Ep 13 - Josh Holtzman
"Setting Them to Hit Them": Josh Holtzman On Why Quarterly Accountability Erodes
Key takeaways
Vision has two halves: the leadership team answers the V/TO questions, but sharing that vision company-wide is a separate job, done through the State of the Company meeting.
Rollout isn't enough: teams launch with energy, then go quiet for months because no ongoing whole-company meeting was built into the rhythm.
90 days is the limit: both leaders and employees start losing the thread around then, and people need to hear the vision roughly seven times before it sticks.
Spread the agenda, don't crown one presenter: Visionary opens and covers the past, Integrator owns results, department heads give brief updates, and Visionary/Integrator tag-team the future; this also signals real buy-in from the whole leadership team.
The fix is structural, not aspirational: lock four meetings on the calendar (every 90 days, starting ~90 days post-launch) and assign an owner for logistics, so it carries the same weight as the L10 instead of depending on good intentions.
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The Idea
Rolled out is the same as not shared by all.
Strengthening the Vision component of EOS® has two disciplines: getting the leadership team to answer the eight questions on the V/TO, and getting that vision shared by all. The first is the Implementer's job. The second belongs to the client, and the State of the Company meeting is how it happens.
The challenge is what comes after the launch. A team holds its rollout meeting, everyone leaves inspired, and then the calendar goes quiet. In Josh's words, "we realize six, nine months later, they've never met with the entire company again to give them any status updates." The L10s may be running. The whole-company rhythm never started.
Josh puts the blame where it belongs. This, he says, is "a huge missed opportunity and something that I believe we should be discussing with our clients as part of the rollout strategy." Implementers go deep on the mechanics of the L10 and the quarterly. The State of the Company meeting gets a mention and not much else.
His reason it can't be optional is simple. "We start to lose our way after about 90 days," he says. "So do our employees." A leadership team comes up for air each quarter to reset against the vision. Everyone else needs the same thing, and they need to hear the vision something like seven times before it holds.
Then there is who carries it. The default assumption is that the Visionary runs the show end to end. Josh pushes back: that puts "an undue burden on one person to prep to carry the whole show," and it signals the rest of the leadership team has not really bought in. His version spreads the agenda across the team. The Visionary opens and covers where we've been. The Integrator owns the results. Department heads give three or four minute updates on where they are. Visionary and Integrator tag-team where we're going, vision side then traction side.
Chris Beer, who spent six years as an Integrator before implementing, named the deeper reason it works. Standing in front of the whole company every 90 days to report on Rocks is the moment leaders show they will be held accountable too. As Josh frames it, the meeting becomes "the quarterly game where everybody's watching the results."
Miss it and the vision stays on the V/TO. Hold it every quarter and it moves into the building.
The Steal
The Steal: Lock the dates and name an owner
Before the rollout planning session ends, get four State of the Company meetings on the calendar, one every 90 days, the first about 90 days after launch, and write them into the meeting pulse so they carry the same weight as the Level 10.
Then name who owns the logistics: a people leader or a small working group handling the room, the food, and the recognition, so it never becomes one person's prep burden. Dates on the calendar with a name against them is what turns a good intention into a meeting that actually happens.
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