During every quarter in their EOS Journey, companies are asked to grade their prior quarter (or year) and make predictions (Rocks and Goals) about what they can accomplish in the future. In a recent client session, the leaders of a successful, growing business were struggling with big variations in their monthly and quarterly revenue forecasts. At the beginning of each month and quarter, the forecast would be rosy and expectations high. Inevitably, month after month, the ambitious revenue targets were missed, and the team was left with disappointment, excuses, rationalization, and a feeling of poor accountability. The tragedy was that the team had experienced impressive growth, but they weren’t able to enjoy their success. During our IDS Issues-solving exercise, one leader of an important business unit became emotional and tearfully told the company founder and Visionary “I feel that when I give you forecasts, that it’s never enough. I try

In his paper, Principles of Scientific Management, published in 1911, Frederick W. Taylor stated: “In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first.” Taylor noted, just a few years prior to Ford’s successful launch of the moving assembly line, that art and craft had to be replaced by process for companies and employees to thrive. “Process is about doing the most important things the right and best way every time,” says Mike Paton, author and EOS Implementer at EOS Worldwide. Yet entrepreneurs often resists process with one or more of these reasons: 1) I’m not a process person, 2) creating processes takes too much time, or 3) process kills creativity. These are all myths. First, we are all process people. Just consider what you do each and every morning – you follow a process for getting up, eating, and getting ready for the

“Process is about doing the most important things the right and best way every time,” says Mike Paton EOS Implementer at EOS Worldwide, and co-author of Process! – How Discipline and Consistency Will Set You and Your Business Free. Leaders running their businesses on EOS® learn the simplified method for creating and documenting their core processes. First, identify your core processes – those that are the most important things that get done repeatedly in your business. These may include your HR, sales, marketing, and customer service processes, your finance, and your operations or delivery processes. Next, the leadership team takes ownership of writing each process using a simplified 20/80 approach. We don’t need an 800-page SOP manual. We need simplified, easy-to-teach-and-follow processes. We believe that you get 80% of the value when documenting just 20% of the process. Keep it at a high level with just the major steps in the process. Approaches

In his paper, Principles of Scientific Management, Frederick W. Taylor wrote: “It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured. And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this cooperation rests with management alone.” Your leadership team must first identify and document each of your core processes. Then you must all enforce that these processes are followed by all, meaning, anyone who touches a process must know and follow the documented way of completing it. As Taylor states, this enforcement is the only way “that this faster work can be assured.” Businesses running businesses on EOS®: 1) establish training tools and methods, and ensure compliance using 5-5-5 (see Iron Briefing, April 2022), 2) conduct an annual review of their processes for efficacy and accuracy (yes, your processes will change

The struggle to retain employees is real – too real, right now. From large companies to small businesses and across every industry, companies are faced with the specter of unfilled seats … and the fear that more positions could go that route at any moment. Empty seats can be the result of a number of factors including benefit packages, family changes, and career development. Yet one of the largest causes for employee retention problems often goes unrecognized: undeveloped leadership skills at the manager level.  Think back over your career or the careers of your friends and family members. What is the impact of a great manager on job satisfaction? The answer is obvious: a great boss has a tremendous influence on a person’s decision to stay in a position and give it 100%. Conversely, what is the impact of a less-than-effective manager? Job dissatisfaction, poor motivation, lower performance … and, often,