Your company is using EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System) as its “operating system.” So, what the heck does that mean for you? Before answering that question, it’s important to first understand that every company has an operating system, whether it has a name or not.
That system is the way a company organizes all of its human energy. It’s the way that the people in the organization meet, solve problems, plan, prioritize, follow processes, communicate, measure, structure, clarify roles, lead, and manage.
It’s hard to understand the operating systems of most companies because the leadership teams aren’t consistent in how they do the above. This inconsistency leads to poor communication, dysfunction, and employees feeling frustrated and confused about what the priorities are. Ultimately, the company never realizes its full potential.
The reason you’re reading this book is because your leadership team wants everyone in your organization to understand how EOS works, to see the value of its structure, and to help them implement it.
Why one operating system? The short answer is that everyone doing it their own way in an organization can’t work. You can’t have a company where everyone can set the priorities, meet the way they want to meet, and use different terminology.
If you have 50 people doing everything 50 different ways, the increased complexity leads to mass chaos. Even worse, people experience incredible confusion and frustration. Simply put, you can’t build a great company on multiple operating systems—you must choose one.
For instance, at an IT services company in Atlanta, every project was managed differently because each project manager led their project their own way. When employees moved from one project to the next, they had to learn a whole new project management system with different reporting, status updates, and meeting structures. As a result, they wasted a lot of time trying to learn a new system—time that should have been spent serving clients. Due to this inconsistent approach, people grew frustrated, and the company started losing clients, employees, and money.
The truth is, a team of average people running their company on one operating system will outperform a team of high achievers, each doing it their own way, every day of the week. That is why your company needs a clearly stated operating system that everyone follows.
So, why this operating system? Because it works. More than 50,000 companies all over the world run on EOS. It’s a complete, simple, and powerful operating system. It helps companies grow to achieve their vision and goals more effectively.
It also gives the employees of those companies a well-defined structure in which they can grow, feel more fulfilled in their work, and achieve their personal goals. It helps them feel more “in-the-know” about what’s going on. When you understand what the priorities of the company are, it helps you play your part in achieving them.
As Kathleen Watts, an account manager at PMMC, put it, “Before EOS, I didn’t have a lot of insight into the bigger picture. Communication from management was not streamlined. Now we’re much more aligned as an organization, and I know what we are trying to do and how I can help.”
EOS also saves time. When everyone in your organization is rowing in the same direction, you’ll find that you are communicating better. EOS eliminates unhealthy and time-wasting activities due to miscommunication. Down the road, that means avoiding train wrecks that can cost your company tons of money and cause you lots of headaches.
At a Connecticut technology firm, meetings would go for hours and hours without anything ever getting resolved. The CEO said, “Once we implemented EOS, we stopped wasting time with unnecessary meetings. We’re getting more done and are communicating more effectively with our employees. They’ve told me that as a company, we make a lot fewer mistakes and now solve problems before they become major disasters.”
EOS is specifically designed for a 10 to 250 person entrepreneurial company that is open-minded and growth-oriented. In our experience, this is where EOS has the most impact. While it works for companies larger and smaller, this is the true sweet spot for EOS.
As a part of implementing EOS, you will notice that the leadership team of your organization goes off-site occasionally for full-day working sessions. They do this to get 100 percent in sync and on the same page with one another. When away from the office, they work hard to solve all of the high-level issues facing your company and to set quarterly priorities. This ensures that the entire organization can stay laser-focused on achieving your company vision.
Business is hard—that’s reality. With constantly changing technology, competition trying to crush you, and demanding customers and clients, your leadership team has to wrestle with 136 issues at any given time. They can’t succeed without great people throughout your organization. They can’t do it without you.
It’s also important that you know you can’t do it alone. You need a team that you can depend on and that can depend on you. If you’ve been thinking, “What’s in it for me?” that’s fair and understandable. The short answer is that EOS will help you to work more effectively, with less frustration and a clearer understanding of the connection between your efforts and the success of your company.
As one employee said, “EOS helped me really understand where I fit in the company and how I impact everyone else. We have a great team, and it is fun to work here.”
You may be thinking that implementing EOS in your organization sounds rigid, will stifle creativity, and will rob you of your uniqueness. Actually, just the opposite happens. Just as a computer’s operating system is an underlying framework that helps you be more productive, EOS will do the same for you and your organization. Its underlying framework will magnify your unique contribution and help you be more productive.
So now that you know why your company is implementing EOS, let’s begin the journey, because that’s what this is. EOS is not a project with a specific end date. Implementing EOS in your company is an ongoing, lifelong effort. Many companies have been running on EOS for more than 10 years.
To start the journey with your company, first you need to understand the big picture, which we will describe in Chapter 2. Then, in Chapters 3–7 we will share the 5 foundational tools that form the backbone of EOS. Finally, in Chapter 8, we will share a few bonus tools that will be the icing on the cake.