Session One
Focus Day
A Focus Day is the first full-day EOS session with your leadership team. In one day we clarify who owns what on an Accountability Chart, agree on a handful of numbers you will watch weekly, set 90-day Rocks, and start the Level 10 Meeting rhythm. You leave with tools in use, not theory.
New to the system? Read the plain-English explainer of EOS, or see how we work as an EOS Implementer in Chicago and the North Shore.
What happens in the room
Core values, first pass
We pull the behaviors that actually describe your best people out of the room and onto the wall. Not a poster exercise — a hiring and firing filter.
Accountability Chart
We draw the structure the business needs, seat by seat, before we put names on it. This is where teams discover two people own one job, or nobody owns a big one.
Rocks
Three to seven priorities for the next 90 days, each with a single owner. Everything else goes on an issues list instead of pretending it is a priority.
Scorecard
Five to fifteen weekly numbers that tell you Monday morning whether the business is on track — instead of finding out from a P&L six weeks late.
Meeting Pulse
We teach and then actually run the Level 10 Meeting agenda so the team has felt it before they run their own next week.
Who should be in the room
Everyone on the leadership team — the people who own the major functions of the business, usually three to seven of them. Founder included, phone away. No observers, no board members, no consultants watching from the corner.
How long it takes
One full day, roughly 8:30 to 4:30, off-site or in our Wilmette session room. Then your team runs its own weekly Level 10 Meetings for about 30 days before Vision Building.
What comes next
Thirty days of running the tools, then Vision Building Day One. We do not build a ten-year vision on a team that cannot yet get through a clean weekly meeting.
Questions
About focus day
What happens in a Focus Day?
One full day with your leadership team building four tools: core values, the Accountability Chart, 90-day Rocks, and a weekly Scorecard — then running a live Level 10 Meeting. The team leaves using the tools that week, not reading about them.
Do we need to read Traction before a Focus Day?
No. Reading Traction helps, but the day teaches every tool from scratch. What matters more is that the whole leadership team is in the room and willing to be honest about what is not working.
How soon do we see results from a Focus Day?
Most teams feel a difference in the first two weeks, because the weekly meeting and the Scorecard change what gets talked about. Structural relief for the founder usually shows up over the first quarter as Rocks land.
Can a Focus Day be run remotely?
It can, and we do it for spread-out teams. In person works better for a first session — the hard conversations that make the day worth it happen more easily in one room.
More answers on the full FAQ.
Want to talk through whether this is the right next session?
Twenty minutes, no pitch. Or call (847) 814-4123 and ask us directly.
The other sessions