Insights from Walt.

“The success of your EOS® Implementation is directly linked to the depth and accuracy of your Roles-Based Accountability Chart.”  Walt 

Successful EOS® Implementations begin with a complete inventory of all of the Roles that are being played in your company.  Flower Power is an accountability chart software that allows you to scale.

Rule #1

NEVER confuse the word Role with anything else.

This is the prime directive. A Role is not the same as a Seat, a Job, or a Position.

A Role is unique.  We never say “we have an open Role” when we mean we have an open Seat in our Accountability Chart.

It is ok to say we have an “open seat” or an “open position”.

If you can adopt this one discipline you will be well on your way.  This accountability chart software insures you use the correct language.

The People Component 

The People components talks about Right People, this means People who share our core values and have the SKILLS to do their Roles.

It also says Right Seats – But what it should say is Right Seats with the Right Roles that the Right Person Gets, Wants and has the Capacity to do.

Insight: GWC™ applies to Roles!

G = Get It;

W= Want It; 

C= Capacity. 

We ask, “Does the person filling the seat GWC each of the Roles that are part of the Seat?”

Insight: Delegate and Elevate™

An often misunderstood core concept is around Delegate and Elevate.  People believe we are talking about Delegating Seats, but, as you can see from the drawing, we Delegate Roles – Pop a Role off of a Seat and assign it to another seat so the original Seat now has Capacity to take on another Role or time to do more important Roles i.e. elevate.

In LMA, when you read over The 5 Leadership Practices Checklist you will see it asks about letting go of the vine, it is asking: are you letting go of the Role you just delegated?

Insight: Seats link to Big Measurables. 

Roles link to Scorecards

This is what I would like you to think about.

When each Role is clearly defined with a well written Purpose Statement and the activities being performed inside each Role are out in the open, it will be “easy” to identify the things this person needs to report from their Role(s) on a weekly basis as a line item on the Scorecard. 

Normally these are controllable activities or key results.

The Issues Component

This is one of the most impactful understandings you can own, besides never mixing the words Seats and Roles. =;- )

When your Roles are clearly identified and understood through Purpose Statements and Data – you are going to be able to see what meetings and teams the Role should be part of, you will also know what Issue goes to which List.

Insight: IDSing, A Role’s Perspective

The accompanying diagram is our Domed Topped table again, but we are above it, looking down.

What I am trying to relate is this reality.  Our people are sitting at the IDS table representing their Roles.  They look from their eye, through their Seat, through their Role along the green dashed line to get a very clear perspective / bearing on the issue.  Through their Roles they get clarity around ownership, authority, domain, root cause – they understand who all needs to be involved.

It is the concept of triangulation, when we can have multiple people see an Issue from multiple perspectives (green dashes), we can get a “bearing” on the Issue and more quickly identify the root cause, we know exactly where it is and who owns it via the Roles that are part of Seats.

Insight: Roles add Issues to the Issues List

Again, a mind bender. People encounter Issues from their Roles more often than they hit them from Accountability Chart Seats.  When they know what they are trying to achieve via each Role and they become more aware of the Issues that get in the way, hinder or help them.

Roles put Issues on an Issues list. 

When we ask “Whose Issue is it? We can say: “It is John’s Issue from his XYZ Role.” 

Process Component

This is where the real power of embracing Roles comes into play.

• Documented –  All Core Processes, Workflows are documented.
• Followed By All. Well Roles are where they are followed.

I’m going to get nerdy on you but hang in there.

Insight: Roles are the secret to Core Process and Workflow documentation.

When you know the purpose of the Role and you know the Role owners, you can go to the Role owners and ask: “What Policies and Standard Operating Procedures are you following from the Role. What checklists are you using?  What weekly or monthly Tasks are you performing?”

Teams of Role owners should be the ones working on and documenting your SOPs and Policies – They know what is going on more than management.

Insight: Documenting Core Processes / Workflows

When you know the SOPs, Tasks etc you can back in to the Core Processes and Core Workflows that need to be documented.

Thankfully, there are not that many Core Processes or Core Workflows that need to be documented.

A Core Process, Core Workflow is when work is passed from one Role to another Role, often across departments. If a Seat has Roles that follow SOPs etc. that are all handled inside the Seat from Role to Role – there is no need to document the interdependencies.

But, when a Role requires another Role that is not under their Seat – the best practice is to document the workflow in a swim lane chart where swim lanes are owned by Roles.

Insight: Roles-based Robotic Process Automation and Generative AI.

We might as well go ahead and open this can of worms.   My clients and I see AI through two lenses. First as traditional machine learning / RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and second as the effective use of Generative AI (Chat gpt etc.)

When your Roles are clearly defined with strong Purpose Statements, tied to SOPs and diagramed in flow-charts, you will be able to see where RPA can be applied and where the use of Generative AI as a Standard Operating Procedure will help.  

It is actually pretty simple when you look through your Roles.

Insight:

Why are you in this meeting?

Why am I in this meeting?

As we have already seen, Roles see and own Issues.  So, why would we have a Role at a meeting that clearly does not need to be there?

From your clearly defined Roles you can ask what meetings are being attended and why. You can create an easy little drawing like I show here to add perspective.

Understanding the purpose of your Role at that table is key to the right Meeting Pulse.