Issue 45: What the Heck is EOS?
The operating system supercharging Chief of Staff roles
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This week’s issue is about the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and is guest authored by Ellise McDonald, Chief of Staff and certified EOS IntegratorTM at Wise Systems. Ellise has been with Wise Systems, a Series C, company for 7 years. She also serves as an Ask a Chief of Staff Mentor.
What Is the EOS (and Why does it Matter to Chiefs of Staff)?
In several instances with Chiefs of Staff I mentor, they have asked me how to get their leadership teams on the same page, how to drive accountability, create a cadence in their business, and most often, run a more effective leadership meeting. In every instance, I have recommended EOS and specifically communicated how powerful a Level 10 (L10) Meeting could be for their team. So far, even if EOS is not formally implemented at their company, they can benefit from the framework and help their teams be more effective.
EOS is the Entrepreneurial Operating System that helps businesses run more efficiently using a simple, yet effective, set of tools. More than 257,000+ companies run on EOS, ensuring that everyone is rowing in the same direction, understanding the vision of the company, and having the tools to manage people, processes, and problems that could take the company off course. Check out this short video for a breakdown on how the EOS model compartmentalizes to create a focused business.
A key role within the EOS framework is the Integrator. This role aligns quite well with the responsibilities of a Chief of Staff. Integrators work with their counterpart, a Visionary, at the company to make those visions a reality. The Integrator is an essential part of the team who helps the team execute on their business plan, keeps everyone on the same page, helps orchestrate all the moving parts of an organization, escalates or unblocks day-to-day issues, and holds the strategy for the people, processes, and company priorities.
To find out more about this role, you can check out the book Rocket Fuel or take the Crystallizer Assessment to see if you are a Visionary or Integrator, and how being an Integrator can make you a more effective Chief of Staff.
What are the Key Components of EOS?
🔮 Vision
Each quarter, our leadership team reviews something called a V/TO (Vision Traction Organizer) which is a strategic planning tool that includes things like our ten-year vision, three-year target, one-year plan, quarterly rocks, and key metrics that drive our business. Using this helps the team gain clarity on the future of the company and get our vision into a plan that can be executed. Below I will dive deeper into rocks and data.
A big focus of being strong in vision is ensuring that it is Shared By All in your company.
Strengthening this component means everyone in our organization is 100% on the same page with where we're going and how we're going to get there. We use the same terminology and are singing from the same sheet of music.
📊 Data
The data component is all about having a strong scorecard of metrics that tell your leadership team and company if you are on track or off track. This scorecard should be the most important numbers that cut through feelings, egos, and boil the company down to a handful of objective metrics.
The scorecard should be reviewed on a weekly basis to identify potential issues, determine their root causes, and implement corrective actions.
🔄 Process
Processes are the secret ingredient needed to grease your company engine. In order to be 100% strong in this component, it means “systemizing” your business by identifying core processes, documenting the way to run each department, and ensuring the processes are followed by all. Creating effective processes not only gives employees a consistent experience, but also ensures customers receive a consistent experience with your business and brand.
📈 Traction
Traction means we bring discipline and accountability into every layer of the organization. Traction focuses on the one-year goals and how the next 90 days fit into it (quarterly goals, also called “rocks”). Within this component, our teams become great at execution–we understand the vision and how to execute on it.
There are two major parts of the Traction component: Level 10 meetings and Rocks.
L10 Meetings
In a Harvard Business Review, 1832 managers said the average meeting rating was a 4 out of 10, kept them from completing their work, was unproductive, and came at the expense of big thinking. Not the L10 meeting. The L10 meeting was created to score a 10/10, reduce unnecessary meetings, and solve the biggest issues in the business. Our L10 meeting is sacred. It's the most important meeting we have each week with our leadership team where we review our quarterly goals, get a pulse on our scorecard from the Data component, and solve business issues that threaten to take us off track for the quarter. I could talk for hours about how impactful this meeting has become for our business. When run effectively, it will change your business.
Running L10 Meetings
Here are some tips for running an L10 meeting:
Consistent Schedule: Hold L10 meetings at the same time and day each week.
Strict Timing: Start and end on time. The meeting lasts exactly 90 minutes.
Mandatory Attendance: All team members must attend, barring vacation or emergency.
Defined Roles: Assign a facilitator to guide the meeting and a scribe to record updates.
Focus on Solutions: Use "on track" or "off track" responses to keep discussions brief.
Issues List: Postpone detailed discussions to the IDS portion of the meeting
Continuous Improvement: Rate the meeting's effectiveness each week to drive improvement.
Sample Agenda
L10 meetings should follow a strict, structured agenda that includes:
Segue (5 min): Share good news to transition into the meeting
Scorecard Review (5 min): Check 5-15 key metrics
Rock Review (5 min): Update on quarterly goals
Customer/Employee Headlines (5 min): Share important news
To-Do List (5 min): Review weekly action items
IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve) (60 min): Address key issues
Conclude (5 min): Recap and rate the meeting
Download a sample L10 meeting agenda here.
Rocks (Quarterly Goals)
Our rocks are chosen during quarterly offsite meetings. These rocks are the most important objectives to get done in the next 90 days and tie to the company’s one-year goals. In the photo and analogy below, rocks are the big goals, pebbles are everyday roles and responsibilities, and sand represents daily tasks and to-dos. It is easy to get lost in sand and pebbles. But if those go in the jar first, there is not enough room for the big goals. If the big goals are focused on and completed first, there ends up being room in the jar for pebbles and sand as well. Rocks have SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals and clear end dates to ensure they are measurable and will move the business forward.
🚨 Issues
There are two types of issues that often come up:
Short-term issues that must be solved within the next 90 days.
OR
Long-term issues that should be solved but can be solved after 90 days.
Being able to distinguish between these types of issues, documenting them so they are not lost, and prioritizing them will help the business run more smoothly.
During the weekly L10 Meeting mentioned above, the leadership team will prioritize issues that are short-term and need to be solved this quarter. Long-term issues can be reviewed at the quarterly offsite meeting to determine if it is still a longer term issue, or should now be prioritized given what is important for the next 90 days.
Many issues can be boiled down to a people or process issue.
👥 People
The last component, but certainly not the least, is about People! People are the lifeblood of your organization. A company cannot hit their goals without having great people. One tool EOS offers around people includes something they call the People Analyzer™ which ensures that you have the right people who meet your company values AND that they are in the right seats at the company (they get it, want it, and have the capacity for that role.)
EOS and the Chief of Staff Role
At the end of the day, the Entrepreneurial Operating System is a powerful tool for any business, but EOS can be especially valuable for Chiefs of Staff who often play a role as organizational integrators.
As a Chief of Staff, you're the essential counterpart to the executive visionary, helping to make that vision a reality. The EOS framework gives you a ready-made set of tools to focus on getting the right people in the right seats to drive execution, remove bottlenecks, and integrate all the moving parts.
Whether your organization formally adopts EOS or not, understanding its principles and applying them judiciously can empower Chiefs of Staff to be more effective in their role.
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It looks like I have some more homework in the EOS methodology. I wonder how the Principle has a 90-minute window of time. I imagine that you have to disrupt the calendar in the short term to get the bandwidth to have this meeting fixed as one con to a full L10 meeting. However, the payoff likely would outweigh the cons.