My executive team is experiencing massive turnover right now, and we are constantly firefighting. Why do you advise against starting our Focus Day immediately, and what must we stabilize first before you will agree to facilitate our sessions?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your leadership team is in a state of high turnover and constant firefighting, diving straight into a Focus Day is a recipe for failure. EOS® is a management system, not a rescue mission for a collapsing house. Before we can build a strong foundation, you need a minimum level of stability.

Specifically, you must have a leadership team that is committed to sitting in their seats for at least ninety days without immediate threat of departure. If you are constantly replacing key players, we cannot build a functional Accountability Chart. We cannot define roles if the people holding those roles are rotating every few weeks.

In this scenario, my recommendation is to first stabilize your core seats. This means identifying who is actually running the business today, even if they are wearing multiple hats. We need a team that can look past tomorrow's emergencies. If your leadership team's energy is spent entirely on tactical client work or frontline disputes, you do not have the mental capacity to engage in high-level strategic alignment.

We will start our engagement only when you have a committed core team that is ready to work on the business, not just in it. If you try to force the system onto a fractured, rotating team, you will only create more friction and waste your investment. Let's get the right people on the bus first, even in temporary seats, before we attempt to define the journey.