Operations, part 3

“IN PRIOR COMPANIES I remember being bored in meetings and just doodling on my notepad,”  says Anna Braasch, executive director and integrator of local parenting organization Connected Families. “With EOS our meetings are always a good use  of our time. We’ve learned to fight for the greater good in a fair and respectful way, and that’s never  boring.” All of us have spent painful hours in meetings that just scratch the surface of what’s really going on in a company, while creatively avoiding the true issues holding a team back. The façade can make people feel productive, but if a team is unwilling to face their real issues, a company will ultimately find itself on the fast track to  mediocrity.

The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is a business system of this series, in the February/March issue of Upsize, I outlined the Vision component of EOS. Part two, in  the April/May issue, covered the Traction component. This final article in the series focuses on the Healthy component of EOS and the Level 10  Meeting. “Truly solving issues is not easy,” re- ports Braasch, “but it gets much easier when the leadership team really trusts each other.”

 Running a Level 10

A pure Level 10 Meeting takes place once a week with the entire leadership team for 90 minutes, and has five critical attributes: It happens the same day, at the same time, uses the same agenda, starts on time, and ends on time  (a template for the Level 10 Meeting can be downloaded for free at www.eos- worldwide.com/eos-toolbox). Here’s how it works:

• First, we Segue into the Each person shares their personal and professional “bests” – the best thing that’s happened personally and the best thing that’s happened professionally in the last seven days. This should take about five minutes.

• Second, we review the Scorecard, which is the five to 15 metrics that the leadership team uses to give them a pulse on the company. If a metric is on track, we simply move on. If it is off track, we add it  to the Issues List. Again, this should take no more than five  minutes.

• Third, we do a Rock Review. Each person reports only two words for each of their Rocks: “on  track,” or “off track.” Anything off track is not discussed for more than (you guessed it) 5 minutes.

• Fourth, we cover Customer/ Employee This is when people give single sentence reports on what’s going on that the rest of the team should be  aware. This should take no more than five minutes – if additional discussion is required, the item is added to the Issues List.

• Fifth, we review the To-Do.  A To-Do is a seven-day action item, and the list of To-Dos  is everything that was committed to in last week’s meeting. In reviewing this list, each To-Do owner reports “done” or “not done.” Ninety percent of these items should be completed each week.

• Sixth, we move on to This is where we solve issues using the IDS Issues Solving Track.  ‘I’ stands for Identify, ‘D’ for Discuss, and ‘S’ for Solve. You will  have come into the meeting with a list of issues left over from last week, and you will have added  some during the first parts of the  current meeting. The team then very quickly identifies the first, second and third most important items on the list that will have the greatest issue, asking “why” and digging down to find the root cause. You then Discuss the issue, debating possible solutions. Finally you Solve the issue, agreeing on what concrete action is going to be taken to make the issue go away forever.

• Finally, you Review all the To-Dos and make sure everyone has theirs written down, identify any Cascading Messages that need to be shared with people in the organization outside of  the leadership team, and then each person rates the meeting on a 1 to 10 scale so you can self-correct and learn to make the next meeting better.

 Caution and encouragement

A few key points:

First, the relationship between the Level 10 Meeting and team health may not be  immediately apparent. Here’s the connection. Team health is about a vulnerability-based trust. To be a great leadership team, each team member must know that they can be transparent with  each other and won’t be taken advantage of in doing so. This doesn’t happen  by Level 10 Meeting.

Second, Level 10 Meetings will at times expose individuals or  departments who are not pulling their weight or do not fit in your company. “If someone is passively sabotaging the process, then that person should not be a part of your team,” reports Braasch. “One person’s unwillingness to fully engage can undermine all  the good that comes out of doing Level 10 Meetings really well.”

Third, like everything in EOS, Level 10 Meetings are simple but not  easy. However, the payoff is well worth  it. Braasch reports, “Teams with a high level of trust make good decisions and make them much faster. It makes for a much more nimble organization, and being nimble is a key component of being successful as a small business. Plus, meetings become much more interesting than doodling on a  notepad.”

EOS is much deeper than can  be completely covered in three short articles. However, if you do nothing  but create your Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO), set quarterly Rocks, and run Level 10 Meetings, I guarantee that your company will improve. Best of luck on your EOS journey!