The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) offers a framework to help businesses thrive by aligning vision, driving action, and building strong leadership teams. On today’s Coffee Klatsch, Vince sits down with Scott Patchin, President of trU Group and Expert EOS Implementer, to discuss how EOS tools support company growth and a positive, cohesive culture — and how you can get started on your own EOS journey.
Top Takeaways
- EOS focuses on three essentials for business success: clear vision, actionable steps, and a healthy leadership culture.
- Because self-implementing EOS can lead to missed nuances, working with an experienced implementer can enhance outcomes and have a greater chance of success.
- Connecting with other organizations who have successfully integrated EOS can provide valuable insights and inspiration.
Transcript
Vince Boileau: Hey, friends, welcome back to another episode of The Klatsch, our series where we bring on people who we think are interesting to talk about business, the community and leadership. Today I’m joined by Scott Patchin, who is an EOS implementer and is the president of trU Group. Scott, welcome to the show.
Scott Patchin: Thanks for having me, Vince.
VB: So Scott, one of the things I want to talk to you about today is kind of the evolving role of EOS. But before we get there, just define for our audience real — as briefly as you can: What’s EOS? What’s it all about? Just in case there’s some people out there that have not heard about this thing yet.
SP: EOS stands for the Entrepreneurial Operating System. And what it is, is it’s a business system — a set of simple tools and processes that a leader would implement in their business to get more of what they want. And the way it works is three things that provide you one is vision. So it is a strategic planning tool to help the leadership team get on the same page and have something that they can share with everyone. It’s got traction to it, which is, it moves the vision down to actionable steps both over the year and the quarter to make sure work is getting done towards where you want it to get done. And it’s also, and this is probably the secret sauce. We really focus on “healthy,” which is getting the leadership team to act like this healthy cohesive group of people that like working together. Because a lot of times when you put leaders in a room, they don’t act that way. As the leadership team goes, so goes the rest of the organization. If you can create a healthy culture with those three to seven leaders, it’s going to cascade to everybody. That’s what EOS is.
VB: Gotcha. All right. A lot of companies signed up. A lot of companies experiencing the magic of EOS. How have you seen it start to evolve to stay fresh and kind of continually meet the evolving needs of business?
SP: It’s still the same process. We still run through it only because it works and we try to keep it simple. There’s 10 self-implementing organizations for every one person that uses a me. What I’ve seen is a lot more resources going out there to try to help people, EOS is only as good as the customers that implement it — I mean, the outcomes that customers get. And if I have someone that’s not doing it right, that’s not helping anyone.
VB: So you’ve been doing this for 10 years now. Are the kinds of clients that approached you in the beginning still the kinds of clients that approach you now?
SP: I think the same clients still show up. I mean, it’s the entrepreneurial-minded, growth-minded organizations. We mostly focus on for-profit, but I do get not-for-profit organizations coming to me that have that entrepreneurial mindset. There’s still a lot of people out there that are running small businesses that aren’t happy or satisfied with the outcomes they’re getting, or the effort that they’re putting into the outcomes they’re getting, and so they need help. And those tend to be the people that come to seek out someone like me.
VB: What gets you excited about them the most? And has that changed over the years?
SP: Kind of my passion is maximizing growth and minimizing pain to help leaders move to and past that tipping point of success. That’s kind of my internal filter for clients. They’re at a point where they need help and they’re willing to ask for help. And it’s so much fun because when you get someone who’s really hungry and you equip them, they go fast.
VB: For organizations that are maybe thinking about implementing EOS, what are some things that they should know or where do you see organizations fail most commonly?
SP: The typical failure, biggest failure point for EOS is going to be the leader. Here’s a really weird fact. We actually have a lot of visionary-integrator people get together as EOS leaders, together on calls, and they ask questions. The companies that run on EOS don’t like necessarily to have the self implementing companies on the same call because the questions are too basic. When you self implement, you tend to pick and choose what you want to do. Like, you don’t do the accountability chart. That’s too hard. I mean, imagine bringing your leadership team in and saying, “Hey, no one has a job. What should the roles be at the leadership team level?” And we’re going to do that on our own? No way. You’re not going to do that. Most people skip that stuff. I don’t skip that stuff. So I think the biggest thing with self implementing organizations is they kind of pick and choose. And so they’re not really doing EOS necessarily. And they’re missing some of the nuances.
VB: There are a lot of tools that are a part of it. So we’re a self implementing firm, right? But we have a relationship with an implementer. And every once in a while, we get to glean some things from you and you’ll say things and I’ll be like, “Oh, shoot, I got to go do that.”
SP: Yeah, exactly. You’ve watched every video from the beginning! [Laughs]
VB: I’ve watched all the videos. Well, Scott, this has been great. If people want to learn more about EOS, should they visit EOS? Should they talk to an implementer? What should they do?
SP: Really, you’ll see a lot of the push now, and a lot of it is to go and connect with an implementer, to go on EOS worldwide website and start watching some of the videos and get a sense of what it actually is. Our goal as implementers is to not take you on the journey unless you’re ready for it.
VB: Or if you feel like you’re going to be pitched and you’re afraid of that, right, just talking to somebody who uses the system. That was something that we did as part of our exploration when we decided we wanted to implement EOS and just heard their stories of transformation and traction and some of the…just ways that the simple structure unlocks things in your company that you didn’t know you were able to do.
SP: And talking to a company that’s implemented with an implementer, I think is super important.
VB: Right, you’re less likely to hear them say, yeah, “We self implemented, just do this and you’ll be fine.” Because whatever they’re doing, it might work for them, but it may not necessarily work for you. Doing things the right way can be…
SP: Right, and there’s a difference between “I’m okay” versus “I’m great.”
VB: Yeah. Scott, thank you so much for joining us on the show today. I really appreciate your time.
SP: Thanks for having me. Cheers.
