EOS® Annual Planning: A Guide for Leadership Teams

I recently completed my fourth Annual Planning Session with a client running on EOS® Powered by Ninety. This past year, they achieved the highest profit in their 12-year history, and they credit EOS with helping them get there.

Results like that don’t come from one great planning session. They come from a leadership team consistently working on the business, staying aligned, and following through on the commitments they make together. Annual Planning is part of that discipline. It gives teams the space to look honestly at the year behind them, get aligned on where the business is going, and make the decisions that will shape what comes next.

An EOS® Annual Planning Session is a two-day leadership team meeting held once a year as part of the EOS Meeting Pulse. Over those two days, the team reviews the prior year, strengthens team health, revisits the V/TO®, builds their 1-Year Plan, sets Rocks for the next quarter, and solves the most important issues standing in the way of progress.

When teams take the time to get it right, Annual Planning gives them greater clarity around the vision, alignment on priorities, and a plan for how to execute. This article will help you prepare for your next Annual Planning Session so your team can get more from the time together and leave ready for the year ahead.

What You’ll Learn

• What an EOS Annual Planning Session is
• How to prepare your leadership team before the session
• What happens on Day 1 and Day 2 of the EOS Annual Planning agenda
• How the V/TO, Rocks, Scorecard, SWOT, and Issues List fit together
• How Ninety supports preparation, facilitation, and follow-through

Why Is Annual Planning Important in the EOS 90-Day World®?

When you first implement EOS, your leadership team works through the EOS Process® and learns the foundational tools and disciplines for running the business. From there, the work continues through The Meeting Pulse®, which includes stepping away once a quarter to work on the business together. In Traction, Gino Wickman describes the Quarterly Meeting Pulse as the buildup. When the next session is already on the calendar, leaders start thinking ahead and preparing.

Annual Planning gives you an even bigger opportunity to step out of the day-to-day and look at the business from a different altitude. You can learn from the year you just finished, get clear on where you’re going, and make the decisions that will guide your team through the next year.

EOS recommends two full days for the Leadership Team’s Annual Planning Session, and I recommend getting teams off-site when possible. A different environment makes it easier to disconnect from the day-to-day demands and stay focused on the work in front of you.

And remember, it’s okay to have some fun together. Many of my clients travel for Annual Planning and have dinner together at the end of Day 1. The specifics will look different for every team, but taking time to connect and celebrate the year is important too.

(Watch the entire testimonial video here.)

How Should You Prepare for an EOS Annual Planning Session?

To plan successfully, you’ll need to prepare effectively. Prework includes a completed Vision/Traction Organizer®, next year’s proposed budget, each leader's thoughts on goals for the following year, and an Org Assessment such as Ninety’s Org Fitness Review.

The Org Assessment in Ninety gives you a shared view of how strong the organization is across the Six Key Components® and highlights areas to focus on during your next planning session. I also encourage each leader to review SWOT items before Annual Planning. Looking at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats can uncover strategic issues that belong on the Issues List before the team starts making any big decisions about the upcoming year.

Preparation also means making sure everyone understands what the team needs to accomplish during those two days. Before the session, align on these Annual Planning objectives:

• Improve Team Health
• Gain clarity and alignment on your vision
• Strategically plan for the next quarter
• Solve the most important issues

What Is the EOS Annual Planning Two-Day Agenda?

Annual Planning gives the Leadership Team more time than a Quarterly Planning Session because the work goes deeper. For most Leadership Teams, that work takes two full days. Departmental teams may be able to complete their annual planning in one day, depending on the scope of the discussion.

Here’s how the two-day agenda is structured.

Day 1 Agenda

Segue

Each leader on the team shares three things:

• The organization's three greatest accomplishments for the year
• Their one greatest personal accomplishment for the year
• Their expectations for the Annual Planning Session

Most teams get a lot of value from this pause for reflection, and it also gives them a chance to make sure everyone is aligned on what the session needs to accomplish. If someone comes in with expectations that don’t match the objectives or agenda, you can clarify them early and reset as a team before moving forward.

Review the Previous Year and Quarter

It’s time to look back and learn from the past. Review the previous year’s goals and numbers (revenue, profit, leading indicators, etc.) as well as last quarter’s Rocks.

The clearer those commitments and measures are, the easier it is to agree on what worked, what didn’t, and what you need to learn from it. Business is an infinite game. As long as you have the will and resources to keep playing, you can learn from mistakes, adjust, and keep moving forward.

Work on Team Health

Your Implementer or EOS Champion will lead your group through team health exercises designed to build trust and strengthen the way your team works together.

There are plenty of ways to do that, but one of my favorites comes from Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. In Traction, Gino Wickman also recommends an exercise called The One Thing. Both are strong options.

SWOT Review

A SWOT analysis gives your team a broader view of the business by looking at internal strengths and weaknesses along with external opportunities and threats.

As you work through your SWOT analysis, capture anything that could affect the vision, priorities, or ability to execute on the Issues List. Those issues can then be prioritized and worked through on Day 2.

V/TO Review (Through 1-Year Plan)

The Annual Planning Session is the ideal time to challenge every part of your V/TO and make sure your Leadership Team is fully aligned on the organization’s vision.

One area I see teams struggle with is the 3-Year Picture. Most want to start with last year’s version and make a few updates. That may be faster, but it can also limit the team’s thinking. I prefer to have the team build a fresh 3-Year Picture first, then pull out the previous version and compare the two to see what they may have missed.

From there, it's time to build the 1-Year Plan. That includes lagging indicators like revenue and profit, leading indicators such as key funnel metrics, and the most important goals for the year. I like to ask the teams I coach this question: What needs to be true for us to achieve the long-term metrics we’ve already agreed to?

Day 2 Agenda

Segue

Share and reflect on highlights from yesterday. Make sure expectations remain clear and are on track.

Establish Rocks for Next Quarter

Once the team is aligned on the vision, 3-Year Picture, and 1-Year Plan, it’s time to set Rocks for the next 90 days.

These Rocks turn the annual plan into current priorities the team can execute on. Each Leadership Team member should own one or more Rocks, with the team typically aligning around 3–7 Company Rocks for the quarter.

Tackle Key Issues

Use IDS® to identify, discuss, and solve the most important issues standing in the way of your goals for the next quarter. These may include obstacles, opportunities, unresolved decisions, or anything else that could limit execution. The team should leave this part of the session with clear decisions and ownership.

Next Steps

Before wrapping up, make sure everyone is clear on what happens next. Confirm who owns each action item, what needs to be communicated to the rest of the organization, and how those messages will be shared. This is where the work from the session gets translated into action and communication.

Conclude

Conclude the session by asking every team member these three questions:

1. Where’s your head? Share your feedback on the meeting.
2. Were your expectations met?
3. How would you rate the session?

A 10 doesn’t mean the meeting was perfect. It means the team made the progress it committed to in a healthy, productive way.

How Does Ninety Support EOS Annual Planning?

When clients question the time and investment that go into planning, I often come back to a quote attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

That’s what Annual Planning is really about. The value comes from doing the work together, making decisions and aligning as a team, and leaving with clear priorities everyone understands.

Ninety supports that process by giving the Leadership Team one place to prepare for the session, work through the agenda, and carry the decisions forward once the meeting ends. Your V/TO®, Rocks, Issues, Scorecard, and other planning tools stay connected so your team can spend less time managing the mechanics of the meeting and more time working through what matters.

If you want help getting more from your Annual Planning session, a Professional EOS Implementer® can coach, teach, and facilitate your leadership team through the EOS Process®. Find an EOS Implementer®.

And if you’re self-implementing EOS, check out the Facebook group EOS Self-Implementers Unite!, where you can connect with other self-implementers, ask questions, and learn from shared experience.

FAQ

How long is an EOS Annual Planning session? Two full days for the Leadership Team. Departmental planning may take one day. Ninety’s current guidance still recommends two days for leadership teams.

Should EOS Annual Planning be off-site? EOS recommends an off-site setting for the Leadership Team’s Annual Planning session.

What should we bring to EOS Annual Planning? A current V/TO®, proposed budget, thoughts on next year’s goals, updated financial/Scorecard data, Issues, and completed assessment/prework.

What is the difference between EOS Quarterly Planning and Annual Planning? Annual Planning adds an additional day to the Quarterly Meeting Pulse so the team can review the prior year, build Team Health, revisit the vision, and establish the annual plan.

Do you need a Professional EOS Implementer to run Annual Planning? You can self-implement EOS or you can work with a Professional EOS Implementer who will act as your trained teacher, facilitator, and coach to guide the EOS Process.