“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
Henry Ford
In continuation of our blog series inspired by Gino Wickman’s “Traction” this week we will be looking at The Traction Component, bringing all of our previous exercises together. Our last post covered The Issues and Process Components.
The previous exercises we’ve done have all led up to this: The Traction Component. You’ve established your core values and vision, the right people are in the right seats, you’re managing data, you’re solving issues and have established your own unique process of doing business.
By putting this all together you’re seeking to gain traction on your business. Accountability has been established at all levels of your business right up to your leadership team and even yourself. As you might have noticed, doing all of this is far from easy, but the dividends paid by Gino Wickman’s EOS System are worth any struggle along the way. Setting specific, measurable goals plays a part in all of the steps and will play a large part of the Traction Component in the form of Rocks and Meeting Pulse.
“When everything is important, nothing is important.”
You should recognize the term Rocks from a previous exercise, the Vision Component. These are specific, manageable 90-day priorities used to progress your company forward. Rocks play a large part in keeping employees accountable. The text recommends recording a list of upcoming Rocks with your leadership team and then narrowing this list down to three to seven items that are to be accomplished by the end of a quarter.
In addition to the meetings in which you’ll set your quarterly Rocks, you should have quarterly state-of-the-company meetings. During these meetings, which Wickman recommends last no longer than 45 minutes, you’ll go over previous success and progress, reinforce your vision and address upcoming Rocks.
It is possible for meetings to be productive and not dull.
With meetings in mind, the next step in the Traction Component is: Meeting Pulse. Meetings are an essential part of any well-run business, and as a leader, you’ll be involved in a lot of meetings, so you might as well know how to make them well-run with Meeting Pulse.
The text says that we should view things in a 90-Day World, since this is how long people can focus. To keep meetings fresh and engaging, consider holding meetings off-site. During these meetings you should be reinforcing your core values and focus, addressing issues and reviewing the previous quarter’s Rocks with eyes towards the next quarter. To conclude the meeting, welcome feedback, see if people’s expectations were met and have attendees rate the meeting from 1-10; you should average around an 8.
These principles are to be applied to your weekly, quarterly and annual meetings. To achieve Wickman’s ideal Level 10 Meeting, the meetings should have a conclusive feeling to them, people feel inspired and they end on time. You’ve built up to this point by completing the previous exercises in the Entrepreneurial Operating System.
Stay tuned for the next in our blog series, which will be our concluding post inspired by Gino Wickman’s “Traction.”
“Traction” by Gino Wickman is available on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble and your local library.