Ceos Annual

ceos-annual

Facilitate the EOS Annual Planning session — the formal year-end process (typically a 2-day offsite) where the leadership team refreshes the V/TO, reviews the outgoing year, sets the new 1-Year Plan, and establishes Q1 Rocks. This is the most comprehensive EOS meeting of the year.

When to Use

• "Run annual planning" or "annual planning session"
• "Plan next year" or "let's plan for 2027"
• "Review 2026" or "year in review"
• "Refresh our vision" or "update the V/TO for the year"
• "Annual offsite" or "strategic planning session"
• Any end-of-year or start-of-year strategic planning discussion

Context

Finding the CEOS Repository

Search upward from the current directory for the .ceos marker file. This file marks the root of the CEOS repository.

If .ceos is not found, stop and tell the user: "Not in a CEOS repository. Clone your CEOS repo and run setup.sh first."

Sync before use: Once you find the CEOS root, run git -C <ceos_root> pull --ff-only --quiet 2>/dev/null to get the latest data from teammates. If it fails (conflict or offline), continue silently with local data.

Key Files

Annual Planning Agenda

The full annual planning session follows a 7-section agenda:

Year Determination

When determining the planning year:

• If run in Q4 (Oct-Dec): "Next year" is current year + 1. The "outgoing year" is the current year.
• If run in Q1 (Jan-Mar): "Next year" is the current year. The "outgoing year" is current year - 1.
• If run mid-year (Q2-Q3): Warn that annual planning typically happens at Q4/Q1 boundary. Ask which year to plan for.

Key EOS Principles

• Annual Planning reviews the FULL V/TO — not just the 1-Year Plan. All 8 sections get reviewed.
• 10-Year Target and Core Focus rarely change (if ever). Confirm they still resonate, but don't pressure updates.
• 3-Year Picture updates to reflect progress and changing conditions.
• 1-Year Plan is entirely new each year with 3-7 measurable goals.
• Q1 Rocks are set during annual planning, aligned to the new 1-Year Plan.
• All leadership team members must attend. If someone is missing, note it but proceed.

Process

Mode: Plan

Use when conducting the full annual planning session with the structured 7-section agenda.

Step 1: Setup

1. Determine the planning year. Ask if not clear from context. Follow the Year Determination rules above.

2. Check for existing planning file. Look for data/annual/YYYY-planning.md.

   • Exists: Ask: "Annual planning for YYYY already exists. Open it to review, append notes, or start fresh?"
   • New: Continue with Step 2.

3. Gather session details:

   • Attendees (all leadership team members should be present)
   • Location (office, offsite, etc.)
   • Date (default to today)

4. Gather context. Read these files silently:

   • data/vision.md — current V/TO state
   • data/rocks/ — all quarters for the outgoing year
   • data/scorecard/weeks/ — scorecard data for the year
   • data/issues/open/ — open issues list
   • data/accountability.md — current org structure
   • data/people/ — People Analyzer evaluations

5. Create the year directory if it doesn't exist: data/annual/

Display a preparation summary:

Annual Planning — [Year]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Date: [Date]
Attendees: [Names]
Location: [Location]

Data loaded:
  V/TO: [Last updated date]
  Rocks: [Count] across [N] quarters
  Scorecard: [N] weeks of data
  Open issues: [Count]
  People evaluations: [Count]

Let's walk through the 7-section agenda.

Step 2: Section 1 — Year in Review

1. Score Q4 Rocks. Read all Rocks from data/rocks/YYYY-Q4/. Display current status for each Rock. For any Rocks still on_track or off_track, ask: "Complete or incomplete?" Update status to complete or dropped.

   Calculate Q4 completion rate: (complete / total) * 100.

   If no Q4 Rock files exist: "No Q4 Rocks on file. Skip Q4 scoring, or enter scores manually?"

2. Annual Rock Summary. Read Rocks from all four quarters of the outgoing year. Display a summary table:

   Annual Rock Summary — YYYY
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
   | Quarter | Total | Complete | Rate |
   |---------|-------|----------|------|
   | Q1      | 5     | 4        | 80%  |
   | Q2      | 6     | 5        | 83%  |
   | Q3      | 5     | 3        | 60%  |
   | Q4      | 6     | 5        | 83%  |
   | Year    | 22    | 17       | 77%  |
   

   If below 80% annual average: "Below the 80% target. Discuss: Were Rocks too ambitious, or were there execution issues?"

3. Scorecard Trends. Read scorecard files for the year. Identify which metrics consistently hit or missed goals. Display a summary of trends.

   If no scorecard data exists: "No scorecard data for YYYY. Skip trends."

4. Celebrate Wins. Prompt: "What were the biggest wins and accomplishments this year?" Record responses.

Record all Year in Review data in the planning file.

Step 3: Section 2 — V/TO Refresh

Walk through each V/TO section from data/vision.md:

1. Core Values: Display current values. Ask: "Do these still resonate? Any changes?" Note: Core Values should rarely change.

2. Core Focus: Display purpose and niche. Ask: "Still accurate?" Note: Core Focus should rarely change.

3. 10-Year Target: Display current target. Ask: "Still the right big goal?" Note: This shifts slowly.

4. 3-Year Picture: Display current state. Ask: "What's changed? What should the 3-Year Picture look like now?" This section updates to reflect progress.

5. 1-Year Plan: This is entirely new each year. Ask: "What are the 3-7 measurable goals for [next year]?" Walk through each goal, ensuring it has a specific measurable target.

6. Marketing Strategy: Display target market, 3 Uniques, proven process. Ask: "Any updates?"

Important: Record proposed V/TO changes in the planning file. Actual updates to data/vision.md should be done via ceos-vto after the session, or the user can approve inline updates during this step. If the user wants to update vision.md now, show the diff and ask for approval before writing.

Step 4: Section 3 — Issues Sweep

1. Read all open issues from data/issues/open/.
2. Display the list with age (days since created).
3. Ask: "Which issues should we tackle today? Add any new long-term issues?"
4. For selected issues, run a quick IDS:
   • Identify the real issue
   • Discuss perspectives
   • Solve with an action item, owner, and due date
5. Record IDS results in the planning file.

Note: For issues that need full IDS treatment, reference ceos-ids for creating formal issue files.

Step 5: Section 4 — Organizational Checkup

1. Read data/accountability.md for the current Accountability Chart.

2. Display all seats with current owners.

3. Ask: "Are all seats filled with the right people? Any structural changes needed?"

4. If People Analyzer evaluations exist in data/people/, reference the latest ratings:

   People Summary:
     Brad: Core Values 5/5, GWC Pass ✓
     Sarah: Core Values 4/5, GWC Pass ✓
     Mike: Core Values 3/5, GWC Evaluating ⚠️
   

5. Discuss any concerns. Record structural changes and people decisions.

Note: For formal People Analyzer updates, reference ceos-people.

Step 6: Section 5 — Set Q1 Rocks

1. Reference the new 1-Year Plan goals (from Step 3).
2. Ask: "What Q1 Rocks will drive progress on these goals?"
3. For each proposed Rock, collect: title, owner, which 1-Year goal it aligns to.
4. Validate:
   • 3-7 Rocks per person. Flag if outside range.
   • Alignment. Each Rock should connect to a 1-Year Plan goal.
5. Record in the planning file.

Note: Create individual Rock files using ceos-rocks after this session. The planning file captures the decisions; the Rock files are the operational artifacts.

Step 7: Section 6 — Set Scorecard

1. Read current Scorecard metrics from data/scorecard/metrics.md (if it exists).
2. Display current metrics.
3. Ask three questions:
   • "Which metrics do we keep for next year?"
   • "What new metrics should we add?"
   • "What metrics should we remove?"
4. Record decisions in the planning file.

Note: Update the Scorecard metrics file using ceos-scorecard after this session.

Step 8: Section 7 — Conclude

1. Key Decisions: Summarize the major decisions made during the session.
2. Cascading Messages: Ask: "What needs to be communicated to the rest of the organization?"
3. Action Items: Compile all action items from all sections with owners and due dates.
4. Next Steps: List follow-up tasks (commit V/TO updates, create Rock files, update Scorecard, communicate decisions).

Step 9: Save the Planning File

1. Show the complete planning file before writing.
2. Ask: "Save this annual planning session?"
3. Write to data/annual/YYYY-planning.md.
4. Remind: "Run git commit to save the planning session."
5. List follow-up actions:
   • "Update vision.md with V/TO changes using ceos-vto" (if not done inline)
   • "Create Q1 Rock files using ceos-rocks"
   • "Update Scorecard metrics using ceos-scorecard"

Mode: Review Year

Use when analyzing the outgoing year's performance without running a full planning session.

Step 1: Determine the Year

Ask which year to review. Defaults:

• If run in Q1 (Jan-Mar): Default to previous year (outgoing year)
• If run in Q4 (Oct-Dec): Default to current year (year almost complete)
• Otherwise: Ask which year

Step 2: Load Rock Data

Read all Rock files from data/rocks/YYYY-Q1/, data/rocks/YYYY-Q2/, data/rocks/YYYY-Q3/, data/rocks/YYYY-Q4/.

For each quarter, calculate:

• Total Rocks
• Complete count (status = complete)
• Completion rate: (complete / total) * 100

If a quarter has no Rock files: "No Rocks on file for YYYY-QN."

Display the annual summary:

Year in Review — YYYY Rock Performance
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

| Quarter | Total | Complete | Dropped | Rate |
|---------|-------|----------|---------|------|
| Q1      | 5     | 4        | 1       | 80%  |
| Q2      | 6     | 5        | 1       | 83%  |
| Q3      | 5     | 3        | 2       | 60%  |
| Q4      | 6     | 5        | 1       | 83%  |
| Year    | 22    | 17       | 5       | 77%  |

Annual target: 80%+

Also display per-person breakdown:

By Owner:
  Brad: 8 Rocks, 6 complete (75%)
  Daniel: 7 Rocks, 6 complete (86%)
  Sarah: 7 Rocks, 5 complete (71%)

Step 3: Scorecard Trends

Read all scorecard files from data/scorecard/weeks/ that fall within the year.

For each metric, calculate:

• Average value across all weeks
• Hit rate (percentage of weeks at or above goal)
• Trend direction (improving, stable, declining)

Display summary:

Scorecard Trends — YYYY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

| Metric          | Avg   | Goal  | Hit Rate | Trend     |
|-----------------|-------|-------|----------|-----------|
| Weekly Revenue  | \$48K  | \$50K  | 65%      | Improving |
| New Customers   | 8     | 10    | 45%      | Stable    |
| NPS             | 74    | 70    | 85%      | Improving |

If no scorecard data: "No scorecard data for YYYY."

Step 4: Issues Resolved

Count solved issues from data/issues/solved/ with dates within the year. Also count current open issues.

Issues — YYYY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Resolved: 23 issues
Open: 8 issues remaining

Step 5: Year Summary

Display a consolidated year report:

Year Summary — YYYY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Rock Completion: 77% (target 80%)
Scorecard Hit Rate: 65% average across metrics
Issues Resolved: 23
Issues Remaining: 8

Highlights:
  ✓ [Strongest quarter for Rocks]
  ✓ [Best-performing Scorecard metric]
  ⚠️ [Area needing improvement]

Ask: "Would you like to save this review to data/annual/YYYY-planning.md?"

Mode: Refresh V/TO

Use when walking through V/TO sections for annual updates without the full planning session.

Step 1: Read Current V/TO

Read data/vision.md. If the file doesn't exist: "No V/TO found. Run setup.sh init first, or create one with ceos-vto."

Display a summary of the current V/TO state:

V/TO Status — Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

| Section             | Status                          |
|---------------------|---------------------------------|
| Core Values         | [Count] values defined          |
| Core Focus          | [Purpose + Niche summary]       |
| 10-Year Target      | [Target summary]                |
| 3-Year Picture      | [Key points]                    |
| 1-Year Plan         | [Goal count] goals              |
| Marketing Strategy  | [Target market summary]         |

Step 2: Select Sections

Ask: "Which V/TO sections do you want to refresh?"

Options:

• All sections — Walk through every section in order
• Forward-looking only — 3-Year Picture, 1-Year Plan, Marketing Strategy (most commonly updated)
• Specific section — Choose one to focus on

Step 3: Walk Through Each Selected Section

For each section:

1. Display current content in full.
2. Prompt for updates:
   • Core Values / Core Focus / 10-Year Target: "This should rarely change. Confirm it still resonates, or discuss changes?"
   • 3-Year Picture: "What's changed? What should the 3-Year Picture look like now?"
   • 1-Year Plan: "What are the 3-7 measurable goals for [year]?" (entirely new each year)
   • Marketing Strategy: "Any updates to target market, 3 Uniques, proven process, or guarantee?"
3. Draft the update with the user's input.
4. Show the diff — before/after for the changed section.
5. Ask for approval before writing.

Step 4: Write Updates

After all sections are reviewed:

1. Show a summary of all changes.
2. Ask: "Apply these changes to data/vision.md?"
3. Write the updated file.
4. Update the "Last updated" date.
5. Remind: "Run git commit to save the V/TO updates."

Step 5: Follow-Up

After V/TO is refreshed, offer:

• "Would you like to check Rock alignment against the updated 1-Year Plan?"
• "Would you like to run a full annual planning session?"

Output Format

Plan: Progressive display of each agenda section during the session. Show the complete planning file before saving.

Review Year: Summary tables with Rock completion rates (per quarter and per person), Scorecard trends, and issues count. Offer to save the review.

Refresh V/TO: Section-by-section display with diffs for any changes. Summary of all changes before writing.

Guardrails

• Always show the complete file before writing. Never create or modify a planning file without showing it and getting approval.
• Cross-reference existing data. Read Rock scores, Scorecard numbers, and issues from their source files. Don't ask users to re-enter data that's already tracked.
• Don't auto-invoke other skills. Mention ceos-vto, ceos-rocks, ceos-scorecard, ceos-ids, and ceos-people as follow-up tools, but let the user decide when to use them.
• Respect the planning cadence. If annual planning is run mid-year or twice in one year, flag it: "Annual planning typically runs at the Q4/Q1 boundary. Continue anyway?" Allow it — some companies do mid-year strategic resets.
• Annual Planning reviews the FULL V/TO. In Plan mode, walk through all sections. Remind that 10-Year Target and Core Focus should rarely change, but they still get reviewed.
• One file per year. If a planning file already exists for the year, warn before creating a second one. Allow it (sessions sometimes need to be re-run), but make sure it's intentional.
• All leadership must attend. If the attendees list seems incomplete compared to data/accountability.md, note it: "Some leadership team members may be missing from the attendee list."
• Show diffs for V/TO changes. When modifying data/vision.md (in Plan mode step 3 or Refresh V/TO mode), always show before/after for each section and get approval.
• Don't skip sections in Plan mode. Walk through all 7 agenda sections in order. Each serves a purpose. But keep each section focused — this is a full-day session, not a lecture.
• Sensitive strategic data warning. On first use in a session, remind the user: "Annual planning notes contain sensitive strategic data. Ensure your CEOS repo is private."
• 1-Year Plan alignment. When setting Q1 Rocks (Section 5), verify each Rock connects to a 1-Year Plan goal. Flag any that don't align.

Integration Notes

V/TO (ceos-vto)

• Read/Write: ceos-annual reads data/vision.md for the current V/TO state and may update it during the V/TO Refresh section (Section 2). Inline updates to data/vision.md are allowed with user approval; alternatively, formal updates can be deferred to ceos-vto after the session.

Rocks (ceos-rocks)

• Read/Write: ceos-annual reads Rock files from all quarters for the year-in-review scoring and creates Q1 Rock decisions during Section 5. Formal Rock file creation should be done via ceos-rocks after the session.

Scorecard (ceos-scorecard)

• Read: ceos-annual reads scorecard data from data/scorecard/weeks/ for trend analysis during the Year in Review (Section 1). Scorecard metric updates (Section 6) are recorded in the planning file; formal updates to data/scorecard/metrics.md should be done via ceos-scorecard.

People Analyzer (ceos-people)

• Read: ceos-annual reads People Analyzer evaluations from data/people/ during the Organizational Checkup (Section 4). Formal People Analyzer updates should be done via ceos-people.

Accountability Chart (ceos-accountability)

• Read: ceos-annual reads data/accountability.md during the Organizational Checkup (Section 4) to review the org structure and identify empty or misaligned seats.

IDS (ceos-ids)

• Read: ceos-annual reads open issues from data/issues/open/ and solved issues from data/issues/solved/ during the Issues Sweep (Section 3). Formal issue creation and resolution should be done via ceos-ids.

Orchestration Principle

ceos-annual is the most comprehensive orchestrator — it reads data from nearly all other skills during the planning session. The annual planning file at data/annual/YYYY-planning.md captures decisions; individual skills handle the operational artifacts (Rock files, scorecard updates, V/TO changes, etc.).