You already know process matters. You’ve probably even started — a doc here, a checklist there — and then a busy quarter swallowed it whole. Process keeps landing on the someday list, and the cost of that shows up everywhere except the place you’d think to look.
That gap is what this session is about. In a recent webinar with our community, EOS Implementer and Process! co-author Lisa González made a case that surprises a lot of operators: process work begins with a mindset and a decision your leadership team makes together, well before anyone opens a document. Lisa is also Strety’s own EOS Implementer, so she’s done this inside a software company and across hundreds of leadership teams.
If you’ve been meaning to get your processes off the ground, start here. Watch the session below, then use the rest of this post as your on-ramp — with links to our complete guides for when you’re ready to roll up your sleeves.
Table of Contents
Watch the webinar
What’s covered, by chapter:
- 00:00 — Welcome and introductions
- 01:17 — Meet Lisa González, co-author of Process!
- 03:06 — Find your hidden 10%: goals and audience poll
- 05:38 — Where process fits in the EOS Six Key Components
- 06:31 — Why commitment comes first
- 08:35 — The benefits of documented processes
- 11:48 — What lack of process is costing you
- 14:15 — Three myths that block process work
- 17:22 — How to quantify your process leak
- 21:06 — Core processes and the three-step Process Documenter
- 28:31 — Getting it Followed By All: train, measure, manage, update
- 33:29 — Inside Strety: tracking process in the software
- 35:57 — Q&A and closing
The 10% you can’t see
Lisa opens with a question worth sitting with: what would you do with an extra 10% — in revenue, or in your week back? For most teams, that 10% is already there. It leaks out through work that gets done a different way every time someone new touches it.
She points to numbers most operators recognize once they do the math. Losing an employee can cost two to three times that person’s salary. Rework can run five to ten percent of revenue. People can spend roughly a full day a week hunting for the answer they need. The leak is real, and it rarely appears on a report.
The fix starts with how your team thinks about process, before anyone opens a doc.
Process starts with commitment
Lisa is honest about her own miss. In her family’s remodel company, she built a beautiful, tabbed, 5,000-page process binder, presented it to her leadership team, and watched it gather dust. Within weeks, even she had forgotten about it.
The binder failed for a simple reason — her leadership team had never committed to using it. The documentation was the easy part.
Process lives in the important-but-not-urgent quadrant. Nothing forces it onto this week’s calendar, so it slides to next quarter, every quarter. The teams that break that pattern do one thing first: they get the leadership team, starting with the Visionary, to agree the work matters and to protect time for it.
If you’re the operator on your team, this is the conversation to bring to your Visionary before you write a single step. If you’re the Visionary, you don’t have to do the documenting. You do have to care about it out loud, and defend the time on the calendar.
The three myths that keep teams stuck
Lisa names three beliefs that stall process work before it ever starts, especially among founders and creatives:
- “I’m not a process person.” Everyone runs on habits already. A process is just a shared habit, written down.
- “Process takes too much time.” It does if you try to document everything. Done well, it takes a fraction of that.
- “Process destroys freedom.” High-level processes leave plenty of room for judgment, and most teams find they get more freedom this way.
Clearing those three is most of the commitment battle. Lisa’s framing for the whole thing: “Process creates freedom.”
What comes after you commit
Once your team is bought in, the rest of the work follows a clear path. We’ll keep it high-level here, then hand you off to the step-by-step guide.
Identify your core processes. Get your leadership team in a room for an hour and name your handful of core processes — usually five to seven, covering the major flows like marketing, sales, operations, people, and finance.
Document and simplify. Capture the 20% of major steps that get a new person 80% of the way there, in one to three pages. As Lisa says, done is way better than perfect.
Package it. Make each process easy to find and easy to use, stored where your team already works.
Get it Followed By All. Train everyone who touches a step, measure it on your Scorecard, manage to it, and update it on a cadence. This is the biggest lift, and the difference between a document and a habit.
That whole sequence — the Three-Step Process Documenter, the templates, the implementation timeline — is laid out step by step in our complete EOS core process guide. When you’re ready to go past the on-ramp, that’s your next read.
Want a worked example for your function? We have plug-and-play guides for marketing, sales, and HR core processes, each built by the team that runs them.
Where Strety fits
We built Strety because we ran our own company on EOS and wanted everything in one place. For process work, that means your core processes live alongside your Rocks, Scorecard, and L10 — so a commitment your leadership team makes becomes something they can see and track every week. When you’re ready for the mechanics, here’s how Strety handles core processes.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I start with EOS process work? Start with commitment. Get your leadership team to agree the work matters before you document anything — that single step is what keeps process from stalling.
What’s the very first action to take? A one-hour leadership meeting to identify and name your core processes. Most teams land on five to seven and assign an owner to each.
How do I get my leadership team to commit? Tie it to the cost you’re feeling right now — the turnover, the rework, the questions only you can answer. Commitment comes easier when the leak has a price tag.
Do I have to document everything before it helps? No. One well-followed process beats a hundred that sit in a drawer. Pick the one that would save you the most and start there.
What if I’m “not a process person”? You already run on processes — they just live in your head. Writing down the major steps is the whole job, and you can hand the detail to the person who owns the work.
Should I start before I hire an EOS Implementer? Yes. You can self-implement with the book Process! and the EOS tools, which is a great way for teams who aren’t ready for an Implementer to get going. As you grow, an EOS Implementer helps you go further, faster.
Your first move
Lisa’s challenge at the end of the session was simple: don’t just feel inspired, do one thing. Pick the single process that, if your team followed it consistently, would save you 10% in expenses or grow revenue by 10%. Bring it to your next leadership meeting and get the team to commit to it.
Watch the full webinar above for the stories, the math, and the live Q&A. When you’re ready to document that first process, read the complete EOS core process guide next. And if you’d like one place to document, track, and measure your processes alongside the rest of EOS, start your free 30-day trial — no credit card required.