Three ways a virtual session runs
One full day
Focus Day
The first working day of EOS. Your team builds the Accountability Chart, sets its first Rocks, drafts a Scorecard and learns the weekly meeting and the issues list, on a shared screen.
One full day
Quarterly session
Every ninety days: review the last quarter, solve the biggest issues, set the next Rocks. The screen share stops when the team starts solving, so people look at each other.
90 minutes
L10 drop-in
I join your real weekly Level 10 Meeting, watch the team run it, then tell the team plainly what is working and what is slipping.
When virtual is the right call
Some teams should meet over video. The leadership team is split between Los Angeles, Orange County and a remote hire three time zones away. The company is two hours up the coast. Or the team simply works remotely, and a day in one room would cost more than it returns.
EOS was built for rooms. It also runs over video, provided the team treats a virtual session as a real session and not as a long call.
What makes a virtual session work
A few rules, set at the start of the day and kept all day. Cameras on. One screen each, with email closed. Phones out of reach. When someone drifts into a side conversation or starts typing, I call it out, kindly and right away. It is awkward for about an hour, and then the team stops needing the reminder.
Everyone sees everyone. Gallery view, not a speaker view that shrinks the team to a strip of thumbnails. I share my screen to build a tool, and I stop sharing the moment the team starts solving an issue, so people are looking at each other instead of at a document.
Lunch gets planned ahead, so the break stays a break instead of an hour of catching up on email.
What does not work virtually
The Vision Building days are better in person. The core values conversation depends on reading a room, and video flattens exactly the reactions I watch for. A team that has never met face to face also struggles more with the trust EOS asks for. If your leaders have not been in one room for a year, get them there before a Focus Day, even if everything after it runs on video.
Hybrid sessions, most of the team in a room and one or two people remote, are the hardest format. When one is unavoidable, everyone in the room joins the call on their own laptop with audio off, and the room’s sound runs through one speakerphone. The remote people then see faces instead of a conference table.
Pacific time
Sessions run on Pacific time. For a team with leaders in other time zones, we set the start so nobody’s day runs into dinner.
In person. When a team would rather share a room, I run sessions from the Santa Monica office or at your own office, and every area and service has its own page: Business Advisor in Los Angeles, Business Coach in Los Angeles, EOS Implementer in Los Angeles, Leadership Coach in Los Angeles, EOS Implementer in Burbank and Glendale, EOS Implementer in the Conejo Valley, EOS Implementer in Orange County, EOS Implementer in Pasadena, EOS Implementer in the San Fernando Valley, EOS Implementer in Santa Barbara, and EOS Implementer in Santa Monica.
Industry guide: EOS® for Staffing and Recruiting Firms in Los Angeles
Questions about running EOS over video
Can a whole EOS implementation be virtual?
Yes, and some teams do it that way. I recommend the two Vision Building days in person when the team can manage it, because that is where video costs the most.
What software do you use?
Zoom or Google Meet, whichever your team already uses. The tools themselves live in shared documents the whole team can edit.
Do you work with teams outside California?
Yes, over video and on Pacific time. In-person sessions are for teams within driving distance of Los Angeles.
How is an L10 drop-in different from a coaching call?
It is your actual weekly meeting, not a separate session. Watching the team run its own agenda is the fastest way to find out whether the meeting is doing its job.