How to Fight the “90-Day Blahs”

Recently, one of my client teams moped into their planning session depleted of their usual energy and enthusiasm. Concerned, I asked them to check-in with an update on what had been happening in the business. “Too many things going on. It seems we can never finish quarters as strong as we start them.”

“I have some good news”, I told them. “You have the ‘90-day blahs’ and that just makes you normal”.

It’s normal for human beings to experience life as cycles of energy. Thousands of years of evolution have instilled in us an instinctive sense of time (and purpose) geared to nature’s 90-day pattern of the seasons. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had to follow the food. When the seasons changed, so did their sources of food.

In the modern world, we see this cycle clearly in the rhythm of fitness clubs. Every 90 days they offer membership discounts because new members often don’t sustain their new commitment to fitness past 90 days. Things get hard, life intervenes while focus and commitment wane.

Companies running on EOS® have the Meeting Pulse and Rocks to help them jump-start their priorities and avoid the “90-day blahs”. We call this cycle of life in an entrepreneurial company “the 90-Day World”.

First, we recognize and celebrate the knowledge that we’re wired to lose focus after 90 days of intense effort. Next, we use that knowledge to leverage a process of coming together every 90 days – the EOS Meeting Pulse™ – this is our “90-Day World”.

The core of the EOS Meeting Pulse™ is the Quarterly Planning Session. This is when we take stock of the wins and lessons from the prior quarter. We review and re-commit to our company Vision. We sort through our Issues List and establish clear priorities – Rocks – for the next quarter.

Most importantly, we celebrate our small wins together and have a healthy debate about what priorities to tackle next. This cycle of commitment, progress, and renewal is vital to sustaining a healthy team and a successful business.

Later that day, my client’s leadership team was high-fiving, laughing, energized, and excited about the plan they’d created for the upcoming quarter. “Welcome to the 90-Day World”, I said. “See you next quarter!”

If your team struggles with focus and accountability and you think you have the “90-Day Blahs”, you’re only normal. The good news is that the EOS Tools™ and Traction are an antidote.

Reach out if you’d like your team to experience better traction in your own 90-Day World.