3 Ways to Get Team Alignment on an EOS Rock Charter

EOS Rocks represent important work for an organization. And since doing the wrong work wastes time and creates frustration, each Rock should be framed by a Rock Charter that defines its why, what, and who. (Here’s a template.)

But don’t go it alone. Your EOS Rock Charter will benefit from additional ideas and input. Here are three different ways to review a Rock Charter with your team to gather feedback and ensure alignment.

Option 1: Independent Review

This approach drives alignment through independent, asynchronous review. No meetings required!

1. Create an EOS Rock Charter using the Google Doc template.
2. Share the Google Doc with the appropriate reviewers and identify a timeline for review.
3. The reviewers provide feedback using Google’s suggestion mode and comment functionality. This asynchronous review enables the reviewers to think through their reviews at their own pace and on their own timeline.
4. After the timeline expires, independently resolve all the suggestions and comments.
5. Communicate with the reviewers that all the suggestions and comments have been resolved.

This approach is best for simple EOS Rock Charters.

Option 2: Independent Review + Alignment Meeting

This approach starts with the previous one and adds a final alignment meeting:

1. Create an EOS Rock Charter using the Google Doc template.
2. Share the Google Doc with the appropriate reviewers, identify a timeline for review, and schedule a 15-30 minute meeting with the reviewers.
3. The reviewers asynchronously provide feedback using Google’s suggestion mode and comment functionality. (This approach requires that teams diligently complete their review assignment before the meeting.)
4. After the timeline expires but before the alignment meeting, independently resolves all the suggestions and comments.
5. Hold a 15-30 minute alignment meeting with the reviewers:
   • Start with a segue to get everyone focused.
   • Give each reviewer a turn to share their thoughts or ask clarifying questions.
   • Conduct a simple thumbs-up/thumbs-down vote to verify that everyone is good with the EOS Rock Charter as written.

This is best used for more complex EOS Rock Charters that would benefit from an alignment meeting.

Option 3: Review & Alignment Meeting

This approach moves both the EOS Rock Charter review and alignment into a single meeting:

1. Create the charter using the Google Doc template.
2. Schedule a 60-minute review and alignment meeting with the reviewers:
   • Start the meeting with a segue to get everyone focused.
   • Share the EOS Rock Charter Google Doc link with the reviewers.
   • Give reviewers 15-20 minutes to read the document and provide feedback using Google’s suggestion mode and comment functionality.
   • Ask each reviewer to share their thoughts and ask clarifying questions.
   • Work to resolve as many suggestions and comments as possible.
   • Conduct a simple thumbs-up/thumbs-down vote to verify that everyone is good with the essence of the EOS Rock Charter.
3. After the meeting, resolve any final suggestions and comments, then communicate that with the reviewers.

This approach is valuable for teams that find it challenging to complete pre-meeting review assignments. It’s also great for inexperienced teams that would benefit from hearing feedback from more experienced team members.

The downside of this approach is that it requires a longer meeting and doesn’t provide reviewers the opportunity to think through their review at their own pace.

In our experience, having an agreed-upon review process for Rock Charters has led to better alignment and greater Rock completion success. (During these reviews, I encourage everyone to share ruthless collaborative critique of each other’s EOS Rock Charters.)

Happy reviewing!