Just about every business owner has been exposed to the idea of a “business operating system” like EOS (aka, the “Entrepreneurial Operating System” introduced by Gino Wickman in his book Traction) or Scaling Up (first introduced by Verne Harnish in his book The Rockefeller Habits). Maybe you’ve read one of the books or you’ve attempted to self-implement some of the thinking. If not, this article from Inc. magazine {link to: https://www.inc.com/lee-colan/building-your-business-operating-system.html} does a good job of explaining the idea. At its core a business operating system describes how you do business. It marries big picture concepts (like future vision, core values, growth goals) with operational necessities (proprietary processes, roles and responsibilities) and translates them into executable plans (yearly, quarterly, and weekly activities).

In my 10+ years leading a successful marketing agency, I’ve started (and stopped) both of the operating systems outlined above. In 2011-2012, I self implemented the thinking in The Rockefeller Habits, working with nothing more than the book as a guide, in an attempt to drive growth at our agency. In 2017-2019, I did it again. This time leveraging the thinking in Traction and the resources available in the EOS Basecamp as a “self-implementer.” In both cases the journey was successful (for a while) and then ground to a halt for one reason or another. Looking back, I learned at least 6 things:

• Prioritize the leadership team over the planning process
• Don’t confuse plans with strategy
• Get meetings right
• Get rhythm right
• Don’t neglect one-on-ones
• Standardize on a technology

#1 – Prioritize the Leadership Team Over the Planning Process

In both instances, I focused first and foremost on developing the plan, working the model, and identifying the path to growth. Then, I’d do my best to force rigorous execution on the weekly tasks necessary to make growth happen. Looking back, I undervalued the need to develop a high functioning leadership team. A plan is only as good as the people you work with to execute it. High performing teams function with insanely high levels of trust. They say what they think openly and honestly. You’ll go further faster with a high performing team than a well articulated plan.

#2 – Don’t Confuse Plans with Strategy

In my first attempt, we described ambitious growth goals for our agency. We had a lot of details around the activities we thought would deliver that growth. But, we lacked a clear strategy for the business that would enable that growth to happen. A strategy describes how an organization creates competitive advantage. A plan describes how it will turn that advantage into business growth. In hindsight, it’s surprisingly easy to spend a lot of time and energy developing a robust plan of execution without asking some critical strategic questions about the very nature of your business.

#3 – Get Meetings Right

One of the greatest strengths of the EOS model is the idea of a Level 10 Meeting. Anyone who’s implemented EOS can tell you want a Level 10 Meeting is — it’s a meeting that occurs at the same time each week, starts on time, ends on time, follows a clear agenda, and yields a set of action items. Most planning efforts fail because they start with the plan. Leaders host two-day offsites to develop long-range plans. Then those plan die on a shelf. The brilliance of the EOS model is that it does the exact opposite. It starts with getting meetings right and improving communication. This, of course, leads to better planning processes.

#4 – Get Rhythm Right

This sort of goes with getting meetings right, but it’s tempting to let the important things slide. You know, I have a really busy week, do you mind if I skip the leadership meeting? This happens once, or twice. Then, quickly becomes a trend. You absolutely have to nail the rhythm. We have these conversations weekly. We have these meetings quarterly. We identify what we’ll do. We assign actions. And we gauge progress. It’s been said before, but execution eats strategy for lunch.

#5 – Don’t Neglect One-on-Ones

When I implemented EOS I thought we got everything right. We had a clear strategy. We got very good at the weekly leadership meeting. We developed a rhythm and built a plan. We drove long-range goals down into quarterly rocks and weekly action items. Over time, we got better and better at execution. Then, both the other leaders I’d included within the leadership team left the organization to pursue other business opportunities. In both instances, neither one even mentioned that they were looking or considering alternate paths. In hindsight, I had been substituting our weekly leadership team meeting for the regular one-on-ones I should’ve normally been having with a key person. My assumption was that the leadership meeting was designed to bring out all the most relevant issues related to the business. But, those personal career issues did not come out in a group setting the way they might’ve in a one-on-one setting.

#6 – Standardize on a Technology

Looking back, most of our planning work was a cobbled mess of word docs, excel files, paper handouts, and binders. At one point we even used a chalk board in our office to track and report progress of weekly activities. Information was spread all over the place, not centralized, and hard to track over time. In hindsight, standardizing all of that on a single system, like Value Scout, would’ve been a more effective to visualize everything we were working on and track our progress against our goals.

Get a Plan, But Be Smart About Planning

Every successful entrepreneur should endeavor to run their business on an operating system. It just makes sense. Both Scaling Up and EOS can be highly successful frameworks and communities for developing and implementing a plan to grow your business. Regardless of the model you choose, Value Scout can help you make that planning process more visible and effective by leveraging technology, particularly if you’re looking to exit your business at some point in the future via a sale.