Close the quarter, then plan the next one.

Climbs last one quarter. When the quarter ends, each climb is closed, the issues parked for planning are reviewed, and the climbs for the next quarter are set. This happens in a round of planning sessions.

The round has one session for the company, one for each team, and one for each person with their manager. Once a year it also has an annual session, where the leadership team looks again at the vision, pillars, and initiatives.

The examples on this page come from Halden’s last round, in September and October, which closed the second quarter and set the climbs for the third.

Plan inside the window.

Planning sessions are held during the planning window, which runs from two weeks before a quarter starts to two weeks after it. For Halden’s third quarter, which started on 1 October, the window opened on 17 September and closed on 15 October. The next window, for the fourth quarter, runs from 14 December to 15 January.

Hold the company session in the last two weeks of the old quarter, when most results are known. Team sessions follow in the next few days, and individual sessions in the first week of the new quarter. Aim to have every climb confirmed by the end of that first week, and keep the second week for sessions that slip.

Book the whole round before the window opens, company session first. When the window runs over a holiday, as it does at New Year, hold the company session before the break.

Close every climb honestly.

Every climb from the quarter is closed in one of three ways.

• Done means the climb’s done when is true. A climb can only be closed as done once every milestone is ticked or removed.
• Carried over means the climb still matters and moves into the next quarter, with its open milestones.
• Dropped means the climb is no longer worth finishing. It stays in the record as dropped.

Judge each climb by its done when. Read it out, then ask whether it is true today. Try it with five of Halden’s Q2 climbs.

Ticked milestones don’t make a climb done.

Headwater won’t let a climb be closed as done while it has open milestones. That is a minimum, and it isn’t enough on its own. Milestones are the plan for making the done when true, and a plan can be finished without the result arriving. If the done when isn’t true, the climb isn’t done.

Remove a milestone only when the done when no longer needs it, like a tasting for a café that has already signed. Removing milestones just so the climb can be closed as done hides unfinished work.

When to carry over, and when to drop.

Carry a climb over when you would choose it again if you were planning the next quarter from scratch, and it can be finished in that quarter. Give its open milestones new dates before the session ends.

Drop a climb when the reason for it has gone, when something more important needs the same people, or when nobody would choose it again. Write one line saying why, so the record makes sense later.

Look hard at a climb that has already been carried over once. If it is too big for a quarter, split it into smaller climbs or make it an initiative. If nobody is pushing for it, drop it.

Review the long-term issues.

Long-term issues are problems a team has parked for quarterly planning. In each team session, go through every one of them and decide what happens to it.

• Park it again if it is still a real problem, but less important than next quarter’s climbs.
• Drop it if it no longer matters or other work has fixed it.
• Make it a climb if it needs fixing next quarter. It then needs an owner, a done when, and milestones, like any other climb.

Headwater shows how long each issue has been open. A long-term issue turns amber after three months and red after six, which usually means it has been parked twice. At that point, make it a climb or drop it.

Set the next climbs in order.

Climbs are set from the top down. The company sets its climbs first, then each team sets its own, and then each person sets theirs with their manager.

The order comes from how climbs connect. A team climb can support a company climb, and every individual climb supports a team or company climb. A proposed climb can only support a climb that is already confirmed, so each session has to wait until the one above it is confirmed.

Setting climbs in this order means every team knows what the company has agreed before choosing its own climbs, and every person knows what their team needs from them.

Each proposed climb needs a title, an owner, a done when, and milestones that all have a title and a date. An individual climb also needs the climb it supports. Each person sets one to three climbs. Step three covers how to write them.

Confirm, then keep the record.

Nothing in a session is final until it is confirmed. Until then, climbs can be closed, reopened, and rewritten as the conversation goes on. Confirm the session once every climb is closed and every proposed climb is complete.

Confirming locks the session and saves a record of it. Next quarter, start each session by reading the last record, so everyone can see which climbs were carried over and which were dropped.

Once a year, start from the top.

Once a year, the round starts with the annual session. The leadership team looks again at the vision and pillars from step one and the initiatives from step two, and checks the ownership chart for gaps. Hold it in the planning window before the financial year starts, and confirm it before the company session, so the company climbs are set against this year’s plan.

In the other three quarters, the round starts with the company session, and the new quarter starts again at step three.

When the last individual session is confirmed, the weekly rhythm starts again. Everyone checks in on their new climbs the following Monday, and each team takes its issues into its huddle.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Closing climbs as done because every milestone is tickedDone means the done when is true. Check the result before closing the climb, even when every milestone is ticked.
• Removing milestones so a climb can be closed as doneOnly remove a milestone that the done when no longer needs. Anything else hides unfinished work in the record.
• Carrying everything overCarry a climb over only if you would choose it again. Otherwise the next quarter starts full of work nobody has chosen.
• Setting team climbs before the company’s are confirmedTeams end up guessing what the company will choose, and their climbs have to be redone.
• Leaving long-term issues parked for everAn issue that has been parked twice should become a climb or be dropped.
• Letting the round run past the windowPeople spend weeks with no confirmed climbs, and their first check-ins have nothing to check.

A checklist for the round.

• Book every session inside the planning window, with the company session first.
• Ask every owner to bring their climbs up to date before their session.
• Close every climb as done, carried over, or dropped, with a line saying why for each one dropped.
• Give every carried-over climb new milestone dates.
• Go through every long-term issue and park it again, drop it, or make it a climb.
• Check every proposed climb has an owner, a done when, and dated milestones.
• Make sure every individual climb supports a confirmed climb above it.
• Confirm each session so it is locked and recorded.
• Once a year, hold and confirm the annual session before the company session.