Ultimate Summary: Traction by Gino Wickman - Get a Grip on Your Business

This summary took me longer than expected and there is a good reason for that. The book is full of gems so I had to pause every 10-20 seconds to write it down and listening to an audiobook didn't help.

Either way, I hope you will find this summary useful, just like me, and will be able to implement it in your business. This is what I'm currently doing and honestly, will try to do the same in my personal life.

The way I've done the summary is I broke it down by chapters and key points in those chapters. Should be pretty simple to follow. The book came with PDFs, and unfortunately, I don't have them, but I think quick Google will help you out there.

Lastly, this summary is more of a guide ("a refresher") to be used while you are reading or listening to this book. Feel free to copy and add your notes to it. And if you want me to make any changes or add to my notes, let me know please 🙏.

With that being said, let's dive right in.

Chapter 1: The Entrepreneurial Operating: Strengthening the Six Key Components

This chapter basically covers the 6 components to focus on in the business and later breaks them down.

EOS - 6 components are:

• Vision
  • Compelling vision and how to communicate it to people around them
  • Where the business is going and how its going to get there
  • Are the staff rowing in the same direction?
  • The clearer the vision - the more likely it will be achieved
• People
  • Surround with great people
  • The right people in the right seats
    • Are the people we have the right people for the job?
  • GWC Analyser
    • Get it
    • Want it
    • Capacity to do it
• Data
  • Data helps by not managing egos, personalities and so on by focusing on the truth
  • Managing business through a weekly scorecard
    • Give it to people to be accountable
• Issues
  • Obstacles that must be faced to execute the vision
  • Take the time to address a problem
• Process
  • Your processes are our way of doing business
  • Have we documented things want to be done in the organisation?
• Traction
  • Execute well, can bring focus and accountability
  • Vision without traction is just hallucination
  • 2 disciplines
    • Should have rocks - clear 90 day priorities
    • Meeting Pulse - keep everyone focused aligned and in communication

Chapter 2: Letting go of the vine

• Unable to reach the next level because you can’t let go of the vine
  • You feel frustrated, tired and can’t take more risk
  • NEED TO TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH
• Three Choices, you either:
  • Live with it
  • Leave it
  • Fix it
• Shift in Thinking
  • Let the company be its own entity
• 4 Fundamental Beliefs
  • Build and maintain a true leadership team
  • Hitting the ceiling is inevitable
  • Can only run the business on one operating system
  • Must be open-minded, growth-oriented and vulnerable

The 4 Fundamental Beliefs Breakdown

Building a true leadership team

• Team of people that define vision for the company with me
  • Clear responsibilities
  • Must be able to take initiative over their respective departments
  • Have to fight for the best for the company as a whole - be open
• If I want to grow
  • It is not possible to have a hand in all the services
  • And follow up on a frequent basis
  • Need to let others take control of the areas
• Each department head needs to be better than me in their positions
  • Give clear expectations
  • Give Communication & accountability
• Get the right people into the right seats
  • Let them run the department
• My job: Select people wisely!!
• First Rule of Healthy Organisation
  • Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team
    • Once the team is in place, each team leader needs to agree that the problems in the organisation are also his or her responsibility
    • Once you take responsibility, you can act to solve it
• As does the leadership team goes so does the company
  • Present a united front to the organisation
  • In your company can only be one answer
    • Need to parent to greatness

Hitting the ceiling is inevitable

• Organisation expand by smashing the ceilings
• Company needs to adjust it's existing phase
• Leadership needs to understand this
• If you are not growing, externally or internally, you are dying
  • Focus on internal growth before thinking about external
    • In the long run, it should compound and external will grow with it
• 5 Core leadership abilities, above all else the leaders need to:
  * How you apply these will determine if the company will grow
  • Simplify
    • KISS - Keep it simple stupid
    • Streamlining the rules & how they are communicated
    • Less is more
  • Delegate & Elevate
    • Be prepared to delegate and elevate the skillsets
    • When letting go make sure you delegate to the right people
      • It has to be tasks that you have outgrown
        • Opening mail
        • Writing email
        • Handling customer complaints
        • Writing proposals
    • The team can build teams under them too
  • Predict
    • Long term
      • Earnings
      • Forecasting 90 days and beyond
        • Need to know where the organisation is going
        • 10 year target
        • 3 year picture
        • 1 year plan?
        • What need to accomplish in the next 90 days to keep on track?
        • What to do tomorrow with what I know today
      • Have to work on the business more (strategic)
    • Short term
      • Focuses on immediate future
      • The ability to solve them affects the long term as well
      • Have to get good at predicting
  • Systemise
    • Action that revealed themselves redundant - systemise them
    • Need to identify what the core processes are and documenting them
      • Human resource Process
      • Marketing process
      • Sales
      • Customer Retention
      • Accounting
      • Operations
    • Have to work in harmony
    • Agree as leadership team what the processes are and agree on the way
      • Document
      • Simplify
      • Fine tune the processes
  • Structure
    • Need to structure correctly
      • Reduces complexity and improves accountability

Can only run the business on 1 operating system

• One vision
• One voice
• One culture
• This affects how we present everything within the organisation
• EOS Project System

Must be open-minded, growth-oriented and vulnerable

• If you can’t risk you cannot grow. If you can’t grow, you can’t become your best. If you can’t be your best, you can’t be happy. If you can’t be happy, what else matters?
• Open to new and different ideas
• Be able to ask for and receive help
• Let other people take charge if they are skilled

Chapter 3: The Vision Component

Do my employees see what I am saying?

• Most entrepreneur see their vision, and confuse that the rest of people see the vision too, but its not the case
• Clarify your vision
• Get everyone on the same page, problems get solved super quickly
• If can get rowing into the same direction, can get to win

First step

• Letting go
• Creating a vision for a greater good is important 👌 The sooner you can do it the sooner you will make better decisions that build an enduring company.

What is Vision?

• It’s clearly defining who and what your organisation is, where it’s going, and how it will get there.
• Goal is to get everyone on the same page

8 Important Questions - Answering these questions will get everyone on the same page

1. What are your core values?
2. What is your core focus?
3. What is your 10-year target?
4. What is your marketing strategy?
5. What is your 3-year picture?
6. What is your 1-year plan?
7. What are your quarterly rocks?
8. What are your issues?

What are your core values?

• It is a small set of timeless guiding principles for a company
• A total of 3 - 7 of them, less is more
• When the values are clear they attract like minded individuals and weed out those who don’t fit
• Once clear, use these values to hire, fire and reward the people within the organisation
• By not defining the core values, can’t know who believes in them or doesn’t
• Long lasting organisation
  • Have core values and build people around them

How to find your values?

• Your Core Values exist, they have just been lost
  • You need to find what they are and ...

1. Schedule time with the leadership team - 2 hours
   1. List 3 people in organisation
      1. If you can clone them they can lead to market domination
      2. Post their names on white board
   2. Characteristics
      1. What do they do that puts them on the list?
         1. Examples
            1. Competitive
            2. Strives for excellence
            3. Works hard
            4. Interested in self improvement
            5. Is fun
            6. Is fair
            7. Encourages teamwork
            8. Etc
   3. Organisation core values are in that list that was created in step 2
      1. Circle the one that are important
      2. Cross out the ones that are not
      3. Group the ones that are similar
   4. Tough decisions - which values really belong and are truly core to your organistion?
   5. Let them simmer for a month and then one month later meet up to review again
2. Communicate the values to the team
   1. Each value needs to be backed with stories
   2. Use “we always” etc.

What is your core focus?

• Core focus is your vision / mission statement
• the surest way to lose your diamond (organisation) is to
  • Get bored
  • Become over ambitious
  • Grass is greener
• Define Focus & Execute
  • When business owners get bored it’s easy to get distracted by new shiny things
  • And sabotage what has been created
  • By defining focus you will get back to clarity and excitement
• Decide what business you are in and focus on that

How to define core focus?

• Define with absolute clarity - the 2 truths - the reason for being in our niche
• Write down the answer to the questions and then discuss
• Don’t overthink, once the first question is finished then focus on the second
• Q1: Why does our organisation exist? What is its purpose, cause, or passion?
  • When it’s clear, won’t be able to tell what business we are in
  • Should be able to translate into other businesses
  • Also won’t confuse with niche
• Q2: What is your organisations niche?
• Use core focus to filter out new opportunities

What is your 10-year target?

• How far do we need to look out for as an organisation? 10 years? 5 years?
• What revenue figures do we want to achieve?
• Once figured then ask what the target should look like?

What is your marketing strategy?

Breaks down into 4 points:

1. Your target market
   1. Define ideal customers - who/what/where
   2. The geographic characteristics - where are they?
   3. The demographic characteristics - what are they?
   4. The psychographic - How do they think? What do they need & appreciate?
2. 3 uniques - what makes us different?
   1. What we doing here is creating Focus
   2. Not be all things to all people
   3. List everything that we think makes our business unique
   4. What do we think our customers think?
   5. No one else should do the 3 uniques that we do
3. Proven process
   1. There is proven way to the way we do our service and process
      1. Need to capture it on a single piece of paper and present it to our sales team
      2. It must have a name - "The XYZ Upside Down Sales Method"
   2. It will help internally as to how each process works within the company and how each employee helps with it
   3. How to create a proven process?
      1. Illustrate what are the major steps in process - give them a name
      2. 3-7 Steps
         1. Discovery
         2. Compare Results
         3. Generate Lead
         4. Sign Up
         5. Call
         6. Review & service
      3. Add 2-5 bullet points about the steps under each time
      4. Give it to graphic designer to design the process
4. Your guarantees
   1. What customers can count on us for
   2. Won’t go out of business with guarantee but will help us with a vision faster
   3. Forces all people within organisation to deliver it
      1. If not, then we need to improve on it
   4. How to select your guarantee? Commitment / Promise
      1. List what the biggest frustration or worries for customers when doing business with us
      2. Backed by tangible offering
      3. Must close more business that we aren’t winning
         1. If it doesn’t, we shouldn’t do it

What is your 3 year picture?

1. People will see what the vision is and determine whether they want to be part of it
2. Revenue
   1. What is the annual revenue 3 years from now?
3. What the organisation will look like in the 3 years?
   1. People
   2. Technologies
   3. etc
4. The picture must be visible in everyone's mind

What is your 1 year goal?

• 3-4 goals max
• Should be specific
• Related to the 3 year vision
• Has to be attainable or else can’t be hold accountable
• Goals are set to be achieved

What are your quarterly rocks / priorities?

• Every 90 days, establish priorities based on your 1 year plan
• This puts the organisation on track for the next 3 years

What are your issues?

• State them openly and honestly
• How to identify? (discussed in more detail below)
  • Obstacles / concerns to achieving the vision
  • Open atmosphere
  • No judgement

Chapter 4: The People Component - Surround Yourself with Good People

• Right people in the right seats
• The right people are the ones that share companies core values, they thrive in the organisation and are people you enjoy being around and who make the organisation a better place to be.
• Core Values + People Analyser = The Right People
• Right Seat = Each of my employees operates within the area of greatest skill & passion, and role / expectations fit within that
• Everyone has a unique ability & need to improve it, feels energised. Passion to drive further and improve
• **What is my unique ability? **
• Structure to Function Efficiently
• Accountability Chart
  • Unique Ability + Accountability Chart = Right Seats
• Right Person + Wrong Seat
  • He/she is there because they been around for a long time and been promoting them, cause we like them
  • In actuality, hindering the person's growth
  • Move out of the seat and move where they can be successful
  • If no seat is available, then have to make a tough decision & let them go
• Wrong Person + Right Seat
  • Person excels in the tasks and is in unique ability
  • What makes them wrong?
    • Doesn’t share the values and as a result killing the organisation
    • The person can have no values or lack integrity
    • For example, a really good sales person, but is shady
• Wrong Person + Wrong Seat
  • The person must go
• The job is to hire / fire the people around core values and their unique abilities

Right People

• What are our Core Values?
  • Now that we know, we have to keep them in mind
• People Analyser
  • List the names of people
  • Put the core values
  • Rate by +, +/-, -
  • The ideal is to surround people that are 100% + BUT this is ideal
  • Need to identify with leaders what is acceptable and what is not, then hold managers accountable to it
  • If the company has 5 Core Values (recommendation)
    • 3 +
    • 2 +/-
    • Never a minus
• The 3 Strike Rule
  • 1: Discuss issues and expectations - 30 days
  • 2: If no improvement, discuss performance again - **30 days **
  • 3: If still no improvement, he/she must go and won’t be seen any improvements - 30 days
• By reiterating the values to the people, the idea is that will weed them out before even getting to the 3 Strike Rule
• Need to be clear around roles, values, and expectations

People analyser check

1. People analyse each other
   1. If we are all weak in one value then we should question whether it makes sense to have it
   2. Someone on the leadership is below the bar - must follow 3 strike rule
2. Leadership team people analyse everyone in the organisation and have them share with you
3. Use in Quarterly performance review to analyse you by your team
   1. Don’t be afraid to put money where the mouth is
4. If leadership is struggling with people, run the person through the people analyser
   1. If its the person, then run the Strike Rule
   2. If its the seat, then… 👇

Right Seats 💺

• Once confident we have the right people, we get the right seats
• Abilities along with roles + responsibilities
• Seat cannot be created until the organisation is structured in the right way

Accountability Chart

• What is the right structure for our organisation to move it forward for next 6-12 months?

You have to:

1. Look forward
2. Detach yourself from current business, role & ego
3. Elevate above the business and look down on it to make decisions for the long term of the company

Exercise: 3 Major Functions in the Business - ALL MUST BE STRONG

1. Sales & Marketing - generate business
   1. Can split into:
      1. Sales Function
      2. Marketing Function
2. Operations - provides the service & takes care of the customer
   1. Delivery
   2. Project Management
   3. Customer Service
3. Finance - manages the money in / out
   1. Finance
   2. Admin
   3. IT
   4. Human Resources
4. Note:
   1. Only 1 person must run each department
   2. If more than 1, then no one is accountable
   3. When leadership teams do this exercise, they have two or more people in the same box.
      1. Only clear accountability will boost us in the right direction
5. Less is More
   1. No more than 7 major functions

The Integrator

• A person who harmoniously integrates major functions of the business
• Tensions & friction will happen between departments and the integrator smoothes them out
• Can be called CEO / General Manager / King etc
• Unique ability to run the organisation, manages day-to-day issues that arise, and integrate the 3 major functions
• The integrator is the glue that holds the company together

They are:

• Good at leading, managing, and holding people accountable
• Love running day to day aspect of the business
• Accountable for Profit and Loss + business plan for organisation
• Remove obstacles so the business can continue to execute
• Great at special projects
• They operate more on logic

The Visionary

• Has 10 new ideas a week, 9 of them aren’t great but 1 of them is what keeps the organisation growing
• Very creative
• Solvers of big problems, not tiny ones
• Fantastic with important vendors, clients and so on
• The culture of the organisation is important
• Operate on Emotion
• 5 Major Roles
  • R&D
  • Ideas
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • Relationships
  • Selling

When structured correctly, then the dynamic within the orgnisation can be magical

CLEAR ROLES & ACCOUNTABILITY

• Clear accountability takes the organisatoin to next level

It is common for a company to have a visionary and no integrator

• Visionaries are constantly frustrated with lack of traction and get pulled into day-to-day

Process

1. Create the organisation structure first with major roles in each function
2. Then put the right people in the right seats

Communication

• Should flow freely between departments and be open
• There shouldn’t be silos or division between team

GWC

• Get it
  • Understand their role
• Want It
  • Genuinely like the job, want to do it based on fair compensation & responsibility
• Capacity to do it
  • Time, physical and mental capacity to do
  • Sometimes job requires 50 hours but person can only do 40
  • Or specific knowledge, intellect & emotional intelligence
• Note
  • This helps analyse if the person Gets it, Wants it and has Capacity to do it
  • The people don’t fully perform don’t have all 3
  • “To reach the next level we need people that given the ball can run with it”
  • When managers clearly articulate the seat, reporting & expectations then you create an opening that creates:
    • Step & take charge
    • OR they never do
  • In that role, I’ll be frustrated and so are they and nothing gets done
  • A NO to any of these 3 means its not the right seat for this person - not their unique ability
    • If you have the time to elevate that person, then its a maybe
  • Rating
    • Must have Yes or No
    • Must have 3 Yes for a person to be considered he is in the right seat

One Name + 2 Seats

• Can have that but not 2 Names in 1 Seat
• When organisation starts the founders occupy all seats
• Depending on the size of organisation
  • Having 1 person in multiply seats is okay, if there is TIME
  • If not, then that has to change

Delegate & Elevate

• You have to rise to your unique ability
• With accountability chart, we can only see if the person is working at full capacity
  • For some its 40 hours, for some its 70 hours - everyone is different
• If taking up too much time being in 2 seats, the person needs to learn to delegate to other people so can reach and focus on unique ability
• When delegating you have to be comfortable that the person is in the right seat, otherwise will have no confidence

Terminations

• Once you become clear don’t run out and fire everyone
• Take a methodical approach making sure that everyone in the leadership is on the same page and take it step by step
• Once you do the necessary pruning the organisation will revitalise
• People must add value
• If everyone is in the right seat, everyone is happier

Questions to ask at the end of the Accountability Chart:

1. Is this the right structure to get us to the next level?
2. Are all the right people in the right seats?
3. Does everyone have enough time to do the job well?

Key to success:

Right People + Right Values + Right Seats + GWC + Unique Ability

Chapter 5: The Data Component - Safety in Numbers

• Only factual information can provide information to make better decisions

#1 Scorecard

• Anything that is measured and watched is improved
• A handful of numbers to tell us how the business is doing
• P&L is too late to make corrections
  • Issue is data comes after the fact and it is too late to make corrections
• You want to track the patterns on weekly basis
• It has to be simple tracking

Scorecard Steps - Finance Person Can Fill Out the Scorecard

1. Decide and list the categories that we need to track on weekly basis?
   1. Piece of paper with numbers on it
   2. Categories
      1. Weekly revenue
      2. Cash balances
      3. Weekly Sales Activities
      4. NPS / Problems
      5. AR / AP
      6. Client Project / Production Status
   3. Rule of thumb
      1. 5-15 numbers
      2. Keep it simple
2. Who is accountable for each?
   1. Person in charge of that function
   2. This is the person that MUST deliver that weekly number
3. What is the expected goal is for the week for each category?
   1. Tied directly to the 1 year plan
4. Put in next week date
   1. 90 days at a time, so about 12 - 13 weeks total
5. Decide who is accountable for collecting the numbers & fill in
   1. How will receive the numbers?
6. Use it
   1. Keep the history too

3 Scorecard Rules of Thumb

1. The numbers should be weekly activity based numbers
   1. The score card is not P&L but acts as a prediction whether we are on track for strong P&L
   2. Example
      1. New sales numbers that come in
      2. Number of new leads generated
         1. Number of contacts
         2. Number of closes / proposals etc
      3. Client Satisfaction
         1. What factors drive happy customers?
2. Proactive tool to anticipate problems before they happen
   1. Still need to monitor P&L and budgets
3. When managing a scorecard clients find value in red flagging
   1. If the number set is not hit, then shade that number using the colour RED

#2 Measurables

• What gets measured gets DONE
• Everyone has single measurable number to guide their work
  • Creates clarity throughout the team
• Everyone has a number
  • Numbers cut through the communication
    • No longer watered down answers “This week is going great”
  • Numbers create accountability
  • Accountable people appreciate numbers
    • Wrong people in wrong seats resist numbers
    • Right people want to win
  • Numbers create clarity and commitment
  • Numbers create competition
  • Numbers produce results
    • What gets watched improves
  • Numbers create teamwork
    • Ask themselves “How can we hit that number?”
  • Numbers solve problems faster
• Creating a transparent organisation where nowhere to hide

Chapter 6: The issues component - Decide

• Be disciplined and solve organisation issues as they arise
• In the organisation where there is nothing to hide, problems will be resolved quickly
• Human nature is to put off hard decisions
• Ability to succeed is in proportionate to the ability to solve problems
  • The better you are at solving problems the more successful you are
• Biggest Failure Point - Lack of decision & procrastination
• Every millionaire / successful entrepreneur
  • Reaches decision promptly and then changes them slowly
• What drains the energy?
  • Not lots of work to do, but unresolved issues
• It is less important what you decide vs that you decide
  • More is lost by indecision vs wrong decisions

The Issues List

• Create a workplace where people are comfortable to point out issues that hinder vision
• Leadership needs to be open with each other
• High level of trust is what makes the team healthy & functional
• 3 Types of Issues Lists
  • Issues lists in VTO
    • Tackled at the end of the quarters or further out
    • These issues don’t fall in the immediate category but need to be tracked, so the team doesn't lose sight of them
    • For example
      • New product ideas
      • Office relocations
      • HR policies
  • Weekly leadership issues list
    • Resolved in weekly meetings
    • We don’t resolve departmental issues
      • If can be resolved at department level then push it down
    • Issues include
      • Company rocks offtrack
      • Bad number in scorecard
      • Key employee issues
      • Client issues
      • Process problems
  • Departmental issues list
    • Related to each specific department
    • If no issues, then can try the following
      • Bring 2 issues every week for the meeting
      • If none, then they can’t attend the meeting

The Issues Solving Track

• Why usually nothing gets resolved within leaders?
  • Fear of conflict
  • Lack of focus
  • Lack of Commitment
  • Personal Ego
• There is more efficient way to solve things
• Steps to find solutions
  • **Identify **
    • Examine and decide on top 3 issues to solve
    • Don’t go from top to bottom, identify important ones
    • Clearly identify the real issue, as stated issue is not usually the real one
      • Most causes of real issues are people
    • Can take the longest time vs other steps, as it takes time to get to the route cause
    • Issues owners responsibility to make it clear what is the issue
  • Discuss
    • Most time spent here but the issue is it hasn’t been identified
    • Opportunity to say what they think but only once
    • Have to fight for greater good and benefit the whole company vs you as individual or your team
    • **The #'1 reason most teams keep talking is because they go on Tangents **
      • Get in the habit of pointing out Tangents
      • Then put it on the issue list
  • Solve
    • Made every decision as we are going to a “Super Bowl” as if we are achieving our vision
    • Must have vision first, if you don’t know where you are going then can’t make decisions
    • Solving issues takes time but long term is better
    • 3 types of resolutions
      • Solved and requires actions
      • Awareness “we all agree”
      • More research & facts , and bring it to next meeting
    • 10 commandments of solving issues
      • Though shall not rule by consensus / need to make final decision
        • Someone needs to step as integrator
      • Shall not be a Winnie
        • Strong will
        • Make tough decision
      • Be decisive
        • Make decisions quickly
        • Less important what you decide vs that you decide
      • Not rely on 2nd hand information
        • Issues involving others
        • Need everyone to be at the meeting
      • Fight for greater good
      • Don’t solve them all
        • One at a time in priority
        • Quality vs quantity
      • Live with it, end it or change it
        • Stop complaining, living with it is last resort
      • Choose short term pain suffering
        • Solve problems now
      • Enter the danger
        • Issue we fear the most must be discussed / solved now
      • Take a shot
        • Propose a solution
        • Don’t wait for others
      • Solution statement
        • Once the solution is found, then voice it out
        • Hear sweet sound of solution
    • Personal issue solving session- facilitated by 3rd party
      • Have each of the party prepare and share what he or she believes 3 strengths/weaknesses are
      • List all the issues and solve them
      • List the action items from solutions
      • 30 days later meet that action issues been solved

Chapter 7: The process component - finding your way

• The secret to success - Consistency
• Nothing can be fine-tuned unless its consistent
• Have to understand the core processes - on average 7 that make up our unique business model
• Need to make sure everyone within the organisation understands
• What are all the moving parts within the business?
  • Take time to view from the top
  • Can’t be in the systems while understanding the system you are in. Need to raise the system from time to time
• Identify Process + Documenting + Everyone Follow it = Clear Way
  • No longer let the business run you
  • From there you can sell the business, let someone run it, or take time off
• 2 major steps
  • Document the core processes
  • Followed by all

Documenting The Core Processes

• Three stages
  • **Identify core processes **
    • Schedule an hour with the leadership team, so can call the processes the same name
    • Need to identify and agree what the name is
    • Core process include
      • HR - search / fire / promote / retain people
      • Marketing - get message to target audience and generate interest to what we do
      • Sales - process of converting prospect to a customer
      • Operations - the way you make the product or provide service to customer
        • Project Management
        • Logistic
        • Warehouse Distribution
        • Service Technician
      • Accounting - flow / management of money coming in and out
      • Customer Retention - proactive way you take care of your customers and retain them after
    • Leadership teams need to be 100% on the same page with names and processes
    • Everyone will speak the same language
    • Need to call the processes that way from the start
  • Document what happens in each one of them
    • Accountability chart comes into play as the person responsible for each department takes charge of documenting it
      • Head of Sales takes Sales processes etc
    • Follow 20/80 Rule when documenting
      * Document 20% of processes that bring 80% of results aka document at high level
      * Document steps at high level with procedures underneath them
    • By documenting, it will help to bring the processes to light and present an opportunity to dumb them down
    • Processes should be bulletproof
      • Checklists have a huge benefit
    • If one of you disappear tomorrow, can it be followed
  • Compile information in single package for everyone in the company
    • Put it all together and save it in a shared drive

Followed by all

• When followed by all, it is much easier to manage and spot where the issues are
• The leadership team must be convinced that everyone needs to follow 1 system
• Most of the time the step fails is because the owner doesn’t follow the process
  • Because if you don’t see the value, how the people can
• The best way to convince your employees is to show a clear way of what it looks like
• Action steps
  • Create a visual
  • Schedule a meeting or share it at the next quarterly meeting
  • Retrain everyone
  • Manage your people to follow the process

Chapter 8: Traction

• Bridge the gap between vision and execution
• Bringing discipline into organisation will make people a bit uncomfortable
• Two disciplines to gain traction
  • Set specific measurable priorities aka Rocks
  • Meet better as organisation aka Meeting Pulse

Rocks

• Short term priorities towards the vision
• Establish 3-7 priorities for the next 90 days
  • aka Rocks
• Break it down into bite sized focus projects so then it’s achievable and not overwhelming
• Every department, as it trickles down to employees, will have rocks
• The aim is to move company forward 90 days at a time
• Once you set the company rocks and leadership rocks, then communicate these rocks to the organisation so they can set theirs
  • This creates alignment
• Work on rocks first and everything else will fall into place
• Do Less Accomplish More
  • Fewer priorities are better
• Process
  • Every 90 days the team meets for a day
  • Reviews the vision
  • Determines the rocks based on that
• Establishing the Rocks
  • List everything on the white board to accomplish in the next 90 days
    • 10-20 items list
  • Discuss, Debate & Determine the most important priorities
    • Kill , Keep or Combine
    • Down to 3-7 priorities
  • Set the date when the rocks are due
    • Usually by end of the Quarter
  • Define Each one by making sure objective are clear
    • Specific, Manageable, Attainable
    • It’s not vague, must be clear so no ambiguity at the end of the quarter that it was done or not
  • Assign who owns each rock
    • Owned by 1 person on the leadership team
    • When more than 1 is accountable then no one is accountable
  • Once the company rocks are set, leadership team sets their own rocks
    • Come up with most 3-7
    • Some company rocks can become personal
    • Other rocks can be moved forward
  • Create the Rock Sheet
    • Top organisation rocks
    • Leadership rocks below
    • Used in Weekly Meetings Review
    • Note:
      • Once the rocks are set, no new ones are to be added even if its a genius idea
  • Share company rocks with entire organisation
    • Meet with the organisation to share success, progress and VTO
  • Have each dept set their rocks as a team
    • Follow same process as a leadership team
    • While leadership and company have rocks of 3-7, everyone else (employees) will have 1-3
• Rocks Pitfalls
  • Garbage in, Garbage Out
    • If set wrong rocks, then will be spent in the wrong direction
    • Takes 2 quarters to master rocks - true mastery comes from experience
  • Commitment fizzle
    • Make sure you are committed to your rocks and you commit to quarterly routine
  • Too many rocks
    • Don’t give people more than 3 rocks
    • Accountability is too much

Meeting Pulse

• Let's dispel the myth that meetings are a waste of time
• To gain more traction, we will most likely need to do more meetings than we currently do
• A meeting pulse with specific agenda will keep the organisation healthy
  • By setting more frequent meetings to review progress, for example, will create a spike to get stuff done
• Two types of meetings
  • Quarterly
  • Weekly

Quarterly Meeting

• 90 Day World - comes that every 90 days humans go off track
• If you don’t continue to align with the quarterly goals it will lead to going off track and will lead to chaos in the organisation
• Recommendation
  • Hold off site if possible
• The EOS
  • Who? Leadership team
  • Where? Offsite
  • Duration? 8 hours?
  • Frequency - 90 days
  • Prework
    • Vision Traction Organiser complete
    • Brings issues
    • Propose priorities
  • Agenda
    • Segue - sets the tone for the meeting
      • Etch person to share 3 things
        • Best business and personal news in the last 90 days
      • What is working? And not in the business?
      • Expectations for the day?
    • Review Previous Quarter
      • Review all the numbers
      • Rocks - what is done or not done?
        • Strive for 80% completion or better, understand why and learn
          • Took too much on
          • Someone dropped the ball
    • Review the VTO
      • The purpose is to refresh memory of the vision and that everyone is on the same page
      • If there is any confusion around VTO, then it needs to be solved there
    • Establish next quarter Rocks
      • Same process as setting rocks
    • Tackle Key Issues
      • What makes great meetings is solving issues
      • Make sure all issues are on the list
      • The List
        • Remove all issues that will be resolved by the new rocks
        • Tackle new issues using the issue solving track
    • Next Steps
      • Anyone is discussing the next steps and what everyone is doing
    • Conclude
      • Share 3 things
        • Feedback on meeting
        • Expectations met or not
        • Rating 1-10, avg. above 8

The EOS Annual Meeting

• Who? Leadership team
• Where? Offsite
• Duration? 2 days
• Frequency - every year
• Pre-work
  • Bring Completed Vision Traction organiser
  • Budget for the year
  • Thoughts on Goals for the year
• Agenda
  • Day 1
    • Segue
      • Organisations 3 greatest accomplishments for the year
      • His/hers personal greatest accomplishment for the year
      • Expectations for the 2 days
    • Review previous year
      • Goals
      • Numbers
      • Last Quarters Rocks
      • Achieving 80% of the goals
    • Team health building
      • One thing Exercise - each team member receives a feedback on their greatest strength or weakness to the success of the company.
        • Exercise is done in the open with everyone present, including the leadership team
        • 2 hours max for this exercise
    • SWAT issues list
      • Provide an opportunity for everyone in the organisation to provide SWAT
      • Use the issues identified from this to add it to the issues list, so then it can be solved
    • VTO through 1 year plan
      • Challenge the company vision
      • Make sure everyone is still onboard for the 10 year target
      • Discuss and debate, so then everyone is one the same page
      • Based on that, then throw out the 3 year picture and create a new one
        • After 1 year, you have more information and it makes sense to review the 3 year plan and adjust it accordingly
      • Make sure everyone agrees on the same image 3 years from now
        • Got to make 1 year plan after 3 year plan is done
  • Day 2 - refer to Quarterly for steps
    • Establish next quarters rocks
    • Tackle Key Issues
    • Next Steps
    • Conclude
• Annual Planning Tips
  • Day 1 flows over into Day 2, don’t let it rush
  • Have dinner as a team at Day 1
  • Get away for the meeting
  • Build up - people prepare better for it without them knowing it
    • Must always preschedule Quarterly meetings

Weekly Meeting Pulse

• Once quarterly goals are set, then it's important to meet on weekly basis to keep track of progress
• If you are on track for the week, then you are on track for the quarter, then for year
• Level 10 Meeting
  • Agenda is focusing on what’s important
  • Keeps you focused on what’s important
  • Identifies issues and helps solves problems
• Meeeting
  • Who: Leadership Team
  • Where: Online / Room
  • Duration: 90 minutes
  • Frequency: Weekly
  • Preparation:
    • Rocks established
    • Rocks sheet created
    • Scorecard Complete
    • Issues solving track understood by everyone
  • Agenda - fit on 1 sheet
    • Segue - 5 minutes
      • Meeting starts promptly
      • Share good news to segue into the meeting
      • Reminds that we are all human beings trying to create something
    • Scorecard: 5 minutes
      • Examine 5-15 most important numbers in the organisation & make sure they are on track
      • Any numbers that are not on track moved to IDS
      • Should identify just the problem areas, not discussed there
    • Rocks Review - 5 minutes
      • Focus on Rocks and make sure they are on track
      • Review first company rocks and then individual rocks
        • Each person reports whether it is on track or not track. No discussion
          • If off track, then IDS
          • On track, feels will accomplish by the quarter. If wants to discuss it, then move to IDS
    • Customer Employee Headlines - 5 min
      • Share short & sweet news from customers or employees. Either good or bad.
        • Joe is happy with X
        • Darla is upset with Y
      • This is good time to pat everyone on the back
      • Any concerns, issues to be dropped to the IDS
    • To do list - 5 min
      • Review all to-dos from last weeks meetings.
      • A 7 day action items - things that are completed in a week
        • For example, I will release the code tonight. I will call X tomorrow
      • Review: Either Done or Not Done
        • Done - then cross off
        • Not Done, then keep on the list but not for longer than 2 weeks
          • 90% of them should drop off
          • Hold team accountable to the commitments they made that week
    • IDS - 60 min
      • Great meetings focus on solving problems
      • Identify the most important 3 issues and work on them first, as 1 to 3. Then tackle others
        • It is a mistake to just go through a list without identifying the importance
      • Once the issue is identified, and solution is presented then put it on To do list
        • Next week, confirm that the To Do has been done and issue is solved
    • Conclude - 5 min
      • Pull the whole meeting together and make no loose ends
      • Recap new to do list
      • Restate the items and confirm everyone has it written down
      • Discuss if any messages are needed in the communicating to the organisation
      • Have everyone rate the meeting of 1-10
        • Aim for an 8
  • Roles:
    • 1 person must run the meeting
    • 1 must manage the agenda
      • Update To - do every week and
      • Update Issues list
  • Key Points
    • Start on time
    • End on time
    • Have an agenda
  • Once the leadership has set the meeting on a frequent basis, then roll it out within departments

Chapter 9: Putting it All Together

• Mastery requires total commitment
• With the leadership team finds the GAPS of where you are and where you want to go
  • Put them onto the issues list and then have a priority of which ones to tackle
• Once leadership team mastered the tools from this book, then roll out to the rest
  • First roll out to the people that report to the leadership team
  • If you are a 10 people company that will cover everyone, but the bigger the company the more it will take
• Foundational Tools
  • VTO
  • Accountability Chart
  • Rocks
  • Meeting Pulse
  • Scorecard
• You have to do the work
  • Just because you read this, doesn’t mean your business will get better - do the work
• Use 5 Leadership Abilities when Hitting the Ceiling
  • Simplify using EOS Tool - less is more
  • Delegate & Elevate
  • Predict Well - Short Term & LT
  • Systemise by Consistently Managing Core Processes
  • Structure your organisation the right way
• Compartmentalising
  • Any idea or action that is longer than 90 days is listed on the VTO issues list
  • Anything that must be accomplished this year is a Goal
  • If it takes weeks or months must be accomplished this Quarter, then its a Rock
  • Issues for departments go down to departments
• Same page meetings
  • Leaderships is 100% on the same page - crucial for the team / company
    • When not in synch, people will know it
  • Every month, meet up and clear the air. Discussing thoughts and solve issues before getting back into company
  • Must maintain united front before employees
  • If can’t get on the same page, then try counselling or coaching
• Great leaders have a quiet thinking time
  • For about 1 hour a day
  • Where thoughts are not interrupted
• Shiny Stuff
  • Fidgety and get destructed by shiny stuff, when business is going well
    • Mostly happens by visionaries
  • Strategies to keep focused & engaged
    • Find a challenge inside the business
    • Put your energy into something that will perpetuate current vision
    • Dive into projects that will boost core values and people
    • Experiment with products that are inline with the business
    • Interview top clients - what’s working and not working for them
      • Take employee to lunch and ask the same
    • Test current products & see if they are relevant
  • If you are still getting distracted by the shiny stuff, then go explore
    • The business must be protected though
    • The business integrator must be comfortable with the reduced time commitment
    • Can’t drain any resources or energy of the current company
  • Choose 1 discipline and stick with it

Stay Focused

• People would be happier and more successful if they stayed focused
• So much shiny stuff these days

Chapter 10: Getting Started

• Sequence / Order of Implementation
  • Accountability Chart - People Analyse & GWC
  • Rocks
  • Meeting Pulse - IDS, Lvl 10 meeting, quarterly and annuals
  • ScoreCard
  • VTO - core values, core focus
  • 3 step process documented
  • Everyone has a number

Hope you found this summary useful.

Personally, I started implementing the values first and reviewed them. Then I quickly tried to implement the core focus and goals, which translated into Rocks.

I feel this book can be implemented rather quickly, if the organisation is small, and improved over time. The key is doing it and learning along the way, as this book mentions it few times.

The main challenge I'm currently facing is:

• Identifying the 3-10 year goals, as I'm not sure if I see myself in that particular business that long. So need to adjust there.
• And if I don't see myself that long, then what are the steps from here.