On April 6th we had our first Quarterly with our EOS implementer, Lisa González (we had only done an Annual with Lisa to date). Previously in this newsletter I had shared about how I was walking into it differently than my self-led Quarterlies, but now I wanted to give you all my debrief on how it went and also what I learned is different when using an Implementer.
I know, some of you may say “duh Brian, of course that’s what they do.” But many of my readers are self-implementers and they really don’t know how good it is with the right EOSI.
Table of Contents
- Overall Experience
- The Issues That Would Have Stayed Quiet
- Actually Letting a Great Quarter Land
- Continuing Education on the Tools
- The ever-present value of the right Implementer (and the right space)
Overall Experience
I walked in with high expectations and a healthy dose of skepticism wondering if the experience would live up to my own level of hype. You won’t be surprised that the day exceeded my expectations and that of everyone on the team. We all rated the meeting a 10 at the end of the day and are already excited for the next one.
Disclaimer: Our leadership team is 5 people who have worked together for about 7-10 years and get along extremely well. And we’re all remote so we really value when we get together in person. That didn’t hurt… but still… the day inside the room with Lisa was a 10 out of 10. Here’s why.
The Issues That Would Have Stayed Quiet
The most valuable part of the day to me was realizing Lisa could pull issues that I don’t think I would have pulled out on my own.
There weren’t a ton, but a few came up naturally in conversation, and Lisa would just grab a word or two to describe what she heard and put them on the list. No hesitation, no overthinking whether they were fully formed yet. She heard something and she wrote it on the whiteboard.
One of those issues turned into a really great discussion around 1:1 meetings (how often we should be doing them and what they’re actually for). It’s one of those topics that I have discussed at a high level with my team but until Lisa took the lead on teasing out the issue, it really didn’t get the sunlight it deserved.
To back up, for us, 1:1s have long been a part of our DNA. We started using them at BrightGauge and it was great for engagement — almost anyone who worked there would say it was the best job they ever had and we felt staying personally connected via 1:1s were a big piece of that.
With that in mind, from day one we built robust 1:1 capabilities into Strety because they were and are so important. But we really didn’t have a prescriptive way of how we do 1:1s as a company. For example, I meet 1:1 with my direct reports every 3-4 weeks (except for new hires) which feels instinctually correct. Larry has a similar cadence. But everyone else is/was free to use whatever cadence they wanted. I wasn’t policing this very much since there was always a mix of new hires involved that required more 1:1 time.
However, I always heard feedback from EOS purists saying that 1:1s should only be done quarterly (Quarterly Conversations) but I thought that was too distant, especially with a fast growing young team.
Guided by Lisa, we took a hard look at these meetings with everyone in the room. We asked the other 3 leadership team members how often they meet and… each person said they were being done weekly. Ouch. I kind of knew this, but it wasn’t until I added up all the hours spent in 1:1s that I realized how much money we were still spending in meetings (money defined by time). But it wasn’t just money being spent… it was also impacting the departmental L10s.
What Lisa pointed out correctly was that 1:1s eat up valuable issues/discussions that should happen at a full team level. For example, a recent team member wanted to vent to his manager (a leadership team member) in a 1:1 about some gaps in performance he’s feeling with the rest of team. With a healthy team, that type of venting should be an issue on their team L10 to discuss openly and honestly. And here he was keeping it to himself and the manager… and now that manager has to have another meeting to address things. And funny enough, this same leadership team member was having trouble filling his department L10 issues list… probably because many issues were hiding in the 1:1s! Double Ouch!!!
We walked away deciding to have each leader either (1) remove 1:1s from their calendar or (2) move them to monthly at a maximum cadence. That one change itself… the savings… more than pays for the trip to Denver! And again, I’m not sure as a self-implementer I would have picked up on that issue at this time.
Actually Letting a Great Quarter Land
We had a record quarter. Objectively, it was an amazing one. Best I’ve ever been a part of in my two SaaS businesses.
Larry and my natural tendency is to acknowledge a great moment quickly and then move on to what’s next. So we can stay focused on where we can improve, what we missed, what we should push harder on. That mindset has always felt productive to me, but it does have a way of skipping past progress pretty quickly. And adds a constant stream of anxiety, no matter how amazing things are.
Lisa slowed us down here just enough to let it register. She asked that we all grade ourselves for the quarter and we all graded A to A- range, which felt right, but hearing her reflect back that it was a great quarter made it land differently. She also mentioned the book The Gap and the Gain, which I had heard of before, but reading it post quarterly really clicked more. I could feel how quickly I default to measuring against where we could be instead of where we were even three months ago.
We’re a team that does celebrate wins, but even then, having someone hold that space intentionally made it feel more real before we moved on.
Continuing Education on the Tools
Using an Implementer, they always carve out an hour of time to teach an EOS tool. This time, it was the People Analyzer. We’ve used the People Analyzer forever, and I would have said we know it well. But going back through it, getting more specific about how we’re applying it at Strety, it sharpened things in a very practical way.
It was a good reminder that just because something is familiar doesn’t mean you’re getting the most out of it.
The ever-present value of the right Implementer (and the right space)
As I’ve said before, having the weight of facilitation lifted from my shoulders is an ongoing relief. We did this quarterly at Lisa’s office in Denver, and it changed the tone right away. Everything was ready. Walls set, TVs working, materials in place. There was no warming up into the meeting or fiddling with logistics. We just started. I didn’t have to think about anything (except what to eat of course).
The day went so fast and about mid afternoon, she could tell we were losing focus and steam. I was feeling it too and would have called it as well, but it was nice that Lisa didn’t feel the need to force us through more just to hit a time mark. It sounds like a small thing, but it’s part of why she fits so well with our group. She’s not just running a process on autopilot, she’s paying attention to how we’re actually operating as a team.
What continues to stick with me is how much having the right Implementer for your team is as important as signing up with an Implementer at all. (If you’re looking for an Implementer, make sure you use the 90-minute meetings to find the right fit. Learn more about that from our partner manager here.)
With the right Implementer, it’s often the small things you notice, but they add up and they compound. I’m hooked.