Implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) starts with the leadership team of a business.

Over a period of 24 months they master the foundational tools, understanding, customising and embedding them into their day to day working practices.

Once that is underway, the next step is to figure out how to roll out the tools to the rest of the organisation.

How you do this will depend on the size and scale of the business, the geography and culture – and how quickly you want to adapt the tools.

Factors to bear in mind for a successful EOS roll-out

1. Number of employees

It is generally quicker to roll out in smaller businesses with10-50 employees, versus businesses with 50-250 or more.

2. Type of business

Depending on your industry and sector, and whether your teams are office based, remote workers or working in workshops, warehouses and depots, the number and profile of your workforce will have a bearing on how you roll the system out.

3. Geography

Whether you are in one region or working across a country, multiple countries, or continents. You may decide to roll it out in geographic area first, or by department within the organisation. All of this is dependent on the size and scale of your business.

Best practices

Regardless of how quickly you decide to roll out EOS, it is important to hold a State-of-the-Company or all-hands meeting. At this you share the company vision and explain the thinking behind introducing the system, as recommended on page 62 of Gino Wickman and Rene Boer’s How to be a Great Boss.

The meeting has three agenda points – you need to tell the team:

1. Where you’ve been the last quarter
2. Where you are today
3. Where you are going in the next 90 days

As you’re rolling out the system, hold this meeting once a quarter, bringing the business together or holding a live conference call. The team needs regular repetition in order to really hear, learn and understand the vision of the company.

Holding this regular all company meeting every 90 days helps create alignment. It also enables you to communicate the vision and priorities – we call them Rocks – to the entire organisation and shows them the EOS foundational tools. These are the Accountability Chart, Rocks, the V/TO and the Scorecard.

The decision about when to roll out the fifth foundational tool, the Meeting Pulse, will be made by each department.

Read more: How to run a good meeting 

This “Level 10” meeting is held with each department’s direct reports. L10 meetings have five things in common – they are held on same day, at the same time, with the same agenda, they start on time, and they end on time.

Additional steps

As well as introducing these five foundational tools, there are some additional things you can do to help with education and understanding.

1. Give everybody a copy of What the Heck is EOS. This is aimed at helping employees to understand the system and its tools, and explains clearly how they will benefit.
2. For team members who like to do research and educate themselves, there is the EOS app, which has useful blogs, a library and videos, and for people who want further videos, they can see the EOS channel on Youtube.
3. Hold an EOS Special Session, facilitated by an Implementer. These can either be by department or across departments with the mid-tier or mid-level of management. For example, I ran a special session for the entire sales team of one client, and for another client, I ran the Mid-Managers Workshop for their next level of management.

If you want to ensure you have a successful EOS roll-out, we can help. Contact us to find out what we offer.