Ceos Quarterly Planning

ceos-quarterly-planning

Facilitate the EOS Quarterly Planning Session — the structured half-day meeting where the leadership team scores outgoing Rocks, reviews Scorecard trends, confirms vision alignment, tackles issues via IDS, and sets the next quarter's Rocks. This is "quarterly pulsing" — the bridge between weekly L10 meetings and the Annual Planning session.

When to Use

• "Run quarterly planning" or "quarterly planning session"
• "Plan next quarter" or "let's plan Q2"
• "Score rocks and plan next quarter"
• "End of quarter review and planning"
• "Quarterly session" or "quarterly pulse"
• "Review the quarter and set new rocks"
• Any leadership team meeting focused on transitioning between quarters

Not for: 1-on-1 quarterly conversations (use ceos-quarterly), annual planning with V/TO refresh (use ceos-annual), or weekly meetings (use ceos-l10).

Context

Finding the CEOS Repository

Search upward from the current directory for the .ceos marker file. This file marks the root of the CEOS repository.

If .ceos is not found, stop and tell the user: "Not in a CEOS repository. Clone your CEOS repo and run setup.sh first."

Sync before use: Once you find the CEOS root, run git -C <ceos_root> pull --ff-only --quiet 2>/dev/null to get the latest data from teammates. If it fails (conflict or offline), continue silently with local data.

Key Files

Planning File Format

Each quarterly planning session is a markdown file at data/quarterly/YYYY-QN-planning.md with YAML frontmatter:

quarter: "2026-Q1"
date: "2026-03-28"
attendees: "Brad, Daniel, Sarah"
location: "Office"

Quarter Format

Quarters follow YYYY-QN format: 2026-Q1, 2026-Q2, 2026-Q3, 2026-Q4.

To determine the current quarter from today's date:

• Jan-Mar = Q1, Apr-Jun = Q2, Jul-Sep = Q3, Oct-Dec = Q4

Quarterly Planning Agenda

The full quarterly planning session follows a 6-section agenda:

Quarter Determination

When determining which quarter to plan:

• Last 2-3 weeks of a quarter (typical): The "outgoing quarter" is the current quarter. The "next quarter" is the upcoming one. Example: Running in mid-March → outgoing = Q1, next = Q2.
• First 2 weeks of a quarter: Ask: "Planning for outgoing quarter (QN-1) or current quarter (QN)?" Teams sometimes run quarterly planning slightly late.
• Mid-quarter (month 1-2): Warn: "Quarterly planning typically runs at quarter end (final 2-3 weeks). Continue anyway?" Allow it.

Key EOS Principles

• Quarterly pulsing is the execution heartbeat. It bridges weekly L10s (tactical) and Annual Planning (strategic). Without it, teams drift.
• This is NOT a V/TO refresh. The quarterly session confirms alignment and reviews 1-Year Plan progress, but does not revisit Core Values, Core Focus, or 10-Year Target (those are annual only).
• Rock completion target is 80%. Teams should complete at least 80% of their Rocks each quarter. Below 80% indicates Rocks are too ambitious or execution is lacking.
• Every Rock must align to a 1-Year Plan goal. When setting next quarter's Rocks, each Rock should connect to a specific 1-Year Plan goal.
• 3-7 Rocks per person. Fewer than 3 suggests under-commitment; more than 7 means focus is spread too thin.
• All leadership team members should attend. If someone is missing, note it but proceed.

Process

Mode: Plan

Use when conducting the full quarterly planning session with the structured 6-section agenda.

Step 1: Setup

1. Determine the quarters. Identify the "outgoing quarter" (being scored) and the "next quarter" (being planned). Follow the Quarter Determination rules above. Ask if not clear from context.

2. Check for existing planning file. Look for data/quarterly/YYYY-QN-planning.md (using the outgoing quarter).

   • Exists: Ask: "Quarterly planning for YYYY-QN already exists. Open it to review, append notes, or start fresh?"
   • New: Continue with step 3.

3. Gather session details:

   • Attendees (all leadership team members should be present)
   • Location (office, offsite, etc.)
   • Date (default to today)

4. Gather context. Read these files silently:

   • data/rocks/YYYY-QN/ — outgoing quarter's Rocks (for scoring)
   • data/scorecard/weeks/ — scorecard data for the past 13 weeks
   • data/scorecard/metrics.md — metric definitions and goals
   • data/vision.md — 1-Year Plan goals (for alignment)
   • data/issues/open/ — open issues list (for IDS)
   • data/accountability.md — seat owners (for Rock-owner alignment in Section 5)

5. Create the quarter directory if it doesn't exist: data/quarterly/

Display a preparation summary:

Quarterly Planning — [Outgoing Quarter] → [Next Quarter]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Date: [Date]
Attendees: [Names]
Location: [Location]

Data loaded:
  Rocks (outgoing): [Count] rocks for [Outgoing Quarter]
  Scorecard: [N] weeks of data
  1-Year Plan: [Goal count] goals
  Open issues: [Count]

Let's walk through the 6-section agenda.

Step 2: Section 1 — Score Outgoing Rocks

1. Read all Rock files from data/rocks/YYYY-QN/ for the outgoing quarter. Display current status for each Rock:

   Outgoing Rocks — [Quarter]
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
   | Rock | Owner | Status | Notes |
   |------|-------|--------|-------|
   | Launch Beta | Brad | complete ✓ | Launched week 8 |
   | Partner Outreach | Daniel | on_track → ? | 2/3 done |
   | Redesign Onboarding | Sarah | dropped ✗ | Deprioritized |

2. Finalize unscored Rocks. For any Rocks still on_track or off_track, prompt: "Mark as complete or dropped?"

3. Calculate completion rate: (complete / total) * 100.

   If below 80%: "Below the 80% target. Discuss: Were Rocks too ambitious, or were there execution issues?"

   If no Rock files exist: "No Rocks on file for [Quarter]. Skip Rock scoring, or enter scores manually?"

4. Celebrate wins. Prompt: "What were the biggest wins this quarter?" Record responses.

Record all scoring data in the planning file.

Step 3: Section 2 — Scorecard Review

1. Calculate the 13-week window. Determine which ISO weeks (YYYY-WNN) fall within the outgoing quarter, plus the prior week for trend context.

2. Read scorecard files from data/scorecard/weeks/ for those weeks.

3. For each metric, calculate:

   • Average value across the 13 weeks
   • Hit rate (percentage of weeks at or above goal)
   • Trend direction (improving, stable, declining — compare first 6 weeks vs last 6 weeks)

4. Display summary:

   Scorecard Review — [Quarter]
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
   | Metric | Avg | Goal | Hit Rate | Trend |
   |--------|-----|------|----------|-------|
   | Weekly Revenue | \$48K | \$50K | 65% | Improving ↑ |
   | New Customers | 8 | 10 | 45% | Stable → |
   | NPS | 74 | 70 | 85% | Improving ↑ |

5. Discuss. Prompt: "Which metrics need attention? Any targets to adjust for next quarter?"

   If no scorecard data: "No Scorecard data for the quarter. Skip Scorecard review."

Record trends and discussion in the planning file.

Step 4: Section 3 — V/TO Check

This is a light alignment check, not a full V/TO refresh (that's annual).

1. Read data/vision.md and extract the 1-Year Plan goals.

2. Display 1-Year Plan progress:

   1-Year Plan Progress Check
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
   | # | Goal | Progress | On Track? |
   |---|------|----------|-----------|
   | 1 | \$2M ARR | \$1.2M (60%) | Yes ✓ |
   | 2 | Launch 3 products | 2/3 launched | Yes ✓ |
   | 3 | Hire VP Sales | Not started | No ✗ |

3. Prompt for discussion:

   • "Are we still aligned on the 1-Year Plan?"
   • "Any goals that need adjustment?" (Note: major changes should be flagged for annual planning)
   • "Are there strategic concerns to discuss?"

4. Record alignment notes in the planning file. If major concerns arise, note: "Flag for annual planning: [concern]"

Important: This section does NOT update data/vision.md. If the user wants to update the V/TO, point them to ceos-vto after the session.

Step 5: Section 4 — IDS

1. Read all open issues from data/issues/open/.

2. Display the list with age (days since created):

   Open Issues
   ━━━━━━━━━━━
   | Issue | Age | Priority |
   |-------|-----|----------|
   | Hiring pipeline slow | 45d | High |
   | Customer churn Q1 | 12d | Normal |
   | Tech debt in auth | 90d | Low |

3. Add new issues. Prompt: "Any new issues to add before we start IDS?"

4. Prioritize. Ask: "Which issues should we tackle today?" Typically 3-5 issues fit in the time box.

5. For each selected issue, run IDS:

   • Identify the real issue (often different from the symptom)
   • Discuss perspectives (set a timer — keep it focused)
   • Solve with a specific action item, owner, and due date

6. Record IDS results in the planning file.

   If no open issues exist: "No open issues on file. Skip IDS, or add new issues?"

Note: For issues that need formal tracking, reference ceos-ids for creating issue files.

Step 6: Section 5 — Set Next Quarter Rocks

1. Reference the 1-Year Plan from data/vision.md. Display the goals so Rocks can be aligned.

2. Prompt: "What Rocks for [Next Quarter] will drive progress on the 1-Year Plan?"

3. For each proposed Rock, collect:

   • Title (specific, measurable outcome)
   • Owner (one person)
   • Which 1-Year Plan goal it aligns to

4. Validate:

   • 3-7 Rocks per person. Flag if outside range: "Brad has 8 Rocks — consider consolidating."
   • Alignment. Each Rock should connect to a 1-Year Plan goal. Flag any that don't: "This Rock doesn't align to a specific 1-Year goal. Is it still a priority?"
   • Measurability. Each Rock should have a clear done/not-done criteria.
   • Seat alignment. Cross-reference Rock owners against data/accountability.md. Each Rock's subject area should match the owner's seat responsibilities. Flag mismatches: "This Rock falls under [Seat] responsibilities. Should [Seat Owner] own it?"

5. Display the full Rock list for approval:

   Next Quarter Rocks — [Next Quarter]
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
   | Rock | Owner | Aligned To |
   |------|-------|------------|
   | Launch product #3 | Brad | Goal 2: Launch 3 products |
   | Hire VP Sales | Daniel | Goal 3: Hire VP Sales |
   | Reduce churn to <5% | Sarah | Goal 1: \$2M ARR |

Record in the planning file.

Note: Create individual Rock files using ceos-rocks after this session. The planning file captures the decisions; the Rock files are the operational artifacts.

Step 7: Section 6 — Conclude

1. Key Decisions. Summarize the major decisions made during the session.

2. Cascading Messages. Ask: "What needs to be communicated to the rest of the organization?"

3. Action Items. Compile all action items from all sections with owners and due dates:

   Action Items
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━
   | Action | Owner | Due Date |
   |--------|-------|----------|
   | Create Q2 Rock files via ceos-rocks | Brad | [Date] |
   | Update Scorecard targets via ceos-scorecard | Sarah | [Date] |
   | Resolve hiring pipeline issue | Daniel | [Date] |

4. Next Steps. List follow-up tasks:

   • Create Rock files for next quarter using ceos-rocks
   • Update Scorecard targets if changed using ceos-scorecard
   • Create issue files for new issues using ceos-ids
   • Communicate decisions to the organization

Step 8: Save the Planning File

1. Show the complete planning file before writing.
2. Ask: "Save this quarterly planning session?"
3. Write to data/quarterly/YYYY-QN-planning.md (using the outgoing quarter in the filename).
4. Remind: "Run git commit to save the planning session."
5. List follow-up actions:
   • "Create next quarter's Rock files using ceos-rocks"
   • "Update Scorecard targets if changed using ceos-scorecard"
   • "Create issue files for new issues using ceos-ids"