“We have a great understanding after today of who we are, not just where we’re going.”
That was a comment from a leadership team member as we wrapped up Vision Building® Day 2 earlier this week.
It captured the purpose of the work perfectly.
Many leadership teams have a general idea of where they want the business to go. They want to increase revenue, expand into new markets, build a stronger team or create a company that can operate without relying so heavily on a few key people.
What’s often less clear is who they are as an organization and how they’ll reach that destination together.
What do you stand for?
What are you passionate about?
What makes you different?
What kind of people thrive on your team?
How do you decide which opportunities to pursue?
How do you make decisions when things get difficult?
Without clear answers, leaders can agree on the destination while pulling in different directions on how to get there.
That’s why teams find so much value in the EOS® Vision/Traction Organizer®, or V/TO®.
What is the V/TO?
The V/TO is a simple two-page tool that captures a company’s vision and execution plan.
Rather than creating a lengthy strategic plan that gets presented once and forgotten, the V/TO asks a leadership team to agree on the answers to eight essential questions. Those answers clarify who the company is, where it’s going and how it plans to get there.
The first page focuses on Vision. The second focuses on Traction.
Together, they connect your long-term aspirations to the priorities your team needs to execute today.
Page One: Clarifying Your Vision
The Vision side of the V/TO asks four foundational questions:
1. What are Your Core Values?
Your Core Values define who you are as an organization.
They aren’t a collection of impressive words chosen because they sound good on a website. They’re the essential principles your best people already demonstrate when they’re at their best.
Real Core Values help you make decisions about:
- Who You Hire
- Who You Promote
- How You Give Feedback
- What Behaviors You Recognize
- What Behaviors You Won’t Accept
A value only becomes meaningful when it influences what you do.
For example, imagine that one of your Core Values is taking ownership. When a mistake happens, do people openly acknowledge it and help solve it? Or do they avoid responsibility and point fingers?
The answer tells you whether ownership is truly a Core Value or simply an aspiration.
EOS recommends identifying three to seven timeless principles that define how your organization operates and who belongs within its culture.
2. What is Your Core Focus™?
Your Core Focus identifies the sweet spot of your business.
It combines two elements:
- Your Purpose, Cause or Passion
- Your Niche
Your purpose explains why the company exists beyond making money. Your niche defines what the business does exceptionally well.
Together, they create a filter for opportunities.
When an exciting new project, customer or product appears, your Core Focus helps you ask an important question:
Does this opportunity move us deeper into what we’re built to do, or is it pulling us away from it?
Without a clear Core Focus, businesses can easily chase opportunities that generate activity but dilute their energy. With one, leaders have a shared standard for deciding what deserves a yes and what needs a no.
3. What is Your 10-Year Target™?
The 10-Year Target gives the organization a clear long-range destination.
It should be ambitious enough to inspire people and specific enough that everyone knows whether it has been achieved.
“Become the best company in our industry” may sound inspiring, but it leaves too much room for interpretation.
A measurable target gives the team something concrete to work toward. It might involve revenue, geographic reach, customers served, locations opened or another meaningful indicator of success.
The purpose isn’t to predict exactly what will happen over the next decade. It’s to give everyone a common direction.
That direction then informs the 3-Year Picture™, 1-Year Plan™ and Quarterly Rocks that follow.
4. What is Your Marketing Strategy?
Your Marketing Strategy clarifies who you serve and why those customers should choose you.
It includes four elements:
- Your Target Market
- Your Three Uniques™
- Your Proven Process
- Your Guarantee
This section forces the team to move beyond broad statements such as, “We serve companies that need our services.”
Who are your ideal customers, specifically? What characteristics make them a strong fit? What problems are they trying to solve? Why is your approach different?
When those answers are clear, your sales and marketing efforts become more focused. Your team spends less time pursuing poor-fit opportunities and more time speaking directly to the customers you’re best equipped to help.
Page Two: Turning Vision into Traction
A compelling vision matters, but it won’t change the business unless it’s connected to action.
The Traction side of the V/TO brings the long-range vision closer to the present.
5. What is Your 3-Year Picture?
Ten years can feel too distant for people to visualize. The 3-Year Picture makes the future more tangible.
It describes what the company will look like three years from now, including key numbers and a concise list of observable characteristics.
What will your revenue and profit look like?
How many people will be on the team?
What types of customers will you serve?
What new capabilities will exist?
What will employees, customers and leaders experience differently?
The goal is to create a picture clear enough that everyone in the room can see roughly the same company in their mind.
The 3-Year Picture becomes the bridge between your long-term target and the decisions you’re making now.
6. What is Your 1-Year Plan?
The 1-Year Plan identifies what must happen this year to move toward the 3-Year Picture.
It typically includes your annual revenue and profit goals, important measurables and three to seven companywide priorities.
The limit matters.
When everything is a priority, nothing is.
Leadership teams often begin the year with a long list of initiatives. Then normal business pressures take over, attention becomes scattered and the most important goals compete with dozens of urgent requests.
The 1-Year Plan creates discipline by asking the team to agree on the few outcomes that matter most. Those annual goals then drive the priorities selected each quarter.
7. What are Your Quarterly Rocks?
Quarterly Rocks are the most important priorities that must be completed during the next 90 days.
They turn an annual plan into manageable pieces.
A strong Rock has a clear owner and a clear definition of done. It shouldn’t be an ongoing responsibility such as “improve communication.” It should describe a specific result that can be completed and evaluated at the end of the quarter.
Each Rock should also connect to the larger vision.
If a quarterly priority doesn’t move the company toward the 1-Year Plan, 3-Year Picture or 10-Year Target, it’s worth asking why the team is investing time in it.
8. What’s on Your Issues List?
Every vision comes with obstacles.
The Issues List creates a place to capture anything that could prevent the organization from reaching its goals. That may include an underperforming process, an unresolved people issue, a capacity constraint, a strategic question or a decision the team has been avoiding.
Writing an issue down doesn’t make the team negative. It makes the obstacle visible.
Once issues are visible, the leadership team can prioritize them, discuss their root causes and solve them instead of repeatedly working around them.
The Real Value is in the Conversation
The V/TO may be only two pages, but completing it well takes honest discussion.
Ask each leader to answer the questions independently before comparing responses.
You may discover that everyone agrees on the company’s revenue target but has a different understanding of its ideal customer. You may find that your stated values don’t reflect the behaviors being rewarded. You may realize that leaders are pursuing different priorities because they’ve never agreed on what success should look like three years from now.
Those differences aren’t failures.
They show you where the most important conversations need to happen.
The objective isn’t to fill every blank as quickly as possible. It’s to reach genuine agreement so each member of the leadership team can communicate the same vision and use it to guide decisions.
A Living Tool, Not a Planning Exercise
The V/TO shouldn’t disappear into a folder after an annual planning session.
It should become a living reference point for the leadership team.
When evaluating an opportunity, compare it with your Core Focus and Marketing Strategy.
When setting annual goals, make sure they move you toward your 3-Year Picture.
When choosing Quarterly Rocks, connect them to the 1-Year Plan.
When something blocks progress, put it on the Issues List and solve it.
Over time, the V/TO becomes more than a strategic planning document. It becomes a shared decision-making framework.
That’s when your vision begins to influence how people hire, prioritize, communicate, invest and lead.
As Gino Wickman writes in Traction:
“You must get everyone in your organization 100 percent on the same page with where you’re going and how you plan to get there.”
The V/TO gives your leadership team a practical place to begin.