What Is a Quarterly Conversation in EOS?

If your business runs on Gino Wickman’s Entrepreneurial Operating System^® (EOS^®), you’ve likely heard of the Quarterly Conversation. When we implemented EOS into our business in 2019, we found so much value in the EOS tools, and particularly the meeting tools.

The EOS system places a high value on meeting rhythms: the weekly Level 10 Meeting^®, Quarterly Conversation, Annual Review, quarterly Leadership Team Meetings, and the Clarity Break. These EOS meeting rhythms help your team stay aligned.

As we rolled out EOS, and all our team members began having a Quarterly Conversation, we wanted to ensure our leaders had a guide, so we developed a specific process for our leaders to follow, which you may find helpful as you establish your own Quarterly Conversation model.

What Is a Quarterly Conversation?

A Quarterly Conversation is a 30-60 minute, off-site, 1-on-1 conversation with each team member who reports directly to you. The key word is “conversation.” This is not a performance review. Grab some coffee or a meal and focus on listening to your team member!

What Is Our Goal?

Our primary goal is to ensure that our team feels heard and valued. While we all maintain an open-door policy and meet weekly in Level 10 Meetings, the Quarterly Conversation is a deeper dive into how each team member is doing. We hunt for issues during these meetings, with the goal of doing all we can to keep our team healthy and happy in their roles.

We give our leadership team four goals for each Quarterly Conversation:

1. Establish a stronger relationship with your team member
2. Focus on building greater trust with them
3. Encourage them to own their individual performance
4. Establish a clear view of how you can best support them

How Do We Prepare for a QC?

As leaders, we feel it’s important to spend time preparing for each Quarterly Conversation. This is our quarterly opportunity to dig in and have a conversation about our team health. If there are some concerns or some areas we want to acknowledge or challenge, we use QCs as a great opportunity to do so. Prior to each meeting, we ask ourselves if this team member is demonstrating our core values and if they Get It, Want It, and Have the Capacity to Do It (GWC^®).

What We Send Prior to a Quarterly Conversation?

While the Quarterly Conversation is more informal than the Annual Review, we still want the time to be effective, and that requires planning. We’ve developed a email template for managers to use when they’re scheduling their QCs with their team members:

Hey ______,

I wanted to remind you of our Quarterly Conversation on (day/time). I’m excited to hear about your wins and challenges over the last quarter, both professionally and personally. This is a “conversation” and not a review, so come ready to chat!

Our conversations are always confidential. If there is anything preventing you from enjoying and thriving in your role at M&R, I’d like us to discuss it.

Thanks!

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What Do We Ask in Each Meeting?

Again, this is a conversation, but we let these questions guide the flow of the conversation:

1. What are you most proud of over the last 90 days?
2. What’s working well, within your department and M&R as a whole?
3. What challenges did you face over the last 90 days?
4. What’s not working well within your department and M&R as a whole?
   1. Is there anything making your job difficult to accomplish?
   2. What would you change about your job if you could?
5. How is your relationship with M&R team members?
   1. Any concerns or difficult relationships?
6. How can I better support you as your senior? (time, resources, training)

Do We Talk, or Do We Listen?

Well, it’s a balance of both.

1. We spend most of your time asking a mixture of open-ended and direct follow-up questions, and then listening intently to each answer. A good rule of thumb is 80/20 – you are listening 80% and speaking 20% of the session time.
2. Don’t be afraid of the awkward silence. After our teammates answer a question we’re tempted to go right into the next question, or add our own commentary. We encourage allowing the question to sit; our silence often prompts employees to give more thoughtful responses.

What Do We Do After the Quarterly Conversation?

During a Quarterly Conversation, there may be issues that are shared and require follow-up.

We maintain two main focuses after a meeting:

1. Follow up with the team member as needed.
   1. If they shared something personal or private, we send an email after thanking them for their vulnerability and reminding them that it is confidential.
   2. If we promised them a resource, we’re careful to make sure we send it or provide an update on the next steps required to share access.
2. Cascade messages as needed to other team members (HR, other department seniors, Executive team, etc.)

If you’re looking to learn more about the Quarterly Conversation, check out Traction^® and The Clarity Field Guide, where some of these Quarterly Conversation questions originated from.

We Partner With EOS-Run Companies on Their Marketing Strategy

M&R Marketing partners with hundreds of growing companies across the United States, many of whom also run on EOS^®. Our Visionary and EOS Integrator™ co-founded M&R in 2008 and are active in the day-to-day operations. As a 2x Inc. 5000 company, we understand business growth and how to create and execute a targeted marketing strategy. Our full suite of marketing services includes website design, graphic design and branding, social media management, digital advertising, photography and videography, marketing strategy, and campaign development.

We would love to start a conversation and learn how EOS has transformed your business.

We have created an EOS page to help support other businesses running on EOS; you can learn more about our services, view our work, find more EOS resources like the article you read today, and hear from some of our clients who also run on EOS.