About a year ago, we started the process of implementing a management system named the Entrepreneurial Operating System/EOS. We decided we needed to make changes after we grew our company to a point and realized it had become such a challenge to manage the workloads and the personalities.
If you own or run an organization, can you honestly say that your organization runs great? That employees are super engaged? That the organization is innovative and reliable? Almost everyone that I know that runs a small or medium sized business answers “no” to at least one of those questions (and most say “no” to all those questions). If you answered “no”, you should consider EOS for your organization like we did at Global Vision Technologies.
After reading this blog if you want more information, feel free to reach out to us or checkout the EOS website at http://www.eosworldwide.com. There is also a book called Traction that covers the entire process.
The book speaks to the challenges ahead but states that creating an organization based on EOS will be highly rewarding. Throughout the process, you hear statements like “this is not a magic bullet”. Suggesting that you shouldn’t implement EOS because you think it is going to be easy or quick. I couldn’t agree more with that statement.
Traction encourages you to hire an implementer to facilitate the process of moving forward with EOS. We could have tried to implement without him but would have really struggled in many of steps of the process.
The process is overwhelming at first. In the first 90 days, you read and listen to 4 management books and CDs. You have three 8 hour planning meetings, and have a 1.5 hour leadership meetings every week. We were busy before deciding to implement EOS. It ended up being about 50 hours a person in the first 90 days. We have a 5 person leadership team. From the outside, this looks like 250 hours was lost in a single quarter.
The truth is that there was nothing more important that we should have been doing. In the past year, we have matured in ways that I haven’t seen in the past 15 years. When people say they are going to get something done, it gets done. Our employees are super engaged. They have goals and are measured weekly on their progress. Everyone holds each other accountable. Our projects are going smoother and employees know what is expected of them.
We now hire and evaluate all members of the company based on our core values. We had a feeling about what our core values were before starting with EOS but never voiced how important they were. Because everyone is evaluated based on core values, everyone at the company now knows and understand the values.
When people interview with us, we tell them our values and they must relate and embrace them, or we discontinue the interview process. Think of your favorite/best/most reliable employee… Now imagine that your whole organization is made up of clones of that person. By hiring and evaluating people based on our seven core values, that is exactly what we are doing at GVT.
I would like to end this blog with a list of our values. I put them out so you can see how powerful they are. They aren’t aspirational values that don’t mean anything. These are the values that every single employee embraces. Every time I read them, I think of how the values describe each player on our team.
If you read our core values and get excited and aren’t a current employee or aren’t a customer of ours, you should reach out to us because you align with us and when people and organizations align great things happen.
Core Values
Be a Sis-Bro - We act like a family in the truest sense which means we are there for each other, always.
Closing the Loop - We follow issues all the way to the end. We own it. Keeping our fingers on it even if we pass it on to someone else.
Humility - We all make mistakes. We admit our mistakes, we fix our mistakes, we learn from our mistakes and we move on. And we let others move on from theirs.
Takes on a Challenge - We are willing to dive into the unsolvable with enthusiasm and tenacity.
Empathy - We climb into our customer’s shoes and highly relate to their mission. Everything we do is designed to make their lives easier.
Meticulous - We strive for excellence in everything we do.
Self-motivated - We are motivated to achieve something because of our own enthusiasm or interest, without needing pressure from others.
About the author:
Kevin Morin is the Director of Network Infrastructure at GVT.
