Your senior leadership team has mastered EOS. Now comes an exciting–and perhaps scary–milestone in your implementation of EOS: it’s time to teach the rest of the company how to do it. We call this the “rollout,” and it begins with a presentation where all senior leaders take part in teaching one aspect of the system to your employees. Whether you do the rollout to one layer of management at a time or use another approach, there are a few things you can do to make sure the process goes as smoothly and successfully as possible. Here are six keys to a successful EOS rollout: Make sure every one of your senior leaders knows the Five Foundational Tools and your Core Values inside and out. This means not just knowing the tools and how to use them, but also having a prepared explanation for each one ready to go at any moment.

Optimize You “Everybody needs a coach.” ~Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google I still remember the day I got my “ticket” to fly, in the form of my pilot’s license.  My flight instructor, with a proud yet knowing smile, said, “Your pilot’s license is a ticket to continue to learn, not a validation of your piloting skills.” I’ve spent the last 20+ years and over 1,000 flight hours becoming a pilot and I’ve continued my flight education throughout that time, working with countless flight instructors in order to obtain licenses, ratings, and endorsements.  To ensure that I’m the best pilot I can be, I’m continually working on sharpening my skills. Although I’ve worked with a variety of instructors over the years, I’ve always maintained a very close relationship with my original instructor who is affectionately known by my family as our own “Pilot Bill.”  Bill isn’t just a talented pilot in

I had the pleasure of working with the leadership team from Meridian Wildlife Services last week and learning about their business and humane bird capturing techniques. If you have a bird in your store, call Meridian Wildlife at +1(877) 680-7143. The Problem The presence of these birds in your store can cause damage to property, and their droppings may create unpleasant odors. Bird droppings can ruin painted surfaces and cause electrical equipment to malfunction. Birds may carry diseases, which are capable of infecting humans. Public Relations If there is any hint that birds are being harmed, it is likely to draw unwanted considerable criticism from individuals, special interest groups, and the media. Therefore, if you have a birds in a big-box store, you should make your bird control efforts as humane and discreet as possible. Big Box Stores Home Depot and Lowe’s Cos., which operates about 1,200 Lowe’s Home Improvement stores

Optimize Your Network “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” ~Isaac Newton When the Walt Disney Company added Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to its board in 2009 she joined executives, some who had retired, from Seagram, Estee Lauder, Twitter, and U.S. Hispanic Media, among others.  Together, they bring valuable perspective from relevant brands and industries to advise Disney on its strategy and opportunities for success. Sure, Disney’s a media powerhouse with the clout to assemble top names for its board. But why shouldn’t entrepreneurs benefit from the wisdom of a wisely assembled group of peers who can share their experiences from the perspective of a similar company size and leadership role? More so, how handicapped is the small business leader who does not have a peer advisory network? Disney and other public companies have Boards of Directors (BoD) to hold them accountable to

The Triangle of Trusted Advisors: How Multiple Components Together Prevent You From Steaming Towards Disaster Stormy Waters Once, when I was running Wave Dispersion Systems, a company whose primary product was a maritime fence designed to stop a Water Borne Improvised Explosive Device (WBIED), a bankrupt client refused to pay a large invoice. At the time, we were flooded with business, scaling up quickly, and we hadn’t yet dealt with a default. We wanted payment as well as controls to prevent a similar situation in the future. Fortunately, I was a member of the Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO), a global peer-to-peer network of non-competitive business owners from a range of non-competitive industries and backgrounds.  EO’s philosophy centers around confidential peer-to-peer sharing based on individual experience, known as “gestalt protocol” and not on “advice.” The magic lies in the realization that there is often another member who has expertise or experience around