Rhythm · Proving to Growing
The quarterly session
Every quarter you hold a half-day session with your team. It closes off the priorities, draws the lessons from them, and ends with a few new priorities and the KPI targets for the next quarter.
Worth reading first: The rhythm of a growing company, A rock you actually hit
Does this sound familiar?
- The quarter's over and the new priorities are already set. You came up with them yourself on Sunday evening.
- In the quarterly session everyone talks about what went wrong this week. They never get round to the quarter.
- Of last quarter's five priorities, two are done. Nobody asks why, and six new ones get added.
- On 1 October the KPIs for the new quarter still have no target, so the scoreboard is empty.
- The session ends with a long list of ideas. A week later nobody remembers what was decided.
Who it's for, and when
For founders and leadership teams who set priorities every quarter and find it turns into an afternoon of talking with no clear outcome. In Proving, two hours with the people you have is enough, for two or three priorities and a few numbers. The full half day below fits once there's a leadership team.
The model
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
Every quarter you and your team take half a day away from the work. First you look back: which priorities are done, which aren't, and why. Then you choose again, and put the targets on the scoreboard. If you don't know why last quarter only hit two of its five priorities, you'll pick five again now.
The input comes beforehand. Everyone fills in their own quarterly reflection before they read what the others wrote. That way each person forms their own view first, and you hear from the quiet colleague too. Whoever leads the session reads it all in advance and turns it into the list of topics. That doesn't have to be the founder; they're better off taking part as one of the group.
Each owner closes off their own priority and puts forward a new one themselves. The point is what you learn about choosing and delivering. The weekly meeting (the lesson A meeting that's about something) keeps the quarter on the table afterwards; the lesson Closing the year and planning the next looks across all four quarters.
Verne Harnish, Scaling Up (2014), the quarterly planning session: look back on the quarter just gone, draw the lessons from it, and choose the priorities for the next one. Away from the office, away from the day-to-day work.
Pitfalls
The founder chooses in advance
You walk in with the priorities already on paper. The session becomes a presentation, and the team's input is just for show. Read what your team wrote first, then choose.
The weekly meeting, only longer
The session fills up with day-to-day issues and fires to put out. Those belong in the weekly meeting. Put them on a list and get back to the quarter.
Reacting to the person
Someone writes honestly that something isn't working, and gets a dressing-down in the session. Next quarter they write nothing. Respond to what they wrote.
Watch and read
A camera in a real quarterly session: a leadership team looking back on the quarter, checking its direction and setting the priorities for the next one.
Watch on YouTubeIn three minutes, what to sort out beforehand so the quarterly session doesn't start with catching up.
Watch on YouTubeWhy the leadership team meets away from the office every quarter, explained by a coach who works with Harnish's method.
Watch on YouTubeRead
Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't
Verne Harnish · 2014 · ISBN 9780986019524
The source of the meeting rhythm with the quarterly session: looking back, drawing the lessons and choosing the next quarter's priorities. Published in Dutch as Scaling up: de groeiformule (Business Contact, 2016, ISBN 9789047008682).
View the bookApply it
- 1
Book in the sessions for the whole year
Half a day in the first or second week of the new quarter, ideally away from the office. Decide who leads, too.
- 2
Ask for the quarterly reflection a week ahead
Everyone taking part fills it in, you included, and you before the deadline. If you don't do it yourself, nobody takes it seriously.
- 3
Turn the team input into the list of topics
Whoever leads reads what the team wrote under Team input. Which themes come up more than once? Which issues and opportunities does more than one person mention?
- 4
Have each owner prepare a new priority
Anyone putting forward a priority writes it down beforehand, with a sentence that says when it's done. Then the session can choose straight away.
A rock you actually hit
Examples
Ready to use: the quarterly session (half a day, 4 hours)
Who: the leadership team, or the people who own the priorities. One leads and keeps time, one takes notes. Ready beforehand: everyone's quarterly reflection, a week before the session. The scoreboard updated up to the latest week. The list of topics from the team input. A proposal for a new priority from each owner. 0:00 to 0:15: the round. Everyone says in one sentence what stuck with them most from this quarter. 0:15 to 0:45: the quarter in numbers. Which KPIs were on track, which weren't, and since when. 0:45 to 1:30: closing off the priorities. For each priority the owner says: achieved, partly or not, and why. Write down two or three lessons about how you chose. 1:30 to 1:45: break. 1:45 to 2:15: the team input. What came up more than once, and what does that say about next quarter? 2:15 to 3:15: new priorities. Put all the proposals side by side and choose three to five, each with one owner. Whatever isn't chosen goes on the list for later. 3:15 to 3:40: the KPI targets. Carry over last quarter's targets and adjust each KPI to what the new priorities need. 3:40 to 4:00: what do we tell the team, and who does it? Then everyone gives the session a score. Afterwards these are fixed: the priorities on Priorities, each with an owner, the targets on the scoreboard and the list for later. The first weekly meeting of the quarter starts from there.
What the team input showed
Three of the eight team members write in their reflection that scheduling the engineers grinds to a halt every week. The managing director didn't have it on his list. It becomes a priority, with the planner as owner.
What looking back showed
Of the five priorities, two are done. The other three turned out to be six months' work, like a new accounting system. This quarter they choose three, and only the first part of the accounting system: by the end of March, invoicing runs through it.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- Go to the quarterly reflection. That's where you fill in your own quarterly reflection, and where whoever leads the session then reads the team's input under Team input. On Meetings you choose Quarterly meeting and put this agenda in with Edit agenda. In the session you close off the quarter on Priorities, and on the KPI scoreboard you carry over last quarter's targets so you can adjust them.
- You look back on a situation from your own work. Only you can read what you write.
- You set a date with yourself, and on that day the app asks how it went.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.You've already come up with next quarter's priorities. Your team has filled in its quarterly reflection, but you haven't read it yet. What do you do?
2.Of last quarter's five priorities, two are done. What's the best first question in the session?
3.Halfway through the session the leadership team starts talking about a client who rang this week, angry. What do you do?
4.The new priorities are set. It's ten to twelve and everyone wants lunch. The KPIs don't have a target for the new quarter yet. What do you do?
5.The session produces fourteen good ideas. What do you do with them?
6.Six weeks into the quarter a big client drops out, and one priority no longer makes sense. What do you do?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
Read next
- Closing the year and planning the next · You close the year with two days in which the leadership team puts four quarters side by side, tests the strategy and chooses what stops, and goes home with the priorities for the first quarter.
- Ownership in your team · For each team, you know whether the mission and the mandate are in place and whether you're keeping your hands off. And you let the next decision someone else makes stand.
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