How to Use Ninety's Headlines Tool for Team Announcements

The Level 10 Meeting® agenda includes a five-minute block called Headlines. Its purpose is simple: share news worth knowing before moving into problem-solving. 

EOS® teaches teams to keep this section fast: read the update, check it off, move on. If something needs a conversation, it doesn't belong in Headlines; it belongs in IDS®. 

Ninety's Headlines tool supports that discipline by giving every team a shared place to post announcements before meetings, read them during meetings, and cascade key messages to other teams when decisions need to flow across the organization.

Video Overview

Watch the video below for an overview of the Headlines tool.

What is the Headlines tool?

The Headlines tool is a team-level list where your organization captures and reads short announcements that typically don't require discussion or additional action items. Every team in your Ninety account has its own Headlines list. Headlines and Cascading Messages live in the same tool and function identically.

Headlines are automatically surfaced in the Customer/Employee Headlines section of the default Level 10 Meeting™ agenda. Any Headline created before the meeting is visible when the team gets to that section; any created during the meeting appears in real time (if someone other than the presenter creates a Headline after the meeting has started, the presenter may just need to refresh the page). Unchecked Headlines roll forward to the next meeting automatically, so nothing gets skipped.

Headlines are available on all paid plans (Essentials, Accelerate, and Thrive). Cascading Messages (which share Headlines with other teams) require an Accelerate or Thrive plan.

What is a Headline?

A Headline is a short announcement worth sharing with your team that typically doesn't need discussion or action items. The EOS framework divides them into two categories, both reviewed during the Level 10 Meeting:

• Customer Headlines: Updates about customers: new wins, lost accounts, feedback received, notable interactions.
• Employee Headlines: Updates about team members: out-of-office notices, personal news, personnel changes, onboarding updates.
   

Headlines can be positive or negative. The key is that they're informational. Common examples include planned time off, HR policy changes, quick wins worth celebrating, or a client situation the team should be aware of.

The tool label "Headlines" can be renamed to anything that better resonates with your team (Updates, Announcements, FYI, or News) by Owners or Admins in Company Settings > Language. The rename applies company-wide.

What is a Cascading Message?

A Cascading Message is a Headline sent from one team to one or more other teams. It appears in the receiving teams' Headlines area and is read during their meetings, just like a regular Headline.

In EOS, "cascading" describes the practice of moving key decisions and announcements down through the organization, from the leadership team to department teams, and from department teams to their direct reports. The Conclude step of the Level 10 Meeting is the natural moment to identify which messages need to cascade — what did your team decide this week that other teams need to know?

Cascading Messages are functionally identical to Headlines. The only difference is audience: Headlines are for your own team; Cascading Messages are for other teams.

Key rules for Cascading Messages:

• You cannot send a Cascading Message to your own current team. This is by design; use a Headline or Issue for intra-team communication instead.
• Selecting All sends to every team in the organization except your current team.
• Any licensed user can send a Cascading Message to any team, including teams they don't belong to. No special permissions or team membership are required.
• Once sent, a Cascading Message can only be viewed or edited on the receiving team(s). You cannot edit it from the originating team.
• You will not see your own Cascading Message after sending it unless you are a member of the receiving team(s). This is expected behavior.

How the Headlines tool connects to other tools

Level 10 Meeting. The Customer/Employee Headlines section is the fourth segment of the default Level 10 Meeting agenda, allocated five minutes. During the meeting, each Headline is read aloud and checked off by clicking the circle at the beginning of the row. This marks it as read and ready for the archive. Any Headline not checked off during the meeting rolls forward and appears again in the next session.

Issues. Any Headline that sparks a discussion can be right-clicked and converted to a short-term Issue. The Issue carries the Headline's title and description into the Issues list, where it can be prioritized and addressed during the IDS® block. Converting to an Issue is the correct path whenever a Headline generates questions or debate; it keeps Headlines fast and ensures meaningful topics get the time they deserve in IDS.

To-Dos. A Headline can also be right-clicked and converted to a To-Do, creating a seven-day action item with an owner and due date. This is useful when a Headline reveals something that requires follow-through rather than a discussion.

Meetings. Headlines flow automatically into the Level 10 Meeting agenda. They don't need to be added manually or pulled in separately; any Headline on a team's list is available when the meeting reaches the Headlines section. Cascading Messages appear in a dedicated Cascaded Messages section of the Headlines tool within the receiving team's meeting, making it easy to see at a glance which updates came from other teams.

User permissions for the Headlines tool

• Team Members (also called Managees) can create, view, edit, archive, and delete Headlines on their assigned teams. They can also send Cascading Messages to any team, including teams they don't belong to.
• Managers can do everything a Team Member can. No additional permissions are needed for Headlines.
• Admins have full access across all teams, including the ability to rename the Headlines tool via Company Settings > Language.
• Implementers/Coaches have access equivalent to Admins within the accounts they support.
• Owners have full access across the entire account.
• Observers can view Headlines but cannot create, edit, archive, or delete them.

For a full breakdown of what each role can do across all tools, see User Roles and Permissions.

What's in the Headlines tool

Creating and Editing Headlines: How to create a Headline from the Headlines tool, the global Create button, or the mobile app. Covers adding a title, description, owner, attachments, and linked items, plus how to edit an existing Headline after it's been posted.

Archiving and Deleting Headlines: How to archive a Headline individually or delete it permanently. Includes how to view your team's archived Headlines and Cascading Messages using the Archive toggle, and when to archive vs. delete.

Headlines in Meetings: Best practices for the Customer/Employee Headlines section of the Level 10 Meeting agenda: how to read, check off, cascade, convert to Issues, and manage Headlines during an active meeting session.

Cascading Messages: Step-by-step instructions for creating a Cascading Message, selecting recipient teams, cascading an existing Headline, and understanding where your messages appear for recipients.

Printing Headlines and Exporting to PDF: How to generate and download a PDF of your team's Headlines and Cascading Messages list for printing or sharing outside of Ninety.

Exporting Headlines to a Spreadsheet: How to export your team's Headlines and Cascading Messages to an XLSX file, including title, owner, description, creation date, and status.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between a Headline and a Cascading Message? A Headline is an announcement for your own team. A Cascading Message is an announcement sent to one or more other teams. Both are created from the Headlines tool and function identically; the only difference is the intended audience. 

Why can't I send a Cascading Message to my own team? This is intentional. Cascading Messages are designed for cross-team communication. If you need to share something with your own team, create a regular Headline or an Issue instead. The same rule applies when you select All: it sends to every team in the organization except the team you're currently working in.

Why can't I see the Cascading Message I just sent? This is expected behavior. Once a Cascading Message is sent, it can only be viewed on the receiving team(s). If you're not a member of any of the teams you sent it to, you won't see it in your own Headlines. This is not a bug, the message was sent successfully. To confirm it was received, ask someone on the receiving team to check their Headlines tool. 

Can I edit a Cascading Message after sending it? Yes, but only from the receiving team(s). Switch your Team dropdown to one of the teams that received the message, find it in their Headlines, and edit it there. Changes made on one receiving team do not automatically propagate to other receiving teams; you'll need to edit the message separately on each team that received it. You cannot edit a Cascading Message from the team that originally sent it.

Does "All" include every team when sending a Cascading Message? No. Selecting All sends the message to every team in the organization except your current team. This is by design; you cannot send a Cascading Message to the team you're working with, even when selecting All. If you need your own team to see the message, create a regular Headline for your team in addition to the Cascading Message.

Do Cascading Messages send email notifications to recipients? No. Cascading Messages do not generate email notifications. Individual users can set up mobile notifications to alert them when one of their teams receives a Headline, though.

Learn more

Headlines in Ninety — How, When, and Why You Should Use Them: The primary practitioner guide for Headlines, covering how to use Customer and Employee Headlines effectively, when to cascade, and why the "drop it down to Issues" discipline is what makes the Headlines section valuable rather than just another announcement channel.

Seamless Messaging Between Teams: Solved with Ninety: Explains how Headlines, Cascading Messages, Vision, and Rocks work together to move information across different time horizons in an EOS organization — from long-range vision down to this week's team updates.

What Is a Level 10 Meeting®? The EOS® Weekly Meeting Explained: A Professional EOS Implementer's walkthrough of the full Level 10 Meeting agenda, including how the Customer/Employee Headlines section fits into the 90-minute rhythm and what separates fast, effective Headlines from slow ones.

How I Prepare for Level 10 Meetings Without Feeling Overwhelmed: A first-person account of how adding Headlines throughout the week (rather than scrambling to remember them at the meeting) changes the quality and pace of the Headlines section.