Session: Focus Day

EOS Focus Day

Overview:

The EOS Focus Day is a structured session designed to help leadership teams of entrepreneurial companies "work on their business" rather than being constantly stuck "in the weeds." The goal is to implement practical tools that increase traction, accountability, communication, team health, and overall results. The session is facilitated by a trained implementer who acts as a teacher, facilitator, and coach, guiding the team to discover their own solutions and improve their business operations.

Key Themes and Concepts:

1. Objectives and Goals:

• The primary objectives of the Focus Day are to:
• "Have fun."
• "Get you thinking and working 'on' your business."
• "Understand 'healthy and smart.'" (Healthy = Open and honest, Organizational clarity, No politics; Smart = Strategies and plans, How you deliver your product or service)
• "Implement practical tools – increase traction, accountability, communication, team health, and results."
• The implementer's goals are to:
• "Put you in more control of your business."
• "Increase the value of your business."

1. Implementer's Role:

• The implementer has three distinct roles:
• Teacher: "I am going to teach you a set of simple, practical tools that help create a context for you and help you get more of the right stuff done every week."
• Facilitator: "I am not going to give you the answers or tell you what strategy to pursue. I am going to help facilitate the right answer through the tools that I teach you. I find the answers are always in this room, 99% of the time." The facilitator guides the team to discover solutions from within, rather than providing external advice.
• Coach: Drive accountability and help the team achieve more than they thought possible.

1. "Hitting the Ceiling":

• This concept acknowledges that growth in entrepreneurial companies is not linear but involves periods of "evolution and revolution," where teams inevitably encounter obstacles and plateaus. "Hitting the ceiling is when you, your department, or your company stop growing. It’s the feeling of being stuck, overwhelmed, and frustrated – and it’s inevitable."
• Companies can hit the ceiling at the organizational, departmental, or individual level.
• The document stresses that hitting the ceiling is inevitable but surmountable with the right skills and abilities. The five leadership abilities will help to break through this ceiling and grow: simplify, delegate, predict, systemize and structure.

1. Five Leadership Abilities:

• These abilities are crucial for breaking through ceilings and achieving sustained growth.
• Simplify: Rooting out complexity and reducing things to their simplest form. "If you intend to grow, the leaders must master the skill of reducing complexity... KISS." The document promotes "less is more." Complexity increases exponentially as the organization grows, it is the leaders job to embrace the concept of "dumbing it down."
• Delegate: Building extensions of oneself. "Let go of the vine" to elevate. Must have the right people in the right seats.
• Predict: Operating on two levels:
• Long-term: "Everything 90 days and out (your vision, plan and execution on plan)." This involves setting a vision, creating a plan, and executing it. Rocks help clarify priorities for the next 90 days.
• Short-term: Solving issues effectively for the long-term greater good of the organization.
• Systemize: Establishing core processes for operating the business.
• Structure: This refers to having the right organizational structure and accountability.

1. The Accountability Chart®:

• This tool helps clarify roles and responsibilities within the organization. It's based on the fundamental belief that every organization has three major functions: marketing and sales, operations, and finance. An additional role is the integrator who integrates the major functions, creates harmony and runs day-to-day. Can also include a visionary who stays up at the 30,000 foot level who is a big idea person. The key is that only one person can be accountable for each major function. No one person is accountable when two people are accountable.
• Customizing the chart involves deciding how many major functions exist in the business and determining whether a visionary role is necessary.
• The five major roles should be added to the chart: Lead, Manage, Accountability.
• Once all seats are filled the GWC™ model is then applied: Get it, Want it, and Capacity to do it. "Get it is aptitude; or the natural ability for something. An intuitive feel or grasp of what the job is, how it works and how to do it. Natural feel; biochemistry." All must be a yes or it is a deal-breaker to get the seat.
• In a four phase process functions are created, major roles, seats are filled, and the team is given homework.
• Remember "structure first, people second". Focus on functions not titles.

1. Rocks:

• Rocks are the 3-7 most important priorities that must get done in the next 90 days. "Rocks = the big priorities; things that must get done." Pebbles, sand and water are everything else. Focus is key, must get everyone focused in one direction.
• Rocks must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely). Note: the team decides if a rock is written smart, it is not the job of the facilitator to give the answer.
• Setting rocks involves listing everything that needs to be done, then using a "keep, kill, combine" process to prioritize.
• Company rocks are the 3-7 most important things for the company. Individual rocks are 3-7 most important things for you. "Magnitude of importance to the company is what makes something a company rock".
• Company rocks that individuals own should be transferred onto their individual rock list. The first step in setting individual rocks it to carry forward the company rocks you own onto your list of individual rocks.

1. The Meeting Pulse (Level 10 Meeting™):

• This refers to a consistent schedule of meetings: weekly, quarterly, and annual. Five points of a solid meeting pulse: same day, same time, same agenda, starts on time, ends on time.
• "Prevents bottlenecks and train wrecks where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing."
• Weekly meetings focus on numbers and rocks on track, employee and customer satisfaction, and issue resolution.
• The goal is to shorten the procrastination model and increase activity with small term intervals.
• Must have 2 volunteers: 1 to manage meetings and another to manage paperwork. Must commit to getting in the room next week.

1. Scorecard:

• A Scorecard is a tool used to track 5 to 15 weekly numbers, giving the team "a pulse and the ability to predict." It is activities-based, not monthly. It is not meant to be perfect.
• Provides a "control panel" for the business.
• What gets measured gets done: scorecarding makes the organization better. August Turk quote: employees respect what management inspects.
• There are seven truths of the scorecard:
• What gets measured gets done
• Managing metrics saves time
• A Scorecard gives you a pulse and the ability to predict
• A scorecard is hard work and it takes time
• One person must own it.
• Weekly activities-based numbers.
• Every goal is important.
• Six fundamentals to a great scorecard: must believe.
• Goal
• Measurable
• Drop down
• You're on an Island.
• Goals.
• 13 Weeks of history.

1. Next Steps:

• Between the Focus Day and subsequent Vision Building sessions, the leadership team needs to:
• Add issues to the Level 10 Meeting™ Issues List.
• Build Rock Sheet.
• Focus on completing Rocks.
• Complete the Accountability Chart.
• Listen to the Focus audio twice.
• Watch the Level 10 Meeting™ whiteboard video.

Key Quotes:

• "You cannot be a part of a system and at the same time understand that system."
• "Hitting the Ceiling is inevitable, but there is hope!"
• "Less is more!"
• "That’s the basic Accountability Chart. • In a few minutes, we are going to customize your Accountability chart - create the right structure, identify the five major roles for each seat and the right way to help you take your company to the next level."
• "Focus" - Al Reis: The sun showers the earth with billions of kilowatts of energy every day; worst case, you might get a sunburn...That is the power of focus. You don’t have billions of kilowatts; you only have a few and to the degree you can get everyone focused in one direction, you will do amazing things."
• "If everything is important, nothing is important."
• "It doesn't matter how many people need to work on it...magnitude of importance to the company is what makes something a company rock".
• "Get it is aptitude; or the natural ability for something. An intuitive feel or grasp of what the job is, how it works and how to do it. Natural feel; biochemistry."
• "Vacation and death" are the only great reasons to miss a meeting
• "Show must go on"
• "structure first, people second"
• ""Those are the 3 most important things for you this quarter and for the 32 most important things for you every single week."
• "Make it to the check-in"

Conclusion:

The EOS Focus Day provides a structured framework for entrepreneurial leadership teams to gain control of their businesses, improve performance, and achieve sustained growth by focusing on key areas and implementing practical tools.

RYT Podcast is a passion product of Tyler Smith, an EOS Implementer (more at IssueSolving.com). All Podcasts are derivative works created by AI from publicly available sources. Copyright 2025 All Rights Reserved.