An Implementer brought me a client with a laundry list of complaints about EOS.
I read it and saw one thing beneath it all: the Visionary and Integrator were not on the same page.
The list was long. Scorecards aren’t landing. Rocks keep slipping. L10 feels off. Every complaint pointed at a different tool.
Sometimes a list like that really is a problem with the EOS Tools. Not this time.
This time it was Rocket Fuel. Mark C. Winters and Gino Wickman wrote the whole book on it. The Visionary and Integrator have to be on the same page, in the Right Seats, pulling in the same direction. In this case they weren’t, and every complaint on that list was just a symptom of the same crack.
So I built a term sheet for exactly this case. A tool to use to facilitate a Same Page Meeting with the Visionary and Integrator. Seven terms, settled out loud, in their own words:
- Clarity of Roles: where the Visionary’s ownership ends and the Integrator’s begins
- Permission to Overlap: where they want the Visionary in, and where that stops
- Who Owns the Vision: how it’s shaped, and who holds the final pen
- The Decision Rule: how they break a tie when they disagree
- Freedom to Run: how much room the Integrator actually has
- Protecting Trust: what counts as a foul
- What We Commit To: one thing each will start, stop, or keep
Dated in the room. Honored after.
The client agreed. It was never the system. It was the two of them, off the same page. Aligned. Felt heard. Saved.
This is what the Stay Curious Mastery Cohort is about. Not more theory. Built tools for the exact cases you walk into, so when a client hands you the laundry list, you’re not defending EOS. You’re reaching for the right instrument.
When a client hands you a laundry list, read it twice.
Once to see if it’s really the tools.
Once to see if it’s the two seats the tools sit on top of.
When it’s the seats, this is the tool. Same page. Same team.
Stay Curious,
JBS
PS Email me if you want a copy of the Term Sheet.