If you have a Visionary/Integrator™ relationship, or you own or run a business along with one or more partners or co-owners, watch this three-minute video. What Is the Same Page Meeting? The “Same Page Meeting” is a simple, effective discipline Gino Wickman created to help business owners and leaders reach alignment on the direction of their organization. Our 600+ Professional EOS Implementers around the globe continue to teach this discipline today to help Visionary and Integrator duos get 100 percent on the same page — eliminating wasteful indecision and dysfunction within the leadership team (and beyond). Why Hold Same Page Meetings? A regular cadence of Same Page Meetings allows both entrepreneurial partners the opportunity to consult their counterpart one-on-one and realign their energy on hitting numbers, completing 90-day goals or Rocks, keeping customers and employees happy – and solving Issues. How to Run a Same Page Meeting The agenda is very simple – this short

Two epidemics kill cultures: end runs and unresolved complaining. Both waste time and energy, and are ultimately toxic to the health and productivity of your company. Luckily, these epidemics can be cured by asking a simple, powerful question. Epidemic #1: The End Run An end run happens when an employee goes around a manager to complain or get a better/different answer to his or her problem. At the conclusion of the end run, if you don’t ask the question, you’re going to start the spread of a plague in your organization. If you’re the recipient of the end run, you can listen and coach, but you should never make a decision. When you decide, you cut the manager in question off at the knees and leave him or her powerless to do the job he or she is there to do. Listen carefully, and at the end of the conversation, ask the question.

One of my favorite Gino Wickman quotations describes the goal of strengthening the Process Component™ in an entrepreneurial company. According to Gino, you must “systemize the predictable so you can humanize the exceptional.” Breaking that quotation down gets right to the heart of why strengthening the Process Component is so important, and why it’s different in an entrepreneurial company than it might be in a big corporation. If you’re implementing EOS® right now and you’ve been less than enthusiastic about strengthening the Process Component, I think it might also re-energize you. “Systemize the Predictable” When most entrepreneurs think of “documenting processes,” the reaction ranges from yawning to eye-rolling to nausea. Most imagine a 500-page SOP Manual, documenting 100% of the steps in 100% of a company’s processes in order to ensure employees are 100% compliant. That’s a bureaucracy – full of red tape, inflexibility, and people who just follow the rules.

Those familiar with EOS know that an Accountability Chart crystallizes roles and responsibilities for everyone in the organization. It’s built by focusing first on the right structure for the organization – identifying the major functions (seats) necessary to execute on the company’s vision over the next 6-12 months and then carefully defining the five roles the owner of each seat must obsess about every day to be successful. Only then can you focus on getting the right people in the right seats. It’s a simple tool that clearly defines the things for which every single person in the organization is accountable. Last week, after nearly 500 full-day sessions with the leadership teams of more than 65 entrepreneurial companies, something hit me for the first time. I’ve become quite familiar with the power of defining someone’s accountability clearly, with just a handful of words. I’ve seen dozens of teams, hundreds of leaders and thousands

When helping an entrepreneurial leadership team clarify, simplify, and achieve its Vision, we use a tool called the V/TO™ (Vision/Traction Organizer™). This EOS Foundational Tool™ contains eight questions, and our job as EOS Implementers™ is to get every member of the leadership team to agree on every word of the answers to each of those questions. When there’s weakness in the Vision component of your organization, it’s not that there’s no Vision. Often there’s too much Vision – you don’t all agree. Each leader has a slightly different view of where you’re going, how you plan to get there, what’s most important right now, and who’s going to do what. That’s why the V/TO is so important – because until your leadership team is 100% on the same page with the company’s Vision, it’s impossible to get the rest of your team members to see, understand, and truly want to help you achieve it.

After a full and productive Annual Season with my clients, I’m always left reflecting on some common themes. This year, what resonated most was the relationship between members of a leadership team and a company’s Issues List. That reflection led me to a question every leader should ask: “What verb describes how I most frequently impact our company’s Issues List?” The only great answer to that question is “Solve.” Put simply, great leaders and managers solve issues. They’re comfortable raising their hands and admitting they have an issue. They’re good at IDS™ing it – identifying its root cause, discussing it briefly, and then solving it by agreeing on a plan of attack that will make the issue go away for the long-term, greater good of the organization. Sub-par leaders seem to be good at everything but that. They hide issues – concealing mistakes and weaknesses from their teammates. They create issues by not hitting their Scorecard numbers, not completing their Rocks, and not doing