What the Heck Is EOS?: A Complete Guide for Employees in Companies Running on EOS

by Gino Wickman

Has your company struggled to roll EOS out to all levels of your organization?  Do your employees understand why EOS is important or even what it is?

What the Heck is EOS? is for the millions of employees in companies running their businesses on EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System).  An easy and fast read, this book answers the questions many employees have about EOS and their

   • What is an operating system?
   • What is EOS and why is my company using it?
   • What are the EOS foundational tools and how do they impact me?
   • What's in it for me? 

Designed to engage employees in the EOS process and tools, What the Heck is EOS? uses simple, straightforward language and  provides questions about each tool for managers and employees to discuss creating more ownership and buy-in at the staff level. After reading this book,  employees will not only have a better understanding of EOS but they will be more engaged, taking an active role in helping achieve your company's vision.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Professional Development, Management, Audiobook, Entrepreneurship

168 pages, Hardcover

Published September 5, 2017

About the author

An entrepreneur since the age of 21, Gino has always had an obsession for learning what makes businesses and entrepreneurs thrive.

At 25, Gino took over the family business, which was deeply in debt and in need of help. After turning the company around and running it for seven years, he and his partners successfully sold the company.

Gino then set out to help entrepreneurs and leaders get what they want from their businesses.

Reviews

[Cecelia]

i had to read this for work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Rae . · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the concept of EOS. Not a fan of the many quotes to reiterate how good the system is though. They seemed like page fillers.

[Russ · Rating 1 out of 5]

The contents provided are not suitable for a book, but more for pamphlet(s) and implementation documents. In fact, it’s hard to consider this a book: if one were to write a high school essay using the font sizes and filler contained here, the teacher would either fail it, ask for a rewrite with more content, or some combination of both. Much of the content is also, hopefully, for any business or professional employed by one, already known—learned through experience or rehashed concepts taken from other sources.

There are quite a few anecdotes included about the successes and benefits of employing EOS, but no evidence to substantiate the claims. Given the emphasis on “traction” and its measurables (CH: 3) and “scorecard” or tracking weekly metrics (CH: 7), the lack of evidence provided of EOS’s effectiveness is unacceptable. The exclusion of evidence and measurables supporting the system is all the more damning when they include statements like, “More than 50,000 companies all over the world run on EOS” because that means they (EOS Worldwide) have quite a bit of data to analyze and share, especially if they are running EOS themselves. Most serious businesses these days are data driven in their decision making, and from this book I can’t say whether or not EOS respects that, which is particularly problematic here because it’ll cost money to implement EOS—a decision that should be made based on the data.

The last notable, negative issue of the book that I’ll discuss is the emphasis on “the Right People in the Right Seats.” First and foremost, EOS is a system designed for and implemented by a company’s leadership; subordinates merely need to know the basics of EOS, so they can more effectively participate in the system and do what’s asked of them. While, certainly, there could and probably are lower level employees that aren’t “the Right People in the Right Seats,” if your company is implementing EOS, especially if no organizational or management system was in place beforehand, then the people in the “wrong seats” are likely to be in the leadership.

Any manager that didn’t have a system of management, counseling, and/or performance tracking has a high likelihood of being in the wrong seat. Even more so, the person in position to hire and retain that manager, both department and/or team leaders and HR leadership, are likely to be in the wrong seat. You get the point: the person(s) responsible for hiring and retaining the aforementioned leadership are also highly likely in the wrong seat, so if you’re going to implement this system or something similar, make sure you do it honestly, else you’re wasting time and resources. Unfortunately, many implementations just won’t be as honest as they should be in order to get meaningful results, with certain leadership and officers primarily being interested in the bullet points that will go on their résumé.

If you’re an officer or in a high leadership position at a company that has implemented EOS, then I would give thought to providing the book to all employees. I myself, however, could not make that blanket recommendation, as just opening the book was like a disrespect to me—patronizing and a waste of time—due to the first two points mentioned above. Perhaps, depending on your employees, it might be better to use the Rockefeller Habits/Scaling Up system, which I’ve read goes into more detail and is a little more serious—it also appears that the founder of EOS was at one time a high ranking member of an organization created by the author of Scaling Up and that EOS is a striped down version what’s presented there.

I spent more time writing this review than it took me to read, comprehend, and contemplate the contents of this book. I’ll let you be the judge of whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

[Victoria]

I had to read this for work but I’ll be damned if I don’t count it towards my reading goal

[Lacey · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book I read in 2 hours because I was told to do so by my employer. 2 hours of my life I will never get back. Reading this was like reading a MLM seminar script. The system itself has a lot of valid points, but the testimonials in this book just made it feel like a bad hype man

[Cecilia Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is the definition of “could’ve been sent in an email”

Principles are solid but lots of filler that I flew through.

[Gwen Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

If there is one thing that drives me crazy, and that is when a book repeats itself continuously just to fill pages. Instead of engaging the reader, it actually disengages and causes a person to skim the pages and possibly missing something that is important. Just get to the point and stop repeating. I also found it annoying when they continuously put testimonials from people who were using the system. If I want to read testimonials, I will read it elsewhere. I don't want to read testimonials in a book. Overall, the concept is good. It teaches you to be organized and to manage your meeting times appropriately. Many, especially the older generation, have likely already put this into practice. I gave it a two because of those two major annoyances.

[Murph · Rating 2 out of 5]

This did not need to be a book. Many of the ideas presented are very “well duh,” and many of the examples are too obviously fabricated. The book felt more like an advertisement than an informational explanation of EOS.

We use EOS by having L10 meetings in our office. Naturally, I was aware of most of the contents in this book. I was not forced to read this book, which is likely why I feel so disappointed in its contents.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some good principals in there - don't bite off more than you can chew, work together to solve problems, etc. But it's so prescriptive that I felt demoralized just by reading it. I've seen systems like this fail in the past when managers and executives take the process to heart but not the reasoning behind it all.

[Kas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pure propaganda

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a quick read and does a good job of explaining EOS. I would recommend to team members whose companies have chosen to embark on this process.

[Erica Rowan · Rating 2 out of 5]

if i didn't have to read this for work, I never would've picked it up. they spent a pretty penny binding these books but couldn't hire a formatter who wouldn't do them dirty by splitting up paragraphs with random graphics and sample tables?

There were some good/interesting concepts in here, for example, the rocks being a 90-Day goal, but this book gives far too much credit and compassion to people in positions of power. they seem utterly convinced that higher ups will not take L10 issues personally and will handle those issues like adults. I have firsthand accounts of that simply not being the case. Too often, ego triumphs over productivity. I hope there is a book in this series for salaried individuals that helps them manage their emotions so there aren't more instances of employees using the advice in this book to address issues and then either being formally reprimanded or socially reprimanded.

[gulru]

been a long time coming but finally know why it's called a level 10

[Olivia Holloway · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished this a while ago for “work book club”.. not much to say… we use EOS sooo yeah! So corporate of me!

[Jill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this book for work. It is an employee manual for how the EOS process is supposed to run, so I’ll give it that. Much of the work is summaries of other people’s work without any expansion and points are made without any supporting evidence. Many of the statements made throughout the book are later contradicted, and most of the chapters are filled with statements from clients that sing the operating systems praises.

The worst part was when they attempted to say that all one had to do to achieve a large goal is to break it into smaller pieces. In the book they used the example of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson’s climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite, stating that all they had to do was to break it down into sections, or “pitches”. What an insanely gross oversimplification.

One would be better off reading “Good to Great” by Jim Collins as this is the original source of most of the material.

[Ryker Craythorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read it for work. Has some good ideas but only work if implemented by everyone you work with.

[Connor Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and helpful for the business I work for. The book felt like a sales pitch though, which made reading a bit annoying. That being said, the book does throughly make its case for this type of operating system.

[Ashley Zabel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to listen to this for work. Blah.

[Dana George · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn’t good or bad, just informative - had to read for work.

[Chelsea · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book reads like it was written by an eighth grader and targeted at a fifth grader. If people working in a corporate office are the target audience, then the book should at least be written at a high school reading level.

The book has too many “EOS is SO great” quotes and isn’t formatted well. Why is the font so large? Why are there extra line breaks in between each paragraph? Why are the diagrams and images so large? I’ll tell you why: to take up space and make this seem more substantial (and important) than it really is.

The book needs a massive rewrite to appeal to an educated audience, editing (read: deletion) of the vast number of testimonials, and reformatting to make it more visually appealing. Perhaps if the book were 50 pages shorter and written with the assumption that I am an intelligent person, I would have enjoyed it more.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wish my previous companies adopted the concept of a business operating system. Trim the fat from meetings, consistent way to think about what everyone as an organization and an individual is working towards.

My only complaint is that this book is interlaced with customer testimonials of the system. I don't care for that at all. Too much cheerleading for my taste. Otherwise the ideas are sound; the concepts well explained. -1.5 stars for the self-serving promotion.

[Madison Rowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this because my new job uses this system and I think the system is brilliant. I have worked for many different small companies and I think all of them would have benefited from this system. I am planning on implementing this system into my personal life with my family as well.
It's not the most fun read but it does a good job teaching the system and I feel ready to participate.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

My boss wanted me to read this. Good ideas. Mainly intuitive if you took any business training. Boss did not, so I see why he enjoyed the book. Now, hopefully, he will allow me to implement some of these things.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Assigned by my employer to all employees, would not recommend otherwise. But it does market a structured corporate system to maintain consistent standards and expectations across a company.

[H · Rating 1 out of 5]

First and foremost, this is a sales book. While it’s intended to be educational, it’s main goal is to advertise the EOS system, which means there are lots of fluffy stories of how so-and-so company made more money after implementing these strategies.

Secondly, most of these strategies are common sense strategies with fancy names like “L 10’s” (for a problem solving meeting) “scorecards” (measuring how the business is going) “people analyzer” (pretty much what it sounds like). Truthfully, I agree with many of the strategies this book recommends, but I feel the need to acknowledge that of many of these points are simple strategies many business likely used prior to this system existing, with buzzword names (which help with systems sales).

Finally, the strategies presented in this book feel mechanical and overly optimistic. Many strategies would be great in a perfect world and there is little account for human emotion and human error. For example, they recommend saying “tangent” or “rabbit” when a meeting is getting off track, but I feel that could be disrespectful and disregard the importance of what someone might be sharing. Or stating that using L 10’s will allow them to solve issues “once and for all” without mentioning that with human error, some issues might return before the best solution is found. The strategies are designed to make the business function like a machine, which can be beneficial for systematic problem solving and growth, but I wish there was more addressed on how to also kindly acknowledge the work of your human employees in the system and that even with this system, errors and imperfections will exist.

1.5 stars. I’m sure there are better business system books out there.

[Emi Faine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clear and helpful book.
As a consultant in a law firm, EOS was a familiar system to me, so the book was an easy read. I wish I read it earlier.
However, I don't think this book is easy for someone who just enter a company and completely has no idea what EOS is (even readers were explained and given a lot of examples, it's still hard to imagine it without building it yourself with your own knowledge and experience).
This book is not just teaching you but also suggesting a lot of questions to ask/ practice with the manager to build up the system, so you are supposed to know your value, your responsibilities and your rocks (must-do task) after few weeks of practice.

-----------------------
[Note to self]
Vision: Getting everyone aligned and focused on the same vision

People: Getting the Right People in the Right Seats

Data: Measuring perfomance and having pulsse

Issue: Identifying and solving issues

Process: Documenting the way you do things and being consitent

Traction: Accountability, discipline, and execution

Rock, pebbles and sand science experiment
Jar : all the time you have in a day.
Rocks : the most important things you must get done
pebbles : your day to day responsibility
-> before you had rock, projects are often talked about, but we always had problem getting them done in a timely manner, if at all. After we started setting Rocks, most projects are now completed on time. We've broken everything down into 90 day world.

[Ian Plumlee · Rating 3 out of 5]

First impression was to be surprised by the massive font size, handwritten comic sans-ish header font and goofy spacing everywhere, which makes this feel like a marketing pamphlet you'd find in a high school career center. In fact, if you removed all the fluff and quotes that try to convince you of how awesome they believe the system is, you could probably cut the meaningful information down to about pamphlet length and save a lot of time and paper and money. Is there some good information? Sure, but you have to sift it out of the rest of the words. Not terribly impressed with the book, but the system seems like a decent enough tool. We'll see how that pans out as my work gets deeper into it.

[Krista Sanford · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very bland. The first three chapters were just them talking about what they were going to teach us, instead of just getting to the point. The didn’t specifically name a lot of their sources either (“someone from a company” or “a receptionist at a marketing firm”). The quotes the did have were just positive reviews of EOS.

[Rory Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing in this book was original or shed any new light on best practices. It presented having a vision for your organization and setting SMART goals as novel ideas unearthed by the authors. That being said, the concept of EOS is a solid framework for running an organization and the “book” - more like a pamphlet with a price tag - did a good job of explaining it in layman’s terms.

[MJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never read a book about a system like this before, so it was very new for me. The content was accessible and straightforward. I do think there were too many different parts that are required for the success of a company. The goal was to make running a company simple, efficient, and measurable. They framed that up pretty well. I was pleased with the narrative breaks in the script.