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Both long-term and short-term pain require suffering. Remember the “36 hours of pain” rule, and solve your problem now rather than later.
The Issues Solving Track always follows the three steps: identify, discuss, and solve.
was asked the secret of his success, he gave a one-word answer: consistency. That means consistency works.
Nothing can be fine-tuned until it’s first consistent.
A typical organization operates through a handful of core processes. How these processes work together is its unique system.
work on systemizing their businesses. In many organizations, people do their jobs however they want, resulting in tremendous inefficiencies and inconsistencies being embedded in the system.
Many of them are just plain afraid to uncover what’s really going on. They cross their fingers and hope that the company will keep chugging along.
Your core processes typically include the following: The HR process
The marketing process
The sales process
The operations processes
The accounting process
The customer-retention process
No matter how many core processes you have, you need to identify the ones that address every activity going on in the business. Then list them in one document and make sure that your leadership team is 100 percent on the same page
The person that is accountable for a certain process takes charge of documenting it.
each of the 100 procedures suddenly took on meaning because it became a part of one of their seven core processes.
When documenting the processes, you should follow the 20/80 rule. That means document the 20 percent that produces 80 percent of the results. In other words, document at a very high level. You should not be creating a 500-page document.
Festering problems then blow up weeks or months down the road. In the heat of the uproar, you treat the symptom and not the root cause,
Checklists have been an extremely effective tool for my clients to create consistency, quality control, and repeatable results. Please consider this heavily when documenting your core processes. There’s a reason pilots and health care professionals use them. Countless studies have shown the considerable difference between using them or not. Use them for proposals, events, project management, and account management, to name a few.
The other reason you must document and simplify your processes is that your business has to become self-sustaining. It has to be able to run without you.
Your Way is now ready to use for reference and training.
you’re closing in on achieving your destination.
Gaining traction means making your vision a reality. At this moment, your vision is crystal clear, you have the right people in the
right seats, you’re managing data, you’re solving your issues, and you’ve defined your Way of doing business and everyone is following it. Now you’re ready to master organizational traction, the final piece of the puzzle.
The ability to create accountability and discipline, and then execute, is the area of greatest weakness in most organizations.
What usually holds an organization back is the fear of creating this discomfort.
“Now we are getting ahead of the problems and pushing into prediction and working on our systems. We have more time to work forward, not deal with past problems.”
With a clear long-term vision in place, you’re ready to establish short-term priorities that contribute to achieving your vision. You will establish the three to seven most important priorities for the company, the ones that must be done in the next 90 days. Those priorities are called Rocks.
That’s why you create a 90-Day World. Rather than be overwhelmed by the monumental task of accomplishing your vision, this allows you to break it down into bite-size chunks called Rocks and focus on making it to the stick.
Less is always better, and a few priorities are better than many. Do less, accomplish more.
The process works like this: Your team meets for a full day every 90 days. You review your vision, and then determine what the Rocks are for the organization for the next 90-day period to keep you on track for your vision.
A Rock is specific, measurable, and attainable.
When more than one person is accountable for a Rock, no one is accountable.
Once the priorities are set for this quarter, no new priorities can be added!
Share the company Rocks with the entire organization.
Every quarter you should meet with the entire organization for your state-of-the-company meeting for no more than 45 minutes to share successes, progress, and the V/TO and to unveil the company Rocks for the quarter. Remember, people sometimes have to hear something seven times before they really hear it for the first time, and this is one of the ways they will ultimately share the vision.
Please note that while the company and leadership team members should have three to seven Rocks, everyone else in the company should have one to three.
As a part of your vision, you created a three-year picture. After that came a one-year plan and now a 90-Day World,
The 90-day idea stems from a natural phenomenon—that human beings stumble, get off track, and lose focus roughly every 90 days. To address this aspect of human nature, you must implement a routine throughout the entire organization that creates a 90-Day World.
If you don’t continue to align quarterly, your organization will fragment to the point that you will get far off track, you will start to lose great people, you will lose sight of your vision, and you will end up right back where you started—in chaos. To repeat, 90 days is about as long as a human being can stay focused. It’s human nature,
creating a 90-Day World for your company.
I strongly recommend that you hold your quarterly m...
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THE EOS QUARTERLY MEETING PULSE
Each person should share three things: (1) best business and personal news in the last 90 days, (2) what is working and not working in the organization, and (3) expectations for the day.
It’s perfectionist thinking and not realistic. You always want to strive for 80 percent completion or better—that’s enough to be truly great. If you didn’t complete 80% you need to understand why and learn from it. Look at the Rocks you didn’t accomplish. Discuss why they weren’t completed.
In an open and honest environment, everyone must voice their opinions if they don’t understand, don’t agree, or have a concern with any item in the V/TO. If there is any confusion, you must solve the issue at that moment until everyone is in concert.
like clockwork, you’re going to start getting off track again 90 days later.
“Why are we meeting again? Aren’t things going pretty well?” Don’t fall into this trap. You have to combat the human tendency to want to coast for a while and take a little pressure off.
THE EOS ANNUAL MEETING PULSE
Each member of the leadership team shares three things: (1) the organization’s three greatest accomplishments in the previous year, (2) his or her one greatest personal accomplishment for the year, and (3) his or her expectations for the two-day annual planning session.
