Traction Read online

  The to-dos hold your team accountable to all the commitments they made in the previous week. All human beings are procrastinators by nature. Imagine what it would be like if everyone in your organization did everything they said they would. It would be a different world, right? The power of the To-Do List is uncanny. During the experimentation with running a client’s weekly meetings, I discovered that the commitments that team members were making to each other from the previous week were not being carried out. People would make promises, such as making a call, shipping a package, or finishing a report. A week later, I would find that, of 10 commitments, only a few were done. As a result, I incorporated a To-Do List into the meeting. Once everyone had to report on them the following week, the number of tasks completed went from a few out of 10 to nine out of 10. Productivity increased because people knew they were going to be held accountable.

  Traction and accountability are created when these weekly commitments are captured on the To-Do List and are reviewed for completion the following week. The days of making a commitment, knowing that no one is going to confirm that it was done, quickly fade. This agenda item should take less than 5 minutes.

  IDS

  This is where the magic happens. It’s time to tackle your Issues List. Great meetings are created by solving problems. You should have 60 minutes for solving issues. This part should always take up most of your meeting.

  On average, about three to five issues on the list will come from last week’s meeting. During the reporting this week, you will have added new issues—about five to 10, on average. Typically, the list contains five to 15 issues. Although your Issues List is in your agenda, it can be effective to write your Issues List on a whiteboard or flip chart so it’s in front of everyone. Many clients have said that this leads to better participation than everyone looking down at their copies of the agenda.

  Decide which issues are number one, two, and three. Start with only the top three because, as a rule of thumb, you don’t know how many you’ll resolve. As long as you take them in order of priority, you’re attacking the right ones. To repeat, it’s a mistake to start at the top of the list and work your way down because sometimes the most important issue is near the bottom of the list. In addition, when you solve the most important issue, you tend to find out some of the other issues on the Issues List were symptoms of that core issue, and they drop off automatically.

  Go to work on number one, and work on it alone until it’s solved following the Issues Solving Track. Some weeks, you will get through only one issue. Other weeks, you will get through 10. You never know, but again, as long as you’re taking them in order of priority, you’re tackling the company’s largest obstacles.

  Once the issue has been identified, discussed, and solved, the solution usually turns into a plan of attack that ends up on the To-Do List. You may end up with one, two, or three to-dos as a result of that one solution. In next week’s meeting, you will confirm that the to-dos have been accomplished and the problem has been solved forever, rather than hanging around as in the past.

  Following the Issues Solving Track keeps a team focused on what’s important, and it avoids spending time on what some may think is a priority and really isn’t. This vital portion of the meeting should be passionate, intense, exhausting, and never boring. There should be no politics; the discussion should be open and honest, with everyone sharing the vision and fighting for the greater good. By solving all of your key issues for the week, you feel a tremendous sense of resolve and accomplishment.

  Conclude

  With five minutes left, move to conclude the meeting. This is your opportunity to pull the whole meeting together. You can frame everything that was discussed and make sure no loose ends are left.

  Concluding has two parts. First, recap your new To-Do List. Quickly restate all of the action items on the list to confirm that everyone has theirs written down. This step reinforces accountability. Second, discuss whether any messages need to be communicated to the organization based on decisions you made today, how you’re going to communicate them, and what medium you’re going to use. This step will greatly reduce communication issues that may have occurred in the past, when people were surprised with changes that were made without their knowledge.

  * * *

  I highly recommend adding a third item to your conclusion of the meeting to help you get instant feedback on how you’re doing. Simply have everyone rate the meeting at the end on a scale of 1 to 10. Your goal should be an 8 or better.

  * * *

  At the end of the meeting, there should be a feeling of conclusion. The meeting ends on time. This avoids any domino effect where meetings run over and push other appointments back, blowing up people’s schedules. And that is the Level 10 Meeting Agenda in a nutshell.

  THE FIVE POINTS OF THE WEEKLY MEETING PULSE

  A productive Meeting Pulse should meet the following five criteria. The meetings must

  1. be on the same day each week,

  2. be at the same time each week,

  3. have the same printed agenda,

  4. start on time, and

  5. end on time.

  Making the meeting the same day and time creates a routine. Using the same agenda discourages reinventing the wheel; once you have an agenda that works, stick to it. Plus, it also helps to keep the meetings consistent. Start on time, because when you start the meeting late, the part of the meeting that always suffers is the issues-solving time, and that’s what matters most in the meeting. You will cut down the best part. And end on time so that you don’t push back any following meetings.

  Be patient with the Weekly Meeting Pulse. Your first meeting will be awkward, but as you stay committed to it, it will become very comfortable. The level of team health, communication, and results will consistently rise.

  THE WEEKLY MEETING ROLLOUT

  Once you master the Weekly Meeting Pulse as a leadership team, the next step is to roll it out to each department. Clients typically take about three months to institute the Weekly Meeting Pulse throughout their organization, because the leadership team must master it first. Departmental weekly meetings are typically closer to 30 to 60 minutes. Use the Level 10 Meeting Agenda as a guide for customizing your departmental meeting agendas. Just make sure that at least 50 percent of the meeting time is spent solving issues.

  MEETING PULSE ACTIONS

  1. Schedule your quarterly session as close to the quarter’s end as possible and then every quarter after that. Follow the agenda and Rock-setting process in your quarterly meetings, then roll Rocks out by department.

  2. Decide when your Weekly Meeting Pulse will be as a leadership team. Pick the ideal day and time for you to meet every week. There is no rule of thumb; just decide what works best for you.

  3. Follow the Level 10 Meeting to the letter for one month. At the end of the month, read this chapter again. Make any fine-tuning adjustments, and then continue for another month. If in the future you find yourself getting off track again, refer back to the chapter as often as necessary to stay focused.

  4. Decide who is going to run the meeting. There can only be one. This person has to be comfortable moving people along and pushing them through the agenda when they are getting off track.

  5. Decide who is going to manage the agenda. This person keeps the To-Do and Issues Lists updated during the meeting and makes sure a copy of the agenda, the Rock Sheet, and the Scorecard are placed in front of everyone when the meeting starts every week.

  By setting Rocks and implementing a Meeting Pulse that creates a 90-Day World and weekly focus, you gain tremendous traction toward your vision.

  You are now doing what the successful companies do. Your frustrations from the past start to subside, and you make progress on your way to breaking through the ceiling. Your organization evolves from chaotic to a well-oiled machine. Your journey is now complete. Or has it just started?

  CHAPTER 9

  PULLING IT

  ALL TOGETHER
r />   THE GRAND JOURNEY

  Now that the context is clear, mastery of all Six Key Components is within reach. You’re well on your way to achieving 100 percent. Mastery means that you and your leadership team understand each tool and have implemented them properly.

  Many books have been written on the topics of meetings, planning, solving problems, developing people, and prioritizing. What is new about the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is the way these disciplines have been assembled into a complete system for running an entrepreneurial organization. Each individual tool is not as important as the whole, and all six components that make up the Entrepreneurial Operating System and The EOS Model need to be understood and mastered in order to fully gain traction.

  If, as many clients do, you want a visual of The EOS Model in front of you to serve as a constant reminder of the Six Key Components, you can download one free at www.eosworldwide.com/model.

  The combination of strengthening the Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction Components is what makes the real magic occur. This book started from the premise that, whether consciously or unconsciously, successful entrepreneurs have a habit of strengthening six components of their business, and to the degree that you can do so yourself, you will build a great organization. As a result, your frustrations regarding control of your time and your business will diminish. Frustrations about employees will fall away because you will be surrounded by the right people in the right seats. You will finally break through the ceiling you’ve been hitting, you will transform your everyday business, and, ultimately, you will realize your organization’s vision. At this point, I hope that you now see that premise is true.

  As your leadership team works toward implementing these tools, you may have trouble seeing progress. The results won’t always show on your P&L right away. In the early stages, you’re also going to dredge up a lot of issues that will feel a bit overwhelming. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor and bestselling author of Confidence: How Winning and Losing Streaks Begin and End, once described what she refers to as Kanter’s law: “Everything can look like a failure in the middle.” Sometimes on your journey, you’ll feel like it’s not working. When this occurs, I urge you to stay the course. Mastery requires total commitment, and gaining traction requires a complete operating system.

  Shifting your organization from chaos to strengthening the Six Key Components was the journey to this point. It’s now time to take a little pressure off, because achieving 100 percent requires a state of perfection that doesn’t exist. Truth be told, if you can reach even 80 percent, you will have a great company. That’s because the work of managing an EOS company is never complete and never automatic. Just like the task of keeping anything else healthy, it takes nurturing, care, and a maintained routine.

  Anything you learn from now on regarding running and building a great business will fit into this context, The EOS Model. Your challenge will be deciding which ones align with the greater good of your company and which ones don’t. Always let your core values, core focus, and 10-year target be your guide.

  I recommend that you and your leadership team fill out the Organizational Checkup together at least twice a year to see how you’re progressing. This will give you a snapshot of where you are on the journey between zero and 100 percent. The goal is that you are always making progress.

  The real goal is 80 percent or better. If you’re above that level, you have a well-oiled machine with the traction you require. The highest score ever achieved is 88 percent, by The Benefits Company, a 10-person organization that is one of the best small companies I’ve ever seen. Rob Tamblyn, the owner and a pure visionary, had a vision to create the best service company in the benefits business.

  Since beginning The EOS Process, The Benefits Company has experienced 30 percent growth on average every year for the last five years. To say that it’s gaining traction would be an understatement.

  Filling out the Organizational Checkup at least twice every year shows you how you’re progressing as an organization. Together with your leadership team, you can find the gaps between where you are and where you want to go. The gaps are issues that go on the Issues List. You can then determine if they are a high enough priority to tackle. If so, the solutions become goals, Rocks, and to-dos for the coming year.

  For example, say you rate yourselves a 3 out of 5 on the fifth statement, “Our target market is clear, and our sales and marketing efforts are focused on it.” You might decide that a Rock for this quarter is for the sales manager to redefine your target market, clean up your sales pipeline, and train all salespeople on it.

  Another example might be that you rated yourselves a 4 out of 5 on the first statement, “We have a clear vision in writing that has been properly communicated and shared by everyone.” You realize the gap is that not everyone shares the vision and you have not been sharing it often enough. As a result you set a Rock for the quarter to address several people who do not share the vision and to make a decision on their future. In addition, someone has a to-do to schedule a meeting with everyone to share the vision again and get back on track with quarterly company meetings.

  ORGANIZATIONAL CHECKUP

  For each statement below, rank your business on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is weak and 5 is strong.

  1. We have a clear vision in writing that has been properly communicated and is shared by everyone in the company.

  2. Our core values are clear, and we are hiring, reviewing, rewarding, and firing around them.

  3. Our Core Focus™ (core business) is clear, and we keep our people, systems and processes aligned and focused on it.

  4. Our 10-Year Target™ (big, long-range business goal) is clear, communicated regularly, and is shared by all.

  5. Our target market (definition of our ideal customer) is clear, and all of our marketing and sales efforts are focused on it.

  6. Our 3 Uniques™ (differentiators) are clear, and all of our marketing and sales efforts communicate them.

  7. We have a proven process for doing business with our customers. It has been named and visually illustrated, and all of our salespeople use it.

  8. All of the people in our organization are the “right people” (they fit our culture and share our core values).

  9. Our Accountability Chart™ (organizational chart that includes roles/responsibilities) is clear, complete, and constantly updated.

  10. Everyone is in the “right seat” (they “get it, want it, and have the capacity to do their jobs well”).

  11. Our leadership team is open and honest, and demonstrates a high level of trust.

  12. Everyone has Rocks (1 to 7 priorities per quarter) and is focused on them.

  13. Everyone is engaged in regular weekly meetings.

  14. All meetings are on the same day and at the same time each week, have the same agenda, start on time, and end on time.

  15. All teams clearly identify, discuss, and solve issues for the long-term greater good of the company.

  16. Our Core Processes are documented, simplified, and followed by all to consistently produce the results we want.

  17. We have systems for receiving regular feedback from customers and employees, so we always know their level of satisfaction.

  18. A Scorecard for tracking weekly metrics/measurables is in place.

  19. Everyone in the organization has at least one number they are accountable for keeping on track each week.

  20. We have a budget and are monitoring it regularly (e.g., monthly or quarterly).

  Total number of each ranking

  Multiply by the number above

  Add all five numbers to determine the percentage score that reflects the current state of your company: %.

  One more example might be that you rated yourselves 2 out of 5 on statement number 16: “Our systems and processes are documented, simplified, and followed by all.” Seeing this gap, you agree as a team once and for all to make it a goal for this year to final
ly document your core processes.

  Filling out the Organizational Checkup at least twice every year will clarify all gaps, put those issues into action, and ultimately enable you to continue to climb toward 100 percent. The goal is progress, not perfection. You might feel frustrated because you’re not at 88 percent like the Benefits Company. Yet success is not based on where you are, but on how far you have come. If you were at 55 percent last year and at 63 percent this year, that’s success. The next year you’ll be at 72 percent and maybe 80 percent in the year after that. Keep using the principles, and you’ll break through.

  DISCOVERIES, POTHOLES, AND DELAYS ON THE GRAND JOURNEY

  ROLLING OUT EOS TO YOUR COMPANY

  Once your leadership team has mastered the tools in The EOS Process, it’s time to roll out the tools to the rest of the organization. This is best done one tier at a time. At first, introduce the tools only to the people who report to the leadership team. If you’re a 10-person company, that would cover everyone. But if you’re a 250-person company, you’ll go through a couple of tiers before you get to everyone. When rolling the tools out, I recommend first choosing what are known as foundational tools. These are as follows: