Start the 90-day cadence right after rollout and never let it slip
Pick the format your geography supports: in-person, hybrid, virtual, or roadshow
Share the mic across the whole leadership team, don't leave it all to the Visionary
Run the three-part agenda: where we've been, where we are, where we're going
Build in your culture and use it to model accountability on your Rocks™
Most teams nail the rollout meeting and then disappear.
I see it constantly: a leadership team finishes VB2, holds a great EOS® rollout meeting, gets the whole company in one room, shares the vision for the first time, and everyone leaves energized.
Then six or nine months go by and the company has never been brought back together for a single status update. People have started their Level 10 Meetings™, sure, but the quarterly discipline of gathering everyone never took hold.
That is a huge missed opportunity, and it's usually our fault as Implementers for not making the State of the Company meeting part of the rollout conversation in the first place. So let me walk through how I coach it.
Start the cadence the moment you roll out
Zoom out to the top of the EOS® model.
Strengthening the Vision component comes down to two disciplines: answering the eight questions on the V/TO™, and getting your vision shared by all. My job with a leadership team is to get them one hundred percent on the same page using the V/TO™. Their job is to move everyone else's energy in the same direction. The State of the Company meeting is how they do that.
The rollout meeting is your line in the sand. It isn't a pure State of the Company meeting, but it's the kickoff, the moment you tell the whole company you're starting this journey. From there, get into the 90-day cadence right away. Hold your first State of the Company meeting roughly 90 days after that rollout event, and never let it slip after that.
The reason is simple: people lose their way after about 90 days.
Your employees are human beings, same as you. They need to hear the vision something like seven times before it sticks, and they need regular updates on what's actually happening in the business.
Draw out the full EOS® pulse for your client and you'll see where it fits. Annual planning, then the State of the Company, then quarterly planning with departments, then Level 10 Meetings™ running throughout the quarter. Ninety days later, you repeat the whole thing.
You'd never skip a quarterly planning session or an L10™. Treat this meeting with the same weight.
Share the mic across the whole leadership team
There's an assumption I've seen in a lot of organizations that the Visionary runs the show end to end. That's fine if it works for you, but it has two problems. You put an undue burden on one person to prep and carry the whole thing, and you fail to show the company that the entire leadership team is bought in.
Get everyone on the leadership team involved. It demonstrates a united front, and it varies the energy in the room. Your delivery and mine land differently, and that variety keeps people's attention. When different people present, the meeting breathes.
Run the three-part agenda
The high-level agenda is one we've all been taught: where have we been, where are we, where are we going. Here's a version I've seen work well, assuming you have a Visionary who's comfortable galvanizing a room:
Where have we been.
Cover the last quarter or year and the highlights. The Visionary handles the highlights and the rah-rah. Then the Integrator steps up to share the actual results, because the Integrator owns those results.
Where are we.
This is where you get everyone involved. Department heads give quick three or four minute updates: wins to celebrate, opportunities, changes coming.
Where are we going.
Tag team it. The Visionary takes the vision side of the V/TO™ to inspire and galvanize and remind everyone why this journey is worth it. The Integrator takes the traction side, because they're accountable for execution, and walks through what has to get done.
This isn't the only way to structure it, but it's one of the best I've seen.
Build your culture into it
The State of the Company meeting isn't only about disseminating information and getting aligned. It's a chance to build culture and send people out re-energized, so inject what makes you you.
At Magnet 360, with our rock and roll theme, we called the meeting the rock and rally. We assembled a band from anyone who volunteered and played an instrument, and we mic'd it so remote folks could watch on screen.
Employee of the quarter was the rock star of the quarter: we ran a project contest called the battle of the bands, where three or four teams presented their quarter's work and employees voted.
Two recognition details worth stealing. First, do core values shout-outs during the meeting, so people see their peers celebrated for living the values. Second, reveal your top award last. We saved the rock star of the quarter for the very end of the agenda, which created anticipation and kept people in their seats, because nobody knew who it was going to be. Drum roll, everyone patting their knees, then the name. We even made a custom keepsake tied to each winner's favorite band. Small touches, big loyalty.
Use it to model accountability
There's a mindset piece under all of this that I wrote about years ago in an article I called the Planning Paradox.
As leaders, we love to rally people around a big destination: become a hundred million dollar company, lead the space, whatever it is over the next five, ten, or fifteen years. That long-term goal can and often should be aspirational. The problem starts when you take that same grand mindset and apply it to the short term.
Long-term planning is where you're ambitious and inspiring. Short-term planning is where you set them to hit them. It's the accumulated momentum, the flywheel, that actually transforms an organization, and you only build it by hitting your quarters.
The State of the Company meeting is where you demonstrate that in front of everyone. It's the quarterly game where all eyes are on the results. When your leadership team stands up and reports how you did on your Rocks™, including the quarters you fell short, you model the exact accountability you're asking the whole company to live. That's the difference between telling people you're going to the moon and never mentioning it again, and knowing you'll all be back in that same room in 90 days to report what actually happened.
What you get if you run this consistently
When the vision is shared by all, everything in the organization gets easier. People are clear on the values because they've heard them quarter after quarter and watched peers celebrated for living them. They're clear on the purpose, cause, or passion, and when they're genuinely motivated by it, they don't need much motivation from you. You're not babysitting. You're leading a company that's rowing in the same direction, one quarter at a time.
If you want the full list, I presented ten disciplines for an exceptional State of the Company meeting at the EOS® conference a few years back, and the article, carousel, and cheat sheet are all free at simpleleadership.com. We covered three of them here: frequency, setting, and who speaks. Go grab the other seven.
