← Confessions of an Implementer
Confessions of an Implementer
Why Hiring a Professional EOS Implementer Beats Self-Implementation | Bill Hueter Certified EOS Implementer
Loading summary
Transcript48 lines
- [00:01]
A
Welcome to Confessions of an EOS Implementer, a podcast by Talent Harbor. We share unique stories of EOS implementers and the companies they've transformed to give you a rare glimpse into the successes and the challenges of the system in action. I'm your host, Ryan Hogan.
- [00:17]
B
Let's jump in. Hey. On today's show, we've got Bill Hueter. Had an incredible conversation with him. We talked about quite a few things, but the first being that's top of mind for me is hiring and how to do hiring right. So there's all these systems and theories and processes out there. There's books upon books written on this. One of the ones that's referenced quite a bit and one that we used, it's called who the A Method to Hiring. And the interesting part that Bill talked about was hiring for cognitive indicators or behavioral indicators and how too often, and this is one thing that Hunt A Killer did, is we use processes that really look at the experience, the expertise, their performance, but it doesn't look at them as in who. And one of the things I was telling him is when we used to hire, the hardest thing to get right was we find the right person that has the expertise and the experience to be able to get the job done, which in EOS land, it's called gwc. Do they get it? That they want it, that they have the capacity to do it? The hiring mistakes generally that we made was all about a right fit and how do they think, how do they behave, how do they see life? And getting that right out of the gate is incredibly important because organizations are simply a group of people that are united in solving problems around a common goal, to create a product or service and make a profit. And getting the people part right is the hardest part. And the challenge there is where do you find them and how do you get them through the door, and how do you make sure that it's the right person? So we talked about that. We talked about the value of time. We talked about IDs. So hope you enjoy the show. It was an incredible conversation. And see you on the other side. Truly, I am really excited for this conversation. Like, you and I have known each other well. You just looked at your phone after you texted my old number and it looks like it was like 2019. And so you and I have been connected for the last five years, and I've grown a deep respect and appreciation.
- [02:21]
C
For what you do.
- [02:22]
B
And so I am really excited about. Plus, like, we both love flying and planes and everything else. So it's a match Made in heaven. And one of the things that I wanted to start off with today was the discovery in eos, or how you would use the OS in your own company. And one of the things that I read was that in the ninth year of your second company, and so I would love to hear what the second company was, you hit a wall. And so I wanted to focus on, like, what was the wall and what was the company.
- [02:49]
C
So the company was a company that I started with a couple of partners in 2001. It's not was. It still is in the legal industry. And the company headhunts expert witnesses for high stakes litigation. It was IMS Expert Services. Now it's called IMS Legal Services. And so we started with an idea. It's like the scene in the movie where there's three or four guys around a table and you're drawing stuff and you're saying, what about this, what about that? You know? So we hit on this idea of finding and vetting experts for high stakes litigation in the legal industry because we thought that that was an industry that could use that service instead of the paralegal always finding something for the partner. So we threw our lots in together, started the company, grew organically, no outside capital. We just hired people as we could. We learned the market as we went along because none of us knew the legal industry. And we grew nicely. So two of us came from big five consulting, and two of us came from executive recruiting. And we figured it out as we went along. So we were growing nicely, nicely nicely, every year. Every year, Every year. And we started to make the Inc. 5000 list. We made it, I think, three or four years in a row. We got to year nine, and then bam, we hit a ceiling. And the ceiling was, it was a revenue ceiling. We could see a couple of quarters out. Our systems, our processes, our financials were well enough tuned, and our business model was such that we could see a couple of quarters out and we could see that we were going to go flat. And we knew we needed to start figuring this out instead of the boat getting leaks and everybody starts paddling frantically. So it was at that point that we found EOS. Implemented EOS. And in the next five years, we grew by another about 75% and from 40 employees to 75 employees. And we had a private equity exit that is huge.
- [04:45]
B
And how did you discover eos? So you hit the glass ceiling, and then somehow this system, this book, something magically appeared. How did you discover it?
- [04:53]
C
So the way we discovered it is that our COO who was also the Northwest Florida Vistage facilitator, found eos. And so she had these great facilitation skills. She understood coaching. And so we said, are we going to do this on our own? Are we going to self implement? Well, we self implement it. And so now I talk out of two sides of my mouth when it comes to potential clients. I say 90% of people who implement EOS self implement, and most of them don't get where they want to go. So the other side of my mouth is, hey, we self implemented. We actually made pretty good progress. We could have made better progress had we hired a professional implementer, but we didn't. So Kathy found EOS and we implemented a version of eos. We had quarterlies and we did some of the weekly work. But I just remember this clarifying moment when I thought, there's a system to figure this out. We don't have to figure this out ourselves, we have to do it ourselves and, and we have to stay disciplined and accountable to it ourselves. But the roadmap is all laid out. We just need the guide and we need to hold hands and go down this road together. And that was that big moment that the great American dream came true. For me, this is what I tell my potential clients. And it was for two reasons. Number one, I had three great partners and I give them a whole lot more credit than I give myself for the success of the business. And the other is that we found and implemented EOS in the last five years. So Marine 5000 run went from four years after implementing EOS to nine years in a row. And at that time in 2017 when we sold, there were only a handful of companies that ever had made the Inc 5000 list nine years in a row.
- [06:38]
B
That's incredible. Your story hits near and dear because we have self implemented too at Hunt a Killer. And this was probably 2016, 2017, because for me, I was in a Vistage group as well and we had an implementer that came out and did the whole three hour session and it was just life changing. And of course, the day after Vistage, my team is hiding under their desk because they know I've got a thousand ideas every once a month. The Friday after Vestige, there's a thousand ideas coming their way. And we started with self implementing and it was like a 180 for the business. Like there was clarity and there was a roadmap. And what was interesting, and this is to your point of kind of speaking out of both sides of your mouth, because we eventually got To a place where I was like, well, we can afford an implementer, so we might as well just go get an implementer because I don't want to do the implementation anymore or like lead these things. And it was a breakthrough moment and we had Margaret Dixon as our implementer out of Boulder, Colorado, and she was like, what the heck are you guys doing? And like, we thought we were doing everything right. And so the company went through another transformation and went through one in 2017 ish and then another in 2019 2020ish. And you just don't know what you don't know until you get someone that comes through and has that type of perspective. My question is, when you self implemented, did your organization already have things that were like, clearly articulated? It sounds like implicitly you guys knew why you existed. Like you already had a very specific target market. It sounds like you probably had some sort of process for that because it comes natural with already operating in a niche. But did you understand your core purpose and why you existed as an organization before you implemented?
- [08:18]
C
I think we did to a certain degree. But using the Vision Traction Organizer gave simplicity and clarity to it. It put it into words that were in our head, that were more or less commonly shared between the three of us as owners, but not necessarily with the leadership team. So what the core focus in the VTO allowed us to do was to discuss and debate, get it in as few words as possible, lock it down crystal clear, so that not only did we as owners know it on the leadership team, but the rest of the team knew it. And we could say it succinctly and clearly and with great conviction to the rest of the company.
- [09:00]
B
That makes sense. And looking back, because now you're on the other side. So you went from self implementing at your organization, now you're a certified implementer. Like, do you look back at the self implementation and say, these are the things that I would do different?
- [09:15]
C
It started 12 years ago and ended seven years ago. And because I've dealt with so many clients since then, it's getting fuzzy about exactly what we did in our implementation. But I can tell you that we didn't use all of the tools. We didn't use them to their greatest effect. We didn't run our quarterly agendas and our weekly agendas as per what the implementers call pure, which is to say, just call it the right way to do it. So we got results. It got us better than we were. We were a pretty decent company. I mean, we got to 30 million and we were A pretty decent company and we had 40 employees and it was all bootstrapped. It was stuff that we knew ourselves and no outside capital. So we just figured it out as we went along. But. But those last five years made us such a better company. Here's what I tell my clients. Six months after we started our implementation, the rollout had been in effect for a couple of months. And I remember the day and I remember exactly how I felt and what I was looking at. I was walking down the hall, a hall that I'd walked down a thousand times before, and I said to myself, for the first time in my life, I am a part of a company where everybody in this company is rowing in the same direction, at the same speed, at the same time for the same reason. And that reason is the greater good of the company. And I had never experienced that before in either the previous company that I had started or all the companies that I had worked for. And that's everything from startups to Big five Consulting, Anderson Consulting and Deloitte Consulting. It was this amazing feature feeling of we got it, we're all in it together, we're all going in the same direction. That doesn't mean that everything is perfect, but boy, that felt great.
- [11:03]
B
When you say that at that point, six months in everybody's roan in the same direction, you've got clarity. It's this euphoric experience, especially for business owners, because all, or at least all I want as a business owner is not for me to have to work in the business and do all of the things. And so when everybody is doing what they should be doing, like it's just a well oiled machine did a part of that transition and everybody believes in the core values and everybody understands what it is they're supposed to do. Did that mean that you had the same exact team six months prior or were there changes that had to have been made in order to get to that place?
- [11:43]
C
Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know that I've really thought about that, but as I think back, I don't remember a change on the leadership team in that first year that was driven by the clarity of eos. I do remember a very uncomfortable time in one of our sessions where there was an open and honest discussion about somebody on the team. Were they right seat? There was no doubt that this person was right person, but were they right seat? And that was someone who was totally, wholly committed to the company and had given great service. And that did not change. We ended up not making a Change. So to go back to your question, I don't recall us making any changes at the leadership team level as a result of the clarity of eos, which is the exception, not the rule. I mean, of all my clients, most of them, I can only think of a few that have, at the end of a year, have all of the same leadership team. There's usually at least one change and sometimes there's a lot of changes.
- [12:50]
B
If your company was your client today and you were looking at it through the lens of a certified implementer, would your suggestion have been different to that leadership team as they were right people, right seating that individual, all the individuals in the company. Do you think that being inside of the company and having those relationships over that amount of years influenced any of the decisions that may or may not have been made?
- [13:16]
C
I'm sure that we would have made even better decisions in a shorter period of time because our coo, Kathy, was a fantastic visage facilitator, but she suffered from all of the same maladies that any self implementer does, which is, A, you only have one client, so you only learn so much, B, you don't know the tools to the depth that a certified implementer does. And C, you've got history, you've got baggage with all of the people around the table. So if somebody comes in that has no history, has no baggage, knows the tools, and has done this with 50 or 100 clients, your ability to create traction is going to go much farther, much faster.
- [13:59]
B
Got it. And I just wanted to commend you for the right people part. The fact that you had the right people ignored the seeds. Because first you do the accountability chart and then you figure out like, where people kind of fit into the organization. Like generally speaking, the right person, like that's the rot of an organization. Or that's what's like holding an organization back because people aren't all in on why you exist and the core values that they hold. And so the fact that you all had the right people on the team, there was some sense of clarity as to who you were looking for at the core, like how they thought, how they operated. So that's pretty incredible.
- [14:36]
C
Yeah. And I give 99% of the credit to that to our visionary. When you create the accountability chart, usually culture is one of the five roles of the visionary. Because they said it, they own it, they drive it, it's in their DNA. And it was in his DNA a million percent. And people were just drawn to him and he was good at helping us set right person and creating that set of core values. So credit to him there.
- [15:03]
B
And were you guys always building to sell? Like as you were putting in framework and optimizing the business and doing all of these right things, were you doing it because you knew that eventually this is something you'd want to take to market, or was it like, we're going to build this thing forever and we just want to make sure that we're optimizing the things that we're doing?
- [15:24]
C
So the context for that was we ended up with three partners. Myself, Ted, and another fellow named Bill. In terms of age, I was the oldest, Ted was five years younger, and then Bill was five years younger than Ted. So we were at different stages in life, not dramatically, but somewhat. My personal goal was to eventually didn't know how long it was going to take, but eventually have the liquidity event and sell. I think that was the goal of Ted as well. And with Bill, there were questions about is this going to be a legacy for his family? Would his sons be part of the business? Would any family members be part of the business from any of us? But my personal goal was to sell. And then we pretty much came to that. The three of us, we came to that conclusion in the last three to five years.
- [16:13]
B
Got it just to stay on the people side of things. You and I had talked a little bit about this and I thought it was a really amazing nugget. When you think about hiring the right people, it's one of the hardest things to get right. I think back to Jack Welch and one of his quotes, or one of the things that he used to talk about was at the pinnacle of of his career when he was at General Electric doing the turnaround. At the pinnacle, he said he got hiring right 50% of the time. So we've got one of the biggest turnaround executives, amazing business leaders. And he's saying his ability to identify the right person was a coin flip. When you are talking to clients and you're trying to help them think through how to get the right people into the organization, what are you telling them and how are you advising them on that?
- [17:05]
C
So this was not something that EOS either prescribes or describes. And so it took me a while as an implementer to figure out how to best apply this in eos. But one day it dawned on me that something that I had learned 30 years ago in Big 5 consulting at Anderson Consulting would apply. So let me explain the context. The context is we as EOS implementers explain and teach and coach right people, right Seats. So right people are people that live the core values. We facilitate them to core values and we help them set a minimum bar and a way to adjudicate that over time. But what we don't teach is how to hire people that coming into the organization who have those core values in them so that it's not a 50, 50 flip. And so I remember in the 90s, I learned this basic technique of interviewing called CBI, critical behavior interviewing, which is for a specific behavior, let's call it a core value. You describe the core value, you give an example of the core value in the company, and then you say to the person, take me to a time in your career when that core value was important to you. Where were you? What were you doing? What were the circumstances? What did you do in that situation where that core value came to the fore and what was the result? Whether you were the manager managing to the core value or the managee trying to live the core value. When you bring somebody to a specific instance of how they have or have not lived that core value in the past, then you gain a lot of insight about people that you're interviewing in ways that you would not have without doing something like that.
- [18:57]
B
So I love this. You and I had talked about this a couple days ago and I've been fired up ever since I heard it. And the reason for that is when I look back at all the hires that I've made, if they were not the right fit, three, six 12 months later, I would say a majority, an overwhelming majority of the time was because it was a right people problem. And we had used techniques from a book called who the A Method to Hiring. And it's an HR recruiting firm that helps private equity firms. And they've got this whole kind of step by step process. And we used it to a T. And I still to this day very much love it. But what it looks for truly is experience. And are they going to thrive or not in the role that you're going to put them in. And like, it starts with the screening interview. And the screening interview is all about when I call your former boss, how will they rank you on a scale from 1 to 10? And it forces the candidate not only to be honest, but it also kind of insinuates that you're going to be contacting these people for referrals later. But this doesn't look at the cognitive side of it. All this looks at is the performance side of it. How well did they do in these roles? And like, will they do well in the roles that which you present. And once we implemented that, we generally found the right expertise that we needed inside of the organization. And so the overwhelming issue that we would constantly have is everything else would be on gut, it would be on feel. Does this person feel right for the organization? All that is long winded to say I love that interview technique and to me that should be at the forefront of the strategy instead of experience. Experience seems easier.
- [20:40]
C
And here's what I love even more about it, which is when you're in an interview and you talk about a core value with someone, first of all, that is by far the exception, not the rule. When people go to interview at a company, they rarely get asked about core values. That one, but two. More importantly, when you start describing a core value, give an example and are asked a question about how that core value may resonate with you or how you've lived it in the past. What I love is that people in whom those core values live, they light up, their eyes get bigger, they start leaning forward in their chair, their body language changes because you are asking them about something that resonates with them and they're thinking to themselves, wow, this is a company that actually cares about me as a person and the things that I love that I want to see in my teammates. I'm getting a really good feeling here. So when you ask somebody about core values and ask them to give examples and it makes them light up, you know, you're hitting pay.
- [21:41]
B
I love that so much. And that's something that I wanted to make sure that we touched on because I think that's going to be a game changer for how I hire and some of the processes that we use. And I think that's going to be a huge nugget for anybody that's listening to this because fundamentally, if you can get the people part of this right, a lot of the other stuff takes care of itself. When you go out and you put the right team in place, the right strategies develop, the right problems get solved, the right conversations throughout the organization are happening. And I just think it's fundamental to business and it's why businesses exist. So anyhow, thanks for sharing your thoughts on that topic. You talked a little bit about the double edged sword of being direct with clients and pushing them hard and sometimes when getting it wrong, it hurts. What did you mean by that?
- [22:25]
C
So what's this subject about? It's about facilitation technique and it's about your style as a facilitator, as an EOS implementer. If I were to stand in a line of all EOS implementers and you were to put us on a spectrum of total nurturers all the way at this end and total drill sergeants all the way at that end, I would be to this side of the middle, meaning I'm not a drill sergeant. I'm not hard, but I am more direct with clients. So what's an example than the average EOS implementer? And that's something that I tell my prospects when I go in and do the 90 minute meeting with them. I'm more direct than some others. If that style doesn't work for you, don't hire me. Please don't, because it'll be brain damage for both of us. So how does that manifest itself in sessions? Sometimes a client discussion gets to a point where I see that they're in a tough place or they're going down the wrong road, or some time is going to get wasted here in the way this conversation is unfolding. So there are two ways you can handle that. One is you as the facilitator can start asking leading questions to help them see what might be a better way to deal with this, or you can just take them there, which is making more direct statements. Now, I totally believe in the philosophy as a manager to ask more questions than you make statements, but there are times when I'm more direct and I get right to the point. And sometimes that works with clients and sometimes that doesn't. And when it doesn't, sometimes it bruises relationships with one or more people on the leadership team. And I am always in self analyzing mode to say to myself, should I have done that differently? How could I have said that better? What should I have done? What should I have not done? But it's style, it's just style. So for everybody watching this, if you're looking for an EOS implementer, if they don't talk about their style, ask them, ask them are they a nurturer or are they more of a drill sergeant? Give them several spectrums to comment on. And the better the fit it is early on, the more traction, the more progress that the client will make and the smoother the road will be.
- [24:41]
B
This might just be personal preference. And so I always looked for the drill sergeant and mostly because I think being direct and it kind of speaks to that vulnerability component of a shared value to make sure that everybody's saying what's on their mind and you're bringing people into the conversation and you're talking about the right things in a way that is truthful and honest. And you talked about styles. And so on one side you've got drill sergeants, on the other side you've got more of nurturing, but you need a little bit of that drill sergeant. And again, I'm trying to make sure that this isn't like a preference, and I'm not projecting my preference, but I think you kind of need that with an implementer, because it's the whole reason that you all exist to me, is to ask the tough questions to get the team thinking harder. And I don't know if the team would think as hard without you being a little bit further to the right.
- [25:34]
C
I think you're right. In terms of will the client make more progress because they have a certified or professional or expert implementer in the room? Yes, because they understand the tools. They have the experience of seeing things that work and don't work. But to be fair, there are ways to be tough on clients, to give them tough love in a softer way versus a harder way. So there are terms for this. You know, are you a velvet hammer? Or is soft palate really the way you always talk? But in the end, you're driving them with insight that they don't have in a direction that will help them solve their issues. It's just a question of what's the style to do it. The thing that drives me, I think, drives my personality more as someone that's more direct, is I am very aware of time. I'm hyper aware of time. And what we preach to each other as implementers is it's quality over quantity. So if we don't get everything done at the end of the day and the agenda, then it's better that we've done good work than we've done all the work, and it's done not as well. I constantly feel this pressure of the clock. So sometimes I'm more direct with clients because I know I can shortcut the conversation, or I think I can get them to where they need to be quicker so that we get everything accomplished that we need to get accomplished. Occasionally it doesn't work out so well.
- [26:58]
B
When you think about your relationship with time, have you always been like this your whole life of just very cognizant of time, or is this something that, because you were a business owner for so long, like, you have a deeper appreciation for the value of time and the amount of progress that you want to make within that time? So was this a learned skill or was this just a personality trait?
- [27:19]
C
It's in my DNA. It has Always been. I am not a high fact finder. I get a certain number of facts and I say this to Linda, the love of my life, it's make a decision, move on, make a decision, move on. And I make a decision I trust quickly. I get a set of facts and I make a decision quickly. In large part because I feel this sense of not wanting to go over it again and again and again and again. Make a decision, move on.
- [27:46]
B
Got it. Makes sense. So when you're going through the implementation with new clients, what's like the most common thing you see where you've got to get them over that hump in order to like, truly start making progress? Like, what are some of those inhibitors right at the onset of a professional implementer coming through?
- [28:05]
C
I think one of the things that is hardest for many clients is in issue solving, which we use the tool ids, identify, discuss, solve. There are two parts to that that are hard for them. It is not the way they have naturally acted and spoken in the past. The first is state the issue succinctly and get to the root as soon as you possibly can. What do we do in a meeting? Generally when we solve an issue, somebody throws an issue out on the table or a question, then the person who states the issue, tells a story, gives a background, gives context that goes on for five minutes and what is hard to learn and is so helpful. And it gets back to this time thing of issue solving. Just say the issue is X. Just say it that quickly, then give the necessary background and context. But if you've gotten near the root of the issue or at the root of the issue, then you don't have to spend time in storytelling or context setting. At that point you're well in to discuss. Everybody can give their feelings and opinions and experience so that you can get to a solve. So that's sort of number one that I see. That is a big change that clients have to learn to do. And number two is for some clients, in that process and in other things, but especially in that process, they got to learn to be open and honest and willing to be vulnerable. Because it's in that openness and honesty and willingness to be vulnerable that the hardest issues come out and the hardest conversations are had about issues that allow you to solve them at the root so that they go away forever. And that's not how most of us think. That's not how most of us act. And that's a change in behavior that doesn't happen quickly. It takes L10 after L10, after L10 of Idsing and then hitting their heads against the wall. After 60 minutes of IDSing, they've only solved two issues or three issues, and they've increased their issues list by 50% and they feel like they're falling behind.
- [30:10]
B
I agree with you. The vulnerability thing, it's something that we were probably two or three years into eos and there were times where, like, we still struggled like we knew each other, we'd gone through war together, and we still struggled at certain points to like, call people out. And how I would always talk about it is like, this isn't a personal attack. Because this scorecard or metric isn't being hit doesn't necessarily make it your fault. It's a company problem, not a Tom, Bill Scott, Janine problem. What are some of the ways that you really help start to drop those guards so that people understand it's not about you. It has nothing to do with you. It has to do for the better of the organization.
- [30:53]
C
So this goes back to your previous question, which is, what do people learn different from their previous behavior? And for your example, the goal to a scorecard measurable is not hit drops to the issues list and it's brought up and that person can get defensive about it. And what is usually on their minds and in their behavior from the past is if I'm accountable for something, I have to make sure that I do all the work or I do almost all of the work to make sure that it gets done. And when you explain to them time and time over again that accountability means that you're accountable to make sure that it gets done, but you don't have to do all of the work. In some cases, you don't have to do any of the work. All you have to do is to oversee it and check it and make sure that things are happening so that at the end of the week or at the end of the quarter for a rock or at the week for a measurable that you can stand up and say done. And if it's not done or hit or miss, with a scorecard measurable, you can explain why. So if people understand the difference between accountability and responsibility for doing the work to hit the rock or to hit the scorecard measurable, sometimes that eases them off the ledge of taking it personally.
- [32:04]
B
That makes a lot of sense. You had talked about this notion of the gap in the gain for both them and you. I don't even know what the gap in the gain is. And so I'm curious, what is the gap in the gain?
- [32:13]
C
So the gap in the gain is it's a strategic coach book. Dan Sullivan. The basic idea is that for those of us who tend to think and say, oh, I haven't gotten this done. Oh, this is out of reach. Oh, I don't have what it takes to accomplish something, that there's a different way of looking at it. So the gap is if you imagine yourself just standing, looking into the future straight ahead. The gap is people that look straight ahead and say, I've only come this far and I only have half of this done, or I'll never get there, or I feel really inadequate about next week or the month after or accomplishing X. And in that situation, what you need to teach them and help them understand is they should turn around 180 degrees and look backwards and say, here's the gain. Here's where I was six months ago. Here's where I was a year ago, and look how far I've come. Yeah, there's a gap. Maybe I've accomplished a bunch of things that I had forgotten about, and maybe there's a gap in getting the last of it done. But to think about and understand and take pride and joy in everything that has come before and has gotten you to where you are is much more important than to look at the deficit of what's ahead.
- [33:33]
B
How do you help teams balance that? I think about rocks, and maybe it's something that's incomplete or maybe we miss the mark somewhere because it also goes back to celebrating the wins. As you were talking, that's how I was correlating that of, like, stop, celebrate the wins. Make sure we understand everything that we're accomplishing as we continue to move forward. One thing that I always struggled with was celebrating the wins versus saying we're not getting enough done and trying to make sure that those things stayed in balance. What are some ways to help out with that?
- [34:03]
C
Well, one way is our quarterly meetings. We do a rock review. How do we do, you know, hit or miss, hit or miss are done or not done at the end of a quarter and you go down through all the rocks. So the goal of any company running NEOs is the minimum acceptable rock completion rate is 80% or better. So there are clients that are just chronically below 80%. And I tease out lessons learned and I put them in front of them so that they see them and they're in their documents so they can see them. They can go in and look at them. And it can be frustrating to hit your head against that wall and not hitting 80% but what I try to do is I don't get on them for hitting 80%. I remind them of the lessons learned from the past, we add to the lessons learned. And I say you are getting there. Because if you look backwards and see where you were in the things that you've accomplished, so you have learned some of these lessons now you have these other lessons to learn. So you have learned stuff in the past. It is benefiting you. You will get to 80%. So don't focus on the gap of what you haven't done. Stay focused on the gain. Learn those new lessons and you'll get there.
- [35:18]
B
How do you know when it's truly not working, the 80%? Or maybe it's like two quarters they haven't hit. Maybe they're at 67%. I don't know why that number, maybe that always the number we were at. But how do you know when it's not the time to say, hey, look at all the gains you made. And it's time to say, hey, you guys need to step up, because this is an accountability inside of the organization.
- [35:41]
C
I think I've rarely ever said that. What I do is you tease out the reasons why they're not hitting them, you put them on the issues list and it's in issue solving in the afternoon where you dig deep to solve those things and. And eventually they solve them. And so I just remind them when we do ROC review in the morning, I just say, we get to the end and we say, okay, it's 45% this quarter. What's the minimum acceptable goal? And after a few quarters, more than one person chimes in with 80% and they know and what are the lessons learned? And we put the lessons learned up on the board and they're in the software, they're permanently. And in time they give. That's not the time to be hard on them. I think the time to hold them accountable is. It's not just the lessons learned. It's what are the issues that we're teasing out here that are holding you back? The. The time to hold them disciplined and accountable is in the issue. Solving that will get Future rocks to 80% or better.
- [36:43]
B
That's good. I'm storing that one away for later. One of the topics that I wanted to talk about was just because I love flight and planes and flying and things like that, like what correlations have you seen experience between flying and dos?
- [37:00]
C
You know, it's funny you asked me this and I don't know that I ever really consciously thought of it this way. But the first thing that comes to mind is we haven't flown together. But I think I know you well enough to know that safety is your number one concern. I no longer fly, but it was my number one, number two and number three concern. And unfortunately it's not every pilot's concern. It is most pilots concerns. So what's the analogy? I think the analogy is to fly successfully, you gotta do more prep work than you ever expected. When you first started flying, you didn't realize that there was a lot of root working out, there's a lot of weather working out, there's some weight and balance working out, et cetera, et cetera. And so what's the analogy to Eos? The analogy is that the flight is the level 10. Because in EOS, what I tell my clients, it's interesting, I use a different analogy with my clients and I say in focus day, are you sports folks or are you music folks? And sometimes it's a mix. So choose whatever sport. So I'm going to mix my analogies here because not everybody knows flying, but I'll get back to it in sports. Football game is one o' clock on Sunday. Just take that as a constant. Starting on Monday or Tuesday, the team is back on the field. They're practicing, they're looking at film, they're scrimmaging. Then the next day and the next day and the next day, they're working hard every single day to get to game time. And at one o' clock on Sunday, it's game time. It's the whole reason all of the work they've done during the week is the prepares them to have a great level 10. And so I tell my clients, your level 10 is your time to shine. You don't just complacently come into a level 10. You've done all of this work, you've worked on rocks, you've worked on scorecards, you've gathered headlines and you've added issues and you've thought about solving issues. If you do all of that ahead of time, you're going to have a great level 10. Well, it's the same thing with flying. You have better flights. When you've done all of your prep work, which sometimes it happens the day of it, most of the time it starts at least a few days before. Checking weather, figuring out alternate airports, making sure that the plane is fueled, all of these things that have to be done so that that flight maybe not flawlessly, but goes really, really well. That makes you a better pilot. It's the same thing in eos. It makes you a better leader, a better manager, a better member of a leadership team. If you do all of that work and you walk into the level 10, man, you are ready. You know where you are on rocks. You know where you are in your scorecard. You are adding issues, really good issues to the list and you have thought about issues that are on the list that are hanger overs and you've got some thoughts and ideas about how to help solve the things that are have been on the list for a few weeks.
- [39:40]
B
I love it. We're going to end on that note because that's an amazing note, Bill. Someone just listened to this and they're like, I need someone on the right side that is a little bit more drill instructor than they are nurturing. They love your story, they loved everything about it and they want to get.
- [39:53]
C
A hold of you.
- [39:54]
B
How would they get a hold of you?
- [39:55]
C
Bill Huether H U E T E r@e osworldwide.com My phone number 770-722-5412 One of my core values is help first, even if you don't become a client, if there's something I can do to help you gain some clarity and some traction going forward, happy to do it.
- [40:16]
B
Love it. Bill, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. Usually I have like two or three knowledge bombs. On this one I have five, so it's gonna be a longer intro than normal. So thank you so much for coming on.
- [40:27]
C
Thanks for having me. I really appreciate your time.
- [40:31]
A
Confessions of an EOS Implementer is brought to you by Talent Harbor. To find out more about Talent harbor and our fractional services and talent search solutions for businesses that operate on EOS, visit talentharbor.com and then make sure to search for EOS Implementer in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts or anywhere else podcasts are found. Make sure to click subscribe so you you don't miss any future episodes. And on behalf of the team here at Talent harbor, thanks for listening.