Took the train in this morning and walked the last few blocks in the sun. Felt good for about ninety seconds.
Checked in with security. Took the elevator up.
No hugs. A nod, and a handshake with a foot of daylight in it.
That is how I knew.
Rewind.
This team walked into VB1 carrying 14 V/TOs. Fourteen. And 14 people ready to defend them. You cannot run the EOS Process under those constraints.
I tried anyway.
Score: 5.
In the corporate world that’s a PIP.
In our world, it feels like a strike.
I couldn’t tell if it was strike one, two, or three.
I figured I got fired.
One-on-ones followed. Director of Ops. CFO. COO. President.
Careful voices.
Long pauses.
Then eight hours alone preparing for VB2.
And I did something I’ve never done before.
I built a draft Corporate V/TO in Claude using nothing but publicly available information about their company.
I know the EOS doctrine.
Teacher. Coach. Facilitator.
Not consultant.
The answer is supposed to be in the room.
Except it wasn’t in the room yet.
Somebody had to light the path.
So I walked into VB2 wondering whether I’d crossed a line…or saved the session.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter calls this the middle.
Everything looks like failure in the middle.
Not because it’s failing.
Because the excitement of the kickoff is gone, the hard work has begun, and every obstacle shows up at once.
9:00 AM.
Cold room.
Then the CEO stood up.
He gave his team the ten things that had to happen this year.
No hedging.
No workshop.
Just clarity.
It turned out everyone had been waiting for him to say it out loud.
The A/C stopped keeping up.
Jackets came off.
Sleeves rolled up.
Nobody asked for an early break.
The Director of Ops opened her laptop and typed for eight straight hours.
- Keep.
- Kill.
- Combine.
We weren’t collapsing fourteen visions into one.
We were building the Corporate V/TO that connected all fourteen.
Every section ended the same way.
“What did we miss?”
By two o’clock it was theirs.
By five, everyone was standing.
Standing ovation.
9.5s across the board.
Before anyone left, we huddled for checkout.
Four words.
Today we got better.
That’s the part worth remembering.
I didn’t save that session.
A CEO willing to be definitive did.
A Director of Ops who refused to quit on the details did.
I lit the path.
They walked it.
That’s the job.
No one is coming to save you.
That’s not a complaint.
That’s the work.
You keep moving when you’re convinced you’re about to fail.
Because the middle lies.
VB1 was never the verdict. It was just the middle.
Stay Curious,
JBS