Managing EOS® Into Your Company Culture
Cultural change doesn't happen overnight. When you initially introduce any new framework to your organization, there will be a period of heightened awareness, excitement and adoption. It's once that honeymoon period passes and you need your front-line managers to continue utilizing the tools that you may see some challenges. With the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS) model, bringing managers along throughout the process ensures that you will continue to reap the benefits of this commitment culture. Getting this right can mean radical change for your organization: proactive, engaged employees and customers who are raving fans. A lack of follow-through at the management level could mean goals that stagnate, slow implementation of the program -- and even worse -- reversion to poor cultural habits. Here are some steps within the EOS® framework that will help your Visionary and Integrator expand the culture throughout the organization to achieve true and lasting change.
Wasted Time, Wasted Effort, (Wasted Money)
These are two things that no organization wants to do: waste time and waste the productive efforts of their staff members. Unfortunately, that's exactly what can happen if you're not able to follow through on EOS® implementation to all levels of your business. Your managers are supervisors are the ones who are driving the daily culture of the organization, and if they're not fully bought into the concepts within EOS®, you're not heading down a path for success. An inability to bring your managers on board can result in a slow decline of the culture, where standards are allowed to slide and people begin to lose focus on the importance of sticking to the EOS® framework. The result: a culture where some see the value of EOS® while others are headed down their own path. Visionaries can become frustrated, and your Implementer may have a hard time bringing the team back to a positive forward movement without the support of mid-level managers.
Value of Creating a Commitment Culture
True change comes when every individual in
your organization sees how they are connected to the whole and contributing to
your three-year and ten-year vision for the future. This may start slowly, but
the shared framework for process improvement, accountability and
decision-making will ultimately result in superior performance. Commitment must
begin at the top, but filter to every layer of the organization and that means
consistently adhering to the schedule of quarterly reviews at the leadership
level and beyond. The payoff for creating this commitment culture is dramatic,
with organizations experiencing fundamental shifts as they focus on the most
profitable activities that play to the strengths of the organization as a
whole.
Thoughtful Planning, Purposeful Design
The EOS® framework provides you with a step-by-step playbook for building a winning culture, but that requires an ongoing commitment to continuous improvement and regular check-ins with staff at all levels of the organization. The quarterly Level 10 (L10) leadership meetings help keep your teams focused on the most important priorities, assure ongoing accountability and identify, discuss and solve (IDS) issues once and for all. One way that organizations who successfully implemented the EOS® framework are able to keep their culture on track is to schedule meetings with department managers after each L10 quarterly meeting to review the results and help share that information to each employee in the organization. In this way, everyone feels as though they're contributing to the forward momentum of the business and reaching the shared goals.
Bring on the Scorecards!
The executive level of your organization has scorecards for tracking goals, metrics, and rocks -- but have you brought this down to the department level as well? When your departments are also looking at the same decision-making tools as your leaders, you have a higher level of buy-in for each group of individuals. While you do have to be careful to limit the quantity of these measures so you don't become overwhelmed, having a few items that tie into the higher-level goals and rocks allows each team to see how the EOS®, model is being implemented at each level of the organization. Executives can share the results of their L10 meetings and department heads have greater clarity into what their peers are working on, too. Each meeting should follow the EOS® model to maintain consistency -- perhaps one of the most important words in the EOS® framework.
Creating a culture that is forward-thinking, proactive and structured does take time, but the long-term benefits to the organization are vast. Increased productivity, lower levels of turnover and productive, engaged employees are only a few of the ways that implementing EOS® will help improve your organization's culture. Maintaining a high level of awareness and increased focus on the importance of maintaining consistency is what will help you drive true organizational change that will stand the test of time.