How Strong Is Your Organizational Traction®?

Few things are more frustrating than your organization having perfect clarity regarding trajectory and planning but lacking any form of momentum. You know exactly where you’re going, but you’re not getting there any time soon. Even organizations with exceptional business plans can lack Traction® (as defined by EOS®). 

Lacking traction can happen for several reasons. A startup may find itself quickly outstripped by the competition; they’re easily overwhelmed by flashy, established brands that are already in buyer’s faces. A new product launches with a price point that’s too high or a demand that’s too low; suddenly, the company loses its foothold.

Attempting to achieve operational effectiveness when you’re running at a disadvantage leaves you no better off than the proverbial hamster, endlessly spinning its wheel. 

But there’s a more insidious issue: companies who aren’t aware they lack momentum. 

Were you feeling confident before you started reading, and now doubts are creeping in? It may be time to evaluate just how strong the traction is in your organization.

Evaluating Traction and Operational Effectiveness

Whether you’re confident in your company’s traction, fully aware there’s an issue, or somewhere between the two, an honest assessment is a key to building success.

How can you effectively map a route to B when you’re wrong about where A is? Or still, wondering if A is even the right starting point?

Understanding where your organization is currently is the initial step you should take before reasonably attempting to move it towards your goal destination. That clarity is vital.

Making Measurable Progress Toward Your "Rocks"

Rocks aren’t a tasty treat you enjoy between meals. Rather, they’re a set of concrete yet attainable goals that ensure you have a set of 3-7 smaller, very specific goals that act as strategic initiatives for your team. They’re priorities, and as such, you should always be making measurable progress towards them. 

Ensuring company growth is more attainable and considerably more effective when you select small, critical goals and give specific individuals ownership of those goals while holding them accountable for achieving them.

Where many companies falter, however, is on the accountability side of things. Do you have a system in place that effectively and objectively measures progress?

Not a checkbox that gets ticked off when a rock is achieved, or even a milestone that marks the halfway point in achieving it, but a measure that can be consistently taken to track day-to-day progress.

If you’re not checking up on your team’s Rocks on a weekly basis, with quantifiable measurements, how can you hold your team truly accountable?

Executive Teams Respecting the Meeting Pulse™ 

One of the simplest EOS® tools for ensuring effective team communication and company growth is the routine established by the Meeting Pulse™. Held weekly, quarterly, and annually, it keeps all circles connected.

Miscommunication is eliminated while issues are raised and addressed promptly. Everyone is fully aware of what everyone else is doing. Each individual is on the same page as the collective, and the collective is crystal clear on objectives, priorities, and goals.

These meetings are the difference between the productive pooling of skills and resources and a train wreck.

Sticking to a meeting schedule can be challenging, especially for those in executive roles who may feel they have too much to manage already.

Time is, after all, a finite resource and when you’re pushing towards a big goal or struggling to stay on top of a hefty workload, that time seems better spent elsewhere.

Yet an organization with solid growth has an executive team who, come hell or high water, respect the need for a clear meeting strategy and stick to it.

Final Thoughts On Organizational Traction

Actual progress isn’t possible without true growth, and it’s so easy to mistake effort for traction. Therefore taking a step back to assess regularly is vital. Be honest, define the steps needed to improve, refocus your efforts, and get yourself back on track. 

Doing this regularly - even if you’re convinced you’re already on track - is the difference between mediocre success and stratospheric levels of prosperity.

Reach out to us (GCE) to discuss your organizational challenges and learn about our Integrator Services and the many ways we can support you.