/ceos-quarterly-planning

name: ceos-quarterly-planning
description: Use when conducting or reviewing a quarterly planning session for the leadership team
file-access: [data/quarterly/, templates/quarterly-planning.md, data/rocks/, data/scorecard/, data/vision.md, data/issues/, data/accountability.md]
tools-used: [Read, Write, Glob]

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

| File | Purpose | |------|---------| | `data/quarterly/YYYY-QN-planning.md` | Quarterly planning session notes (one per quarter) | | `data/rocks/YYYY-QN/` | Rock files for each quarter (read for scoring and reference) | | `data/scorecard/weeks/` | Weekly scorecard data (read for 13-week trend analysis) | | `data/scorecard/metrics.md` | Scorecard metric definitions (reference for targets) | | `data/vision.md` | V/TO document (read 1-Year Plan for Rock alignment) | | `data/issues/open/` | Open issues (read for IDS sweep) | | `data/issues/solved/` | Solved issues (count for quarter summary) | | `templates/quarterly-planning.md` | Template for new quarterly planning files | | `data/accountability.md` | Accountability Chart (seat owners for Rock-owner alignment) |

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:

| # | Section | Focus | Time | |---|---------|-------|------| | 1 | Score Outgoing Rocks | Score the outgoing quarter's Rocks, celebrate wins | 30 min | | 2 | Scorecard Review | Review 13-week trends, identify patterns | 20 min | | 3 | V/TO Check | Confirm vision alignment, review 1-Year Plan progress | 20 min | | 4 | IDS | Tackle long-term issues via Identify, Discuss, Solve | 60 min | | 5 | Set Next Quarter Rocks | Define next quarter's Rocks aligned to 1-Year Plan | 45 min | | 6 | Conclude | Key decisions, cascading messages, action items | 15 min |

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