First Step to Implement EOS: The Accountability Chart
The last chapter of Traction contains a step-by-step guide to implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). Over the last two days, my management team and I worked through the first 3 of 7 steps.
The first step is the Accountability Chart, accompanied by the People Analyzer and the GWC (Get it, Want it, Capacity) worksheet. Each of these tools is available for free on the EOS website. The goals of these initial tools are:
- to identify the right seats in the company (i.e. the positions for which manpower is needed)
- to identify the lines of management, with one direct manager per person
- to assign current employees to the right seats
- to analyze all current employees for 3 attributes and address any issues as they are discussed: 1) do they understand the scope and meaning of their seat (Get it), 2) are the hungry and passionate about delivering success in their role (Want it), 3) are they capable of doing it (Capacity)
- to identify any holes in the organization and make a plan to recruit to fill the holes
Assembling an accountability chart seems easy at first blush. But if you ignore your current people and just talk about the seats first, the exercise becomes more interesting. Also, once you have the right seats identified, GWC really forces you to think about how well fit the people are to the seats.
Does your startup have an Accountability Chart?