An Educational Perspective on EOS®

posted in: Education, Events | 0

On November 12th, Master Builders of Iowa hosted The EOS® Experience in Des Moines with featured presenter Gino Wickman, founder of EOS® (Entrepreneurial Operating System), as well as a panel of local EOS® users. This was a first of its kind event for MBI where we stepped away from the individual employee development training and took a deep dive into providing training for leadership teams and ultimately entire companies.

As I participated in The EOS® Experience with other members of the MBI team, I found myself entrenched in thoughts about what MBI can do moving forward to assist our member firms with implementing EOS® and changing the landscape of their company. At one point, Gino mentioned that implementation is at least a 90-day process, so what skills can your employees gain or improve on in those 90 days to ensure success of EOS®?

Personal Effectiveness

Some of the buzz words in EOS® that tie directly into personal effectiveness are values, goals, and targets, all of which require skills such as prioritizing and time management, and work-life balance. With EOS®, employees are expected to self-monitor and leaders are expected to lead while self-monitoring…these are skills that some individuals have and others need some training to get there. A lack of personal effectiveness skills among your team is a hurdle that could delay implementation of EOS® and, if not properly addressed, may lead to issues following implementation.

Customer Service

Are your employees all on the same page when it comes to your company’s target market? Do they all know and agree on who these “target market clients” are? From design of a project to handing over the keys, poor customer service is an area that can make or break a project, and if left unchecked, can destroy a company. At one point of The EOS® Experience, Gino Wickman said “never tell a customer what you can show them”… Is your team 100% on board with this philosophy or is there some training or mentoring that needs to take place to assure your customer service approach is shored up across the board?

Teamwork / Culture

If there was one word that really stood out at The EOS® Experience workshop, I would have to say it would be ACCOUNTABILITY. Throughout the EOS® processes, individuals are holding themselves accountable and more importantly, holding each other accountable. Whether we are talking about sports, family or business, there is no stronger act of teamwork than holding your teammates accountable. The trick, and it’s a big one, is to develop a company culture where teamwork is not only encouraged but required while assuring that every member of your team is 100% comfortable holding any other member of the team accountable.

Having spent the past 20 years in industry education, I can tell you that I walked out of The EOS® Experience thinking what was mentioned a couple of times by Gino and others: ”EOS® is simple…but it’s hard.” Like so many other areas of commercial construction and life, education can make all the difference. As you ponder when and how to implement EOS® in your company, I encourage you to consider the current skill set of your entire team, what needs to be improved, and what training your team needs to make your EOS® journey successful.