We thought it might be helpful to share our annual planning agenda with you. We’ve used this process for the past two years and in doing so, have grown our business and met (most of!) our goals.
The Ingredients of a Successful Annual Planning Agenda
- 1 x EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System)
- 1 x EOS Implementer
- 1 x Leadership Team
- 1 x Tool (we use Ninety)
- 4 x EOS Folders (bibles!)
- 4 x Open Minds and Plenty of Attitude
Our Annual Planning Agenda: Day 1
Note all the tools below can be downloaded from the EOS resources page.
- Planning Objectives (5 min)
- Increase team health
- Clear company vision
- Issues list clear
- Check-In (30 min)
- Greats
- 3 business greats
- 1 unexpected business great
- 1 personal great
- Expectations
- For the annual planning
- Greats
- Review Prior Year (15 min)
- Review Prior Quarter (15 min)
- Team Health (165 min)
- Objectives:
- Help understand that trust is the basis of all team health
- Increase team health
- Objectives:
- Organisational Checkup (60 min)
- Objectives:
- Get everyone on the same page
- Smoke out all the issues
- Objectives:
- SWOT (60 min)
- VTO Review (60 min)
- Three Year Picture (60 min)
- Conclude Day 1 (5 min)
- Look back and celebrate today’s progress
- Make sure expectations are clear with all on the same page.
Our Annual Planning Agenda: Day 2
- Objectives (5 min)
- Clear plan to achieve Vision
- Clear plan for next quarter
- Remove all key issues
- Check-In (15 min)
- Stop. Take a deep breath and look back at the previous day
- Take 5 minutes to answer the following questions:
- Day 1 highlight?
- Where’s your head?
- Expectations?
- Review Issues List and 3-Year Picture (15 min)
- One Year Plan (120 min)
- Quarterly Rocks (goals) (120 min)
- Tackling Key Issues (195 min)
- Next Steps (7 min)
- Recap to-do’s
- Conclude (8 min)
- Feedback
- Where expectations met
- Reinstate commitments
The Result
Our annual planning day is a deep dive into the year that was and the year(s) ahead. It’s a basis for improvement, resolution and coming together as a team to make sure we’re all on the same page.
Is it a commitment? Yes! But if you’re serious about scaling or growing your business, time invested in your annual planning is a no brainer. You can’t move forward if you don’t have a clear picture of where you’re going.
Take Action
If you haven’t already done your annual planning:
- Put aside at least one day to do it.
- If you have a leadership team or even a right hand (wo)man, include them in the planning. It’s something we definitely don’t recommend doing alone.
- Use your plan as a living document. We come together weekly as a leadership team for a L10 meeting to make sure we’re on track with our to-do’s, rocks, issues etc.
- Finally, make your next year in business count! You want to be reviewing the year that was in 12 months time with a sense of accomplishment and achievement. You’re the only one who can make that happen!
