Why 90 Days?
According to EOS, every team eventually faces the “90-day rule”: after three months, the human brain stops retaining common goals. The corporate vision becomes blurred, and daily emergencies take over. The Entrepreneurial Operating System counters this effect with a fixed cycle: every three months, we take the time to review elements of our vision, solve current major issues, and then establish our priorities for the next quarter to achieve our goals for the year. This cycle repeats every three months. This is what Gino Wickman calls the “90-day world,” which gives EOS its full meaning.
How Does a Quarterly Meeting Work?
To stay true to EOS theory, we follow a pre-established agenda. But what really matters is understanding why each step exists and how it helps us maintain traction.
The meeting always starts the same way: we disconnect from the daily grind with three icebreaker questions. Everyone shares their best personal and professional news from the last three months, what is working well and less well in the organization, and what they expect from the meeting. We move out of “responding to emergencies” mode and into “working on the business rather than in the business” mode.
Next, we reread the V/TO. This is the central EOS document: our Vision/Traction Organizer. It contains our values, our mission, our 10-year and 3-year vision, and our annual goals. Why reread it every quarter? Because it’s easy to lose your way when you’re in the rush of client projects. This review reframes us and reminds us where we are going collectively. The V/TO is the vision. Rocks and Level 10 Meetings are the traction. One without the other results in either a beautiful vision that stays on paper or projects that go in all directions. EOS forces the link between the two: every Rock we choose must drive at least one annual goal from the V/TO.
We then review the Rocks from the last quarter and calculate the completion rate to check if we reached the goal of 80% or more. It’s a moment of truth: we look at what we actually accomplished, not what we thought we would accomplish. Every completed Rock is celebrated. Every failed Rock is analyzed to understand what blocked it. We then take the time to reschedule unfinished Rocks if they are still relevant.
Then comes IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve). This is the EOS method for solving problems, which is also used during Level 10 Meetings, and we dedicate a good portion of the quarterly meeting to it. We identify all the issues raised by the team, vote to prioritize the most urgent ones, and then discuss them until we find a concrete solution. No “we’ll think about it” or “we’ll see later.” If a problem comes out of IDS, it’s because a clear action has been assigned to someone. That’s what creates traction. The difference with weekly Level 10 Meetings is that we spend more time on strategic and structural issues rather than the week’s operational obstacles. We take advantage of having more colleagues from different departments around the table to discuss major issues.
After resolving priority obstacles, we establish new Rocks for the next quarter. Each priority is formulated in a SMART way (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) and assigned to a single owner. No Rock without an owner. No vague Rocks. Each Rock must have a clear definition and expected result before we even start working on it.
The meeting ends with a summary of decisions and priorities for the next 90 days, followed by a round table to take the pulse of the team. At TREIZE, we always finish with a team beer. It’s not part of the standard EOS agenda, but we find it’s a nice way to end the afternoon and strengthens team spirit after an intense day of decisions.
This structure, repeated every three months, ensures that nothing essential escapes us and that we are ready to start a new quarter on solid ground.
Our Results
We started with nearly fifty Rocks during our first EOS quarter, about three to seven per person. In hindsight, this was clearly too ambitious. After 90 days, we had completed 37, or about 74%. We are therefore in the “tolerable” range according to EOS, but not yet in the green (80% or more).
The Rocks that succeeded had one thing in common: they were clearly linked to our immediate priorities and had a clear definition. Everyone knew exactly what had to be delivered, according to which criteria, and with which key results.
Those that failed, however, suffered from several recurring problems. Some were too big or poorly defined from the start. Others were pushed aside by the pressure of client projects. When a client pays for something urgent, it’s difficult to prioritize an internal Rock. And several depended on external factors that we didn’t fully control, which created blockages we hadn’t anticipated.
This 74% rate taught us something important: the EOS system works, but we had to adjust how we choose and define our Rocks.
What We Learned and What We Changed
Fewer Rocks, better defined: Fifty Rocks for one team is excessive. We were spread too thin. Now, we limit it to two or three priorities per person, no more. Each Rock must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely, and have a single owner. If we can’t clearly formulate it in one sentence, it’s not ready to become a Rock.
Mandatory definition of done: We now write the definition of done for each Rock before starting: what deliverables, what measurable criteria, what key results. Everyone knows when we’re finished. No more “we’ll see when we get there” or “it depends.” This simple discipline has transformed our completion rate and the way we think about Rocks.
Preparation by department: We have established preparation meetings a few weeks before the quarterly meeting. Each department clarifies its Rock proposals and identifies priority issues. Result: we arrive at the quarterly meeting with Rocks already well-defined, not vague ideas that we have to debate for hours.
Systematic prioritization vote: The most impactful topics go through IDS first. We vote, we decide, we move forward. No more discussions going in circles because no one dares to decide.
Conclusion
Before EOS, our quarterly meetings were appreciated. We did a good retrospective of the last three months, discussed many issues (sometimes relevant, sometimes less so), and implemented solutions. The problem? We rarely aligned our next three months well with a long-term vision. Result: three months later, we realized we had wasted time on the “flavor of the month” rather than on the real issues preventing us from reaching our annual goals.
With EOS, all that changes. Ninety days is long enough to accomplish something concrete and short enough to maintain urgency. The team knows why they are doing what they are doing. Priorities are clear. We move forward together in the same direction. The quarterlies touch on the six components of EOS: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, Traction. They remind everyone of the meaning of their work.
The quarterly strategy is defined. Now, back to the weekly Level 10 Meetings to turn these Rocks into concrete results, one week at a time.
