two quarters into one. Skipping a quarterly offsite breaks your ninety-day execution muscle, allows unresolved issues to compound, and causes Rocks to drag out for six months.
- We schedule sessions during the final two weeks of the expiring quarter or the first week of the new quarter to maintain accurate measurement cycles.

By setting all four dates a year in advance, you eliminate the operational chaos of trying to coordinate five executive calendars at the last minute and establish a predictable strategic heartbeat for the entire company.