S1E8: From EOS Client to EOS Implementer | Jim Tennant - Into The Storm Leaders

Episode Transcript
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Microphone (RODECaster Pro Stereo)-3: Folks, welcome back to another (00:01):
undefined
episode of into the storm leaders.
I'm excited to introduceyou today to Jim Tennant.
He's a professional EOS implementerwho works with us here at CultureShoc,
and he's got a great story abouthow he was first introduced to the
entrepreneurial operating system.
He was actually a client of oursbefore he became a member of the team.

(00:21):
Prior to that, Jim has done a bunchof different things, held a number of
senior leadership roles as he grew,scaled and sold multiple businesses.
Like every episode.
I hope that you get somethingvaluable out of this, that you
can take and apply immediatelyto help you level up as a leader.
Stick around for this one.
He's got some takes that I'm sureyou're going to want to hear.

Joe Jurec (00:43):
Welcome to into the storm leaders, the no BS podcast that ignites
leadership potential and sparks innovationin the ever evolving business landscape.
We all work in I'm Joe Jurec, yourhost and catalyst for growth joined
by my co host and CultureShoc,senior coach, Pete Hansberger.
Together, we embark on a journeyto uncover the strategies,

(01:03):
mindsets, and actions that drivetruly exceptional leadership.
And winning culture, whether you're anemerging leader, looking to level up in
your career or an accomplished executiveseeking fresh perspectives, join us as
we uncover inspiring stories and thoughtprovoking insights from proven leaders
and share practical takeaways thatenable courageous leadership, get ready
to charge into the storm and become acatalyst for better workplace culture.

(01:29):
Welcome listeners to another episode ofthe into the storm leaders podcast day.
We're sitting down with Jim tenant.
He's on the team at CultureShoc,certified in Six Sigma, I believe.
Six Sigma Black Belt.
Six Sigma Black Belt.
Member of our EOS implementation team.

(01:50):
And has some really cool stories thatI'm excited to share with you today.
Jim, I will kick it over to you andjust let you say hi, introduce yourself,
and then we'll get into personal bestand business best, but Jim Tennant.
Thank you, Joe.

Jim Tennant (02:05):
So Jim Tennant, as you said I've been with CultureShoc
here for almost exactly five years.
Okay.
I've been doing this for a while andI've been in business for a while.
I started out as an engineer, wokeup one morning and discovered I was a
businessman instead, or in, additionto, and met Ron Kimberley, the rest

(02:26):
of the team here through a business.
Ron was our implementer tostart some time ago and just.
Fell in love with the process andthe people and here I am today.

Joe Jurec (02:39):
We're gonna dig into that because your joining CultureShoc
was unique in how you were exposedto the entrepreneurial operating
system for the first time.
But you also, you not onlyhelped us kinda round out.
And balance better because of some ofyour action modes and experience and

(03:00):
things that we hadn't discussed in aprevious episode when we were digging
into Kolbe, but it also made CultureShocreally unique in that we are a firm of
EOS implementers when most are solo.
So I think that's something youjoined about five years ago.
Kimberly was shortly before.

(03:21):
Yes.
And Ron was the founder of CultureShoc,but that a lot has happened since then.
Oh my.
And we've grown quite a bit throughclients, through also humans that are a
part of the team, me being one of them.
And I want to talk a lot today about EOS,

(03:43):
the impact you've seen it makewith some of your clients.
And any recommendations that youhave or components of it that have
been most meaningful for you beforewe get there, and that'll be the,
towards the end of this interview,I want to just learn more about you.
I think this is a cool opportunity forme to maybe share some things, learn

(04:07):
some things that we don't yet know abouteach other, even though we've worked
together for the past year and a half.
And in what I do know about you.
I think our listeners are goingto be fascinated by it as well.
And there's some things thatthey can pluck value from without
having to look too hard in justhow you plotted your own course.
And got to where you are today.

(04:28):
So we often start our meetings off here inCultureShoc with personal best business.
Best you've been busy.
I've been busy.
We haven't seen each other too frequently.
Why don't we start it out that way?
And tell me, Jim, since we'velast had an L 10 meeting or since
we've last gotten together, whatwould be your personal best and

business best?
So business best is new teams.
I love bringing on board newteams, meeting new people.
And I've been doing quitea lot of that recently.
First session with people,meeting with some new teams
that are now booking to start.
That's always exciting.
But in addition to that isthe annuals I do with people.

(05:08):
There are two day events, and they arejust intensive, tiring, wear you out.
But so valuable, I leave a two day event.
I have you get so manythousand words to speak.
I have zero words leftwhen I come from there.
I drive home quietly.
I sit in my chair quietlyand I wait for the next day.
But just so rewarding and so satisfyingfor the teams as well as for me.

Joe Jurec (05:33):
Focus day.
Is it all right?
So I would say get in the way ofpersonal best, but I don't think
we've actually touched on this orwhat the cadence or process is.
For EOS centric meetings.
So when you're talking aboutnew interactions, new teams, new
clients, generally starts with...
Starts

with Focus Day.
Okay.
We actually have three sessionsabout a month apart that get you,
as a team, versed, grounded in whatwe call the foundational tools.
But the first day we call Focus Day.
And it is all about fivebasics that you need to...
Need to know to get started.
Okay.

(06:11):
I always tell my teams, Hey, thisis one of those bathtub hockey
stick type curves where it's goingto get a little worse before it
gets better simply from workload.
There's a lot to learning this.
It is simple Joe, but not easy.
So we do those first three sessions.
So we do focus day, 30 dayslater, we have our second session.
30 days after that, we have our thirdsession called vision building days.

(06:34):
And those are intensive.
They're challenging, but theyreally get people fired up.
Yeah.
Like

Joe Jurec (06:40):
you said, sets the foundation for what to expect gives
everybody that kind of baptism to thedifferent tools and what the system is.
And then after that third session.

Then what?
Then, we meet on , quarterly basisand then once a year, there's a two
day review and planning session.
Makes sense.
And it's it's intensive.
And even in the midst of that, Iwant to take the teams out to dinner.
We want to stay in that moment.
So we end the first day always, ontime so that we have enough energy

(07:17):
and battery left to fill it andfinish that second day really strong.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Joe Jurec (07:22):
So I'm exposed with us operating on EOS, not to the focus
day, not to the, vision building dayand those first three sessions, but
really to the quarterly annual cadence.
I've now been a part of one annual andbeen a part of quite a few quarterlies.
So some of your business best, thenit's, you've had more focus days, right?

(07:43):
So that first connectionslay in the groundwork.
I can see why you'd like that too.
Just getting to meet, with a newteam and see some of the light
bulbs, some of the ahas, right?
Oh, you see their eyes light up.

How about personal best?
Personal best.
So two weeks ago just returned froman eight day vacation in Canada.
This was with my son inlaw and oldest grandson.
Oldest grandson is 15 years old.
He's this fall he'll be 16.
We had planned this when he turned13, of course, COVID interfered,
but it was a pure camping adventure.

(08:16):
We were in a cabin, butyou carry your own water.
The only electricity we had two batterypowered lights that charged up through the
day and you could use them a night untilthe battery ran out, but it was great.
It was a fishing trip.
One of the things I like best, andthey will talk about this a little
later, but my son in law asked me,he said, Hey dad, could you just

(08:36):
pour some wisdom into this boy?
Some things that you would have liked tohear when you were 13 to 15 years old.
Yeah.
Wonderful opportunity.
And he's, a great guy.
He's

Joe Jurec (08:46):
incredible.
He's amazing.
I got to meet him too.
Did you guys go

golf?
We did not.
We did not go golfing while we

Joe Jurec (08:53):
were gone.
He probably does enough of that.
He does go out and golf occasionally.
I met.
I met him when we had a team outing,as you all know, and I got a good
foot on him, maybe a foot and ahalf, it felt like, because we're
quite the age gap, and he's rockingit, like beating everyone, we've got

(09:14):
some avid golfers that were there.
And he's just insanely good.
So it's probably nice to dosomething other than that, right?
Together and have that, quality time.

It was fun.
It was fun.

Joe Jurec (09:26):
We just brushed elbows in the hallway after then, but
didn't hear much else about it.
So very cool, man.
I'm glad you had a good time.
Thank you.
I had a similar for my personal andbusiness best, my personal best.
I also had a cabin experience, butI'd say it's more glamping than we
were not bringing your own water.

(09:46):
There's plenty of electricity, butmy wife's family has now been getting
cabins and going out to the small townnear Erie, Pennsylvania with a lake.
And this year we had somewherenear 80 people in the group photo.
There were right around 70 andsome people had already left, but

(10:09):
there's about 20 or so cabins.
I think we rent almostevery single one of them.
I just got back a couple daysago, but I think the kids
outnumbered the adults this year.
. So personal best for sure.
Just got back.
And then business best, some of thesame, I think when I previously met
with Kimberly, I'd said the podcastand that's still right up there.

(10:32):
But some of these new interactions,some of the new clients that
I feel fortunate enough to.
Have trust in us to bring us intokind of an intimate setting or issues
that they're having to, problemsolve and work through some stuff.
And I have a few teams right now whereI'm working with their emerging leaders

(10:53):
and a couple of new ones where it'sthat same, that's why we do what we do.
It's we're united by discover,engage and grow leaders.
So when we can introduce somethingand help somebody, it's I know
that gives all of us a rush.
So I'd say that's beenthe business best as well.
Very good.
More about you though.

(11:14):
And I'll, shut up a little bit becauseI do really want to give you a chance to
tell the listeners and me more about you.
How about first job?
Worst job.
Okay.
All right.
If we're going to getto where you are today.
Tell us about, it can be both.
They don't need to be the same place,but tell us about your first job.
Tell us about your worst

job.
So my first job cause I'vegot a few years on you, Joe.
So this has been a while back for you.
Very kind was workingfor the farmer next door.
I was 12 years old.
He paid me exactly 1 an hour.
And I did anything youcan think of on the farm.
We did.
We baled hay.
We chased animals.

(11:56):
We put up vents.
We cut wood.
We fixed equipment.
I did everything but drive the equipment.
He always did that.
As opposed to some other people that drivewhen they're like, I don't know, four
years old, they're driving farm equipment.
Strangely enough, it's also my worst job.
Teenage boy, thirteen, fourteen years old.
If you know the difference betweenBulls and steers and involves

(12:20):
a veterinarian usually in someamount of let's call it surgery.
All right.
So part of it is somebody has toput a rope halter across the cab's
head and you hold them tightly whilethey make the bulls gender neutral.
Let's put it that way.
Yeah.
That was not my favorite job.
In fact, that was the worst job.

(12:40):
Especially for a teenage boy,

Joe Jurec (12:42):
do you got any pictures?
No.

Don't want any.

Joe Jurec (12:47):
I can't say that sounds desirable.
So that was the, first and theworst then, if that makes sense.
I'd shared that my first was DairyQueen in a previous episode, but
I don't think I shared my worst.
And it's, a, there's a boxingmatch for, what that could be.
I've had my fair share of interestingexperiences, but I would go back

(13:11):
to one of my earlier year jobsas well, because I worked in a
telemarketing office and it was.
There were some advantages.
It was, I think at the time, 15 anhour or something when I was making 5.
35 before that.
I was like, whoa, what is this?
But not necessarily the...

(13:32):
Most savory of charactersthat I was around.
I was still in high school at thetime, but there was this incentive
where for every referral you broughtin, you got an extra dollar an hour.
That's what it was.
So it was like 10 an hour, but I had fivereferrals, which brought it up to 15.
So I tolerated the pain of calling toget donations for different organizations

(13:53):
when only a small portion went tothem, how most of them are right.
And what, I didn't know any better atthe time, but after I was there for.
I was like, can I still getthe 5 an hour for my referrals?
Even if I'm not working at all, causeI just can't really be in this place
anymore is a morbid experience, butyou know, shaped me in some way,

trial by fire, right?
Oh, yeah.

Joe Jurec (14:19):
Just bang the phones get your 22 donation.
One day, kid you not the GM of the officeis we're going to do Survivor today.
Whoever's the lowest at theend of the day is fired.
We're like, there's no wayhe's fallen through with it.
He followed through with it.
I was like, wow.
Talk about fear based leadershipbefore I knew anything about

(14:44):
that, but made for some good

stories.
By the way, we don't do that inEOS or Into the Storm, right?

Joe Jurec (14:50):
No,
no.
survivor.
No survivor.
I can't really I could think of anapplication, there's better ways to
do it, there are better ways to do it.
What, characteristics foryou make up peak leadership?
And when I say that, does a personand experience a story come to mind?

(15:10):
We do this every interview becausethere's such value in talking about.
What it looks like to each person andhow we can be more aware for others.
So take it away and tell me,

Oh, wow.
So I'm going to, I'm going togive you two facets here, Joe.
One is from a personal life kind of thing.
So I'm a strange duck in a lot of ways.
My wife and I met eachother in the fifth grade.
She was a transfer student from adifferent school and we started, our
first date was a junior high dance.

(15:45):
After that, of course.
We're junior high.
We didn't go beyond that.
In high school, we started dating again.
High school sweethearts.
A small high school in a very small town.
And from that one graduatingclass, there were five couples that
married somebody else in the class.
A couple have passed away, but otherthan that, we're all still together.

(16:08):
No way.
And my wife had a verydifficult childhood.
And I still remember beforewe were married, she said,
I will break this cycle.
And she said it in a quiet, humble way.
And if you describe matriarchof a family, it's her.
And she is one of the most humble selfeffacing, but determined people I know.

(16:34):
From a personal point of view she wouldsit here, she's going to be embarrassed
to death if she ever hears this, butshe is the quiet servant leader and time
after time I've taken cues from her.
One, I mentioned my dad, he was he wasa bigger than life personality, man of

(16:54):
very few words if I did my hierarchy,it's like Jesus, Jim Tennant, John
Wayne, my dad's Jim Tennant as welland it's just that kind of a hierarchy.
And he fit the I've never operatedunder the false illusion that my
dad was perfect, but I learnedthe very best things from him.

(17:15):
And there have been so many others inmy life that I've been blessed with some
real difficult times, not personally,but just being involved with them.
And I'm a firm believer that God neverwastes a crisis and we shouldn't either.
So learning from thoseis just an amazing thing.
I've had some reallygood business leaders.

(17:35):
Some of them, people I worked for,some of them that I worked with.
One that I'm going to mention is Jim Kite.
Jim Kite was, I went to workat Thermodisc, which is an
Emerson Electric company.
Jim was an outside salespersonwhen I went to work there.
Eventually became president, andthen Emerson had what they called
group vice presidents, where you,basically were responsible for multiple

(17:58):
companies, and those companies hadmultiple international divisions.
And Jim became a group vice president.
The reason I'm talking about him ishe, taught me things to this day.
I can call him up and say, HeyJim, I'm in this situation.
What would you do here?
And he'll share.
Even to the point that I was working ina small company, less than 10 million.

(18:19):
We needed somebody new for our board.
And I told our owner,I said who'd be great.
I doubt we can get him.
Jim still a member on thatboard phenomenal person.
I learned so many good things fromhim again, a man, a few words, but
knows and believes what he says.
You

Joe Jurec (18:38):
hit that a couple of times and it's funny, Ron Kaminsky, when defining
peak leadership, he also said somethingto the effect of soft spoken or concise.
I'm working on it, quite verbose.
Oh, I talk way too much.
I did you get all their words?
I did.
Awesome, very touching and coolsentiment about your wife and the

(19:01):
relationship that both of you have.
And then Jim being.
Jim Tenen and Jim Kite being havingmajor impact on your life and that
being such a common trait, did you justsay, can I have whatever's left over?

I do like to tell stories.
How would you

Joe Jurec (19:19):
boil it down outside of the soft spoken or when you use
fewer words, they mean more andthat sentiment and recurring theme.
What other characteristics would you say?
In maybe in Jim in particular for thisone and just when you think of peak

(19:40):
leadership, how would you define that?
What are the characteristics you lookfor that you strive to emulate yourself?

If I could come back and have people tell me, Hey, Jim,
this is what I think about youthat I would be really pleased.
It would be trust Jim,we know we can trust you.
And I think in all of these people, trustis paramount and it comes from humility.
Yeah, I talk a lot and I tella lot of stories, but Joe, I

(20:11):
don't forget where I came from.
And I think that keeps me grounded.
Am I being, am I bragging about myhumility, is that what I'm doing here?
But I, think that humble all of theseguys, my dad retired at 47 years old.
He had a place in Florida, a place upon Lake Erie, a home where they lived.
How many people do that, right?

(20:33):
But nobody that met him ever thoughthe was anything than just a good guy.
Yeah.
Jim Kight, same thing.
I've heard him tell people in public.
Stories of what he felt were failuresthat nobody else, business failures.
He'd say, you know what kept me awake?
And then he would go intodepth of something that we

(20:53):
thought just bounced off.
So he was humble enough to sharewhat he considered not a success.
And vulnerable enough to share it with us.
So I think that would be twothings near the top of my
list, Joe, humility and trust

Joe Jurec (21:12):
for good reason.
There was a great way of putting it.
They're paramount leadership toconnections, to team dynamics,
relationships in general, right?
You hit on something so, important thatwe talk about a lot, and it's that.
Making space for mistakesby advertising your own.

(21:36):
Because often leaders wear armor, right?
There's just, whether it's somethingthat is subconscious or even deliberate.
Probably different for different people,but where they refuse to open up and share
because they're afraid of how it's goingto be perceived because that they think

(21:56):
that will take away some of their shine,their strength, their credibility as a
leader and it's quite the opposite, right?
But if you don't make space for somebodyelse to make a mistake, or if you don't
broadcast and advertise some of yourown, like how Jim does I'm going to

(22:18):
need to specify Jim Kite does, right?
Then others aren't going to feellike there's a space to do so.
it doesn't, you can't build that trust.
I think that those two go hand in hand.

In fact, I'll tell you a story about another
leader who's not named Jim.
How about that?
There we go.
That'll make it easier for me.
Bruce Hendrick.
Bruce Hendrick was the ownerof a company called RBB.
Okay.
And he brought me in as ageneral manager then, president.
The day I walked in, ouroffices were side by side.
Big whiteboard on thewall in Bruce's office.

(22:52):
The day I walked in as myvery first day on the job.
On his whiteboard and big red letters.
It said, I don't know,have you asked Jim yet?
I have never ever received thatkind of a gift when I was moving
into a new position, especially onethat was leadership and authority.
And what Bruce did therewas say, I trust Jim.

(23:13):
He also said, I'm letting go of this vine.
That phrase from our EOS and other talks.
And here's the thing.
I don't know if I could have done it.
That was an amazing, thing.
Now, Bruce Henbrick, in addition toowning RBB, also runs Building Trust.
He teaches how to do this.
But amazing, thing.

(23:35):
And, to this day, he and I,we're still good friends.
In fact, I'm on his board.
But we'll talk about this, and he'llsay, Yeah, people would come to my
office, and they would look in withtheir mouth open to say something.
They'd look at that board, and they'dshake their head and go back out.
Because they knew he wasgoing to follow up with.
I don't know, have you asked Jim yet?
That's brilliant.
Oh, He is brilliant.

(23:55):
It's a

Joe Jurec (23:56):
simple way to empower, because we, so often talk about, when you get
asked a question, you respond with,what would you do if I wasn't here?
How would you handle it if you weren'table to come ask somebody else because
we want people to think for themselves.
We want them to go through theright process or chain of command

(24:20):
I guess in a sense, but that on dayone that was a Deliberate action
he took is it's freaking awesome.
It is awesome that'sdelegation at its finest.
Absolutely So that was at our BB.
Tell us then more Between the, childhoodjobs and things like that, tell us

(24:42):
about your path, your journey, someof the biggest steps along the way and
I'm sure the listeners will be curiousto hear what you did at some of these
different places and how that got you

here.
Okay.
So I, have done a varietyof jobs over the years.
I've been in pipeline construction, I'vebeen in farming I did some engineering.
I went to school while I was workingon my degree while working full time.
Electronic engineering, computer science.
I was from you go see the guidancecounselor in the 7th grade.

(25:13):
Jim, what do you wantto do with your life?
I knew I wanted to be an engineer.
It just was obvious to me.
I couldn't figure out why the otherkids didn't know I was a weirdo was it

Joe Jurec (25:22):
the affinity towards working with your hands and
building and creating or

what
drew you to?
That's a great question Two thingsone was just that I like to bit to
this day I love to build a machineor a mechanism to do something.
That's just fun for me.
I do that and wordworking in my spare time.
But the other part was theelectronic side of it, because it
was not something you could see.

(25:48):
You had to figure it out.
You can't see electricityflow like you can water or a
metal part move or something.
You had to figure it out.
It was a challenge.
You had to know what you were doing.
In fact, when I talk to young peopletoday, I tell them engineering
is not making something work.
It's making it work every time.
And that's the difference.
If you're a good engineer, youcan make it work every time.

(26:09):
Now, that being said I didsome pipeline construction.
I did farming.
I did these other things.
I also worked...
This is a long list, Joe.
I don't think we have time for all of it.

Joe Jurec (26:20):
Let's, let it roll.
Let it roll.

So I...
Is it all in Ohio?
Mostly in Ohio, yes, although I'veworked all over a couple continents
North America and Europe, tiny amount,England and Germany a little bit.
But just great stuff.
So I've worked a lot of different places.
I worked in office supply.
I worked a little while in,in I worked at a gas station

(26:46):
until I got robbed at gunpoint.
I I've done a lot of different things.
What I didn't gain from all this wasone area of expertise, which is a
detriment, but I also think the diversityhas given me some real strengths.
I can see things from alot of different angles.
So fast forward I was doing engineering.

(27:09):
I was doing all this work.
I was actually at ThermaDiscand was offered a role.
A good role in anotherplant in another state.
And I had one girl just startedcollege, one girl finishing up high
school daughters and decided, Oh,the smartest thing to do would be
quit my job and start a new business.
So that's what I did.

(27:30):
And it was an engineering business.
We did automation systems for industrialsystems for manufacturers, other people.
But shortly after that it wasalmost literally, I woke up
one morning and discovered.
Yeah.
I still love engineering,but I'm a businessman now.
It's what I do.
Others are depending on me to knowhow much money do we need to make?

(27:53):
I got to the point, Joe, where everyMonday morning I knew how much revenue
we had to make to break even that week.
I, even to this day, I encourageevery business owner have that
number in your head and Mondaymorning just to look at it that way.
Just look at

Joe Jurec (28:07):
it.
That could have a pulse.
Yeah.
Of what's happening in your business.

Exactly.
Exactly.
After that, then it became okay,what can I do with this business?
So I built a couple of small businesses.
I did some startups for otherpeople bought and sold a couple
of businesses, helped people buyand sell a couple of businesses,
learned something at every step.
And at every step of the way, I've hadgreat, managers or CEOs or owners who

(28:35):
have just helped me beyond measure.
Would, go way out on a limb andsend me for training that nobody
else had asked for or probablywould be afraid to ask for.
They've sent me to M& A schools.
They sent me to my black beltschool at Akron University, yes.
Just great, stuff.

(28:55):
It really has been a blessed life.
It really has.
I'm not the most wealthy person,but I'm certainly the richest.
With my family and everything else.
It's just it's a rich life.
All those things coalesced.
And I will tell you, even inbuying, building, buying, and
selling businesses, I always feltlike I was moving up the chain.
And then, I had a owner CEO,and he insisted on what you,

(29:20):
what he called an off season.
As a higher level leader, hewanted you to take a week.
You went somewhere on your own.
It wasn't a vacation.
It was not a time where you took andgathered and, caught up on everything.
In fact, he was fine if it was aspiritual retreat or a business
retreat or whatever it was.
We call it a clarity break now.

(29:40):
But he loved this idea.
And at one of those, I rememberedsomebody had said, Jim, do you
have a personal mission statement?
And I didn't.
And I got to thinking about that.
I always took the big,the giant post it notes.
The two foot by three foot.
I had those all over the cabin wall.
And I had formed mypersonal mission statement.

(30:02):
And I won't give you the whole thing.
But the short form is, I'm here tohelp people build stronger castles.
And it's It is in effect withevery major decision I make.

Joe Jurec (30:15):
I love that.
And you shared that onewith me before when we were
working on a project together.
And that's when I first learned someof this when I was like, Oh yeah, we
gotta have Jim just tell, more abouthis story and some of the, just the,
building businesses, the helping peoplesell businesses, I quite frankly relate.

(30:37):
with the sentiment about being more ajack of all trades than a master of one.
The last part of that expressionthat often gets left off.
You know it?
No, please.
Jack of all trades, master of none, isoftentimes better than a master of one.
And...

(30:59):
I'm sure some peoplewould disagree with that.
And there's for certain things.
I want people to be themaster of it, right?
When it is a surgeon, a brainsurgeon, somebody who's working on
something that's going to fly intospace especially when there's lives
on the line and things like that.
All right.
I'll take that.

(31:20):
That's specialists there.
But I've also read a lotand heard people say.
When you know, as you did at such ayoung age, what you want to do, and if
you actually do just see that throughand stick with it because you've already
invested so much of your time and someof your effort, if you stay in that one
path, that one lane your entire life,like knowing at an early age can be a

(31:43):
curse because you don't get exposureto so many different things that you
may have ended up liking a lot moreor having this gift for this skill
that you had not yet fully unearthedand you never would, if you didn't

(32:03):
diversify in some way and get exposureto different things, the way that you do.
And I'm pretty sure you've probably gota darn good idea of the type of work.
that you're best at.
Yeah.
And sure there's things like Kolbe andworking genius and things that we talk
about all the time that likely help.
But through sheer experience andexposure to these different things,

(32:24):
you probably learn pretty quickly.
I like this kind of stuff.
I don't like this as much.
Or when we talk about delegating,we say, don't just delegate
the least important things.
Make sure you're holding ontothe things that are at the cross
section of I'm very skilled.
And then.
I enjoy them or get a lot of satisfactionand they offer a lot of value, right?

(32:47):
And if it's only two of those three,there's going to be something missing,
whether it be productivity, effectiveness,or if you're just going to burn out them.
But I feel like you, throughyour own mission statement,
through our interactions, youknow yourself really, well.
And that probably led youthen to what you're doing.
So I guess what would you say insome of the that you had as, as

(33:12):
president, as owner or founder of somedifferent businesses, like how did
that turn into EOS implementation?
What.
What does that part ofthe story look like?
And if there's some more to tellabout when you moved into those senior
leadership roles, when you we're,building some of these businesses,
feel free to share that too.
But I know there's a pivotal time whenyou were introduced to EOS that resulted

(33:37):
in us having a chance to sit here today.

I.
Thank you.
From hearing you, I knowthat a lot of people refer to
either COVID or 2008, right?
I will just briefly in 2008, I it wasOctober of 2008, I started a brand new
startup business for a different owner.
I think it was on the 3rd, and if Iremember right, the crash was on the 8th.

(34:02):
So that was literally our timing super,super gentleman very honorable man.
He owned like, I think fivebusinesses at the time, and
this was going to be our sixth.
He would have stuck withme through the bitter end.
I talked to him.
I said, Hey, Bob this is crazy.
Let's not waste your money.
Part of this business I startedup was to be an internal
service to his other companies.

(34:23):
So we hired another engineerto fulfill that internal.
And I started looking aroundwell before I went very far.
I get a contact from somebody thatsays, Hey, there's a company down here
in Worcester, near where you live.
They're looking for a VPwho can do manufacturing
operations, all these things.
So I checked that out.
I ended up working for a companycalled Prentke Romic, which

(34:47):
was an introduction to me.
It's a medical device company.
They make voice devicesfor people who can't speak.
Now, I am a ruthless capitalist at heart.
I go into this place and I love it.
I love the people, but I seeopportunities for improvement everywhere.
We can be more efficient.
We can spend our money better.

(35:09):
Lean, Six Sigma, all these things, right?
Then about a month in, so I'm, Ithink I had four or five departments.
So my managers, I was pushing thema little bit right from the get go.
Super people, by the way.
Fantastic team.
And I would tell him look, wecan't give everything away.
And then they had thispresentation, a young man came

(35:30):
in, he was in his mid twenties.
He had what we call multiple diagnosis.
So he was cerebral palsy,had some mental difficulties,
and he couldn't speak at all.
But he had one of these devices.
In his show, they called it, hisparents said, you want to see his show.
He would point at you with the biggest,most sincere smile you'd ever seen.

(35:50):
And you would say, my name is Joe.
And he would rapidly type on hismachine and the machine would say
back to you, Hello, Joe, how are you?
And he just did that over andover with person and person.
I went immediately to my officeafterwards, called my wife and said,
Hey, honey, I may lose this job, butwe're going to give away everything
for free because these people need it.

(36:11):
It was just that kind of an impact on me.
So working there for the nextfive years was fantastic.
Fantastic.
But we caught.
I say this and it sounds veryunhumble, but I conquered that.
I felt like I have impacted here a lot.
My favorite thing, I've built ateam who can do this without me.

(36:34):
What's my next challenge?
Because if we look at my Kolbe, Joe,my follow through has a limit, right?
Yeah.
In the meantime...

Joe Jurec (36:42):
And I don't think that's opposite of humble, by the way, Jim.
Okay.
It's like we talk about humble confidenceand how there, there's that healthy
overlap between humility and confidence.
You, have to believe inyourself and you have to...
Have that kind of fire, right?
Yeah if you're just straight humble 100%without the confidence factor You're

(37:08):
probably not gonna share Your gifts orthe things that you're uniquely excellent
at with so many other people So I'm gladthat you married those two and I hope
you see it that way, too I'm sure you do.
Thank you, but just to know how itcomes across to me like yeah, if you
If you don't think you're the best,nobody else will, but you also have

(37:31):
to know that you don't know anythingand you're going to continue to
learn something every single day.
It's like this, funny balance, right?
But I think you've mastered that.
That at least comes across in everysingle interaction that we have.
Thank you.
Yeah.

But at the very least I, felt like I was looking for a new challenge.
And coincidentally, amutual friend said, Hey.
Bruce Hendrick, I mentioned atRBB, is looking for somebody
to help him in his business.
Bruce is a very wise man but he haddecided, he was the CEO of the business,
and he had decided, hey, I'm goingto fire our CEO and hire a new one.

(38:06):
That's the way he put it.
I came into that.
So I went from a great jobwith a great stable company.
We're growing.
Our care was wonderful number everyyear to We're writing 90 day notes
for payroll, Jim, just so you know,coming in and it just was, it was me,
Joe here's, something to be conquered,something to change, something to

(38:28):
make other people's lives better.
Because when you mess with somebody'sjob, you don't mess with their
job, you mess with their life.
And I saw the challenge, went home, talkedto my wife, she she's, she supported
me very completely and I made the jump.
And it was a difficult one.
Aside from the fact I walkedin on the first day and the

(38:48):
whiteboard really gave me a gift.
So I saw that.
I walked into my brand new office.
One of the leading managers in the placecame in and handed me a white envelope.
And I jokingly said, Oh,gee, I hope this isn't what I
thought it, what I think it is.
He didn't smile.
He didn't say a word.
And indeed, it was his resignation.

(39:08):
We handled that.
We handled that.
The team around.
Pitched in and made it work.
It was it was just a kind of a seachange moment for the organization,
but it didn't get better overnight.
We struggled for a while our meetingsstunk great people where we're trying

(39:33):
to solve a problem, we'd schedulea one hour meeting, two hours and
30 minutes into a one hour meeting.
We're still talking it to death.
We finally think we've solved something.
A month later, we're having that samemeeting, solving the same problem.
And I recognized, Hey, wegot to change something.
So I started looking aroundhow to have better meetings.
And what I discovered was something.

(39:55):
called the L10 meeting.
And the L10 meeting, the level 10meeting, from there I learned about EOS.
And I actually went out andinterviewed people at companies
where they had started using EOS.
Five out of six said, great, we loveit, we'll never do it without it.
The sixth one...
How did

Joe Jurec (40:14):
that go?
How did you go about...
Identifying them or reachingout to them to say Hey, will you

share?
I was also a member of a Vistage group atthe time, which fantastic organization.
Still in contact with all those people.
Great.
So I asked some of them, doyou know anything about EOS?
Turned out a couple did.
Who did you use?
Who do you know?
They all knew somebodythey could put me on to.
And it was, to me at the time, itfelt like a secret nobody was sharing.

(40:46):
They probably wanted to share.
Yeah, exactly.
They're, hey, can Ibuy you lunch and talk?
You don't have to buy lunch.
I'll buy you.
Let me tell you all about it.
Very excited.
The one person who said, Jimwe, tried it and it didn't work.
Big, multinational, matrixdecision making, exactly the
opposite of entrepreneurial.
Yeah, that, that sold me.

(41:07):
So I went into the owner and Isaid, Hey, Bruce, we're going
to try something different.
He said, it's about time.
And we, started down the roadto EOS fast forward 28 months.
Instead of writing 90 day notes,we've got, can I say how much we had
a million dollars cash in the bank?
We had the only debt we had was somelongterm debt that we had reduced.

(41:29):
We went from plus or minus a couplepercent profit every year to a good
15, 16, 17 percent net year after year.
Here's the thing I'm most excited about.
When I finally decided to leave thatjob and move on, they kept that good
progress going the caveat being COVID.
COVID hit them after I left, and thatwas both a win and a loss for them.

(41:52):
But they've worked through that.
They're back to great margins again.
They're doing super.
Still following the U.
S.
method.
So it was, and what I toldpeople was, I will never run
another organization without a U.
S.
My my operations laterleader teased me about that.
And she'd say, Jim you,say that all the time.

(42:13):
When are you going to put yourmoney where your mouth is?
So I called her on, Icalled her on Kaminsky.
And I said, Hey.
If I ever thought about, he said,come on up here and let's talk.
So we talked for about two minutes.
We both knew I was gonna do it.
He knew he was gonnahire me into CultureShoc.
Then we spent another 30 minutesfiguring out how to do it.
Yeah, we did.
It was the first time in my life thatI made a change that was not some

(42:37):
sort of a promotion or an advancement.

Joe Jurec (42:40):
So that was a storm Then in some way it was a storm
and you hit on a couple there.
It sounds like a lot of the changes.
That you made weren't like, eventhat, when you pick the phone and call
the wife and said, Hey, we're movinginto this one, or a lot of these job
changes were the road less traveled.

(43:01):
Like they were storms that you made this.
Difficult decision or just chose pain.
Why do you keep choosing pain, Jim?
What is it that's drawing youto these next things that are
so not easy or not comfortable?
Because you live it that into thestorm mentality it's, it comes

(43:21):
through in our interactions, butalso in every step of your journey.
It seems, I don't know any,thoughts or sentiment on that.
Do you do this consciously or is itjust hardwired subconscious innate
built into view built into You

That's a so I'm going to be really vulnerable here.
When I was telling you about the fishingtrip with my grandson and my son in
law said, pour some wisdom into him.
And I, oh, I thought aboutthis for weeks and months.
What's the most important thingI would like this young man to
remember that I've ever told him.
And I found somethinghidden inside mistakes.

(44:00):
I've made Joe while the best thingsI've done in my life have been,
I've got 61% of the information.
I'm going to make adecision and go forward.
Those that has also sometimes hurt me.
It's hurt, some people around me whenI decide to change jobs or start a new

(44:20):
business or hire someone, there's a lot ofother people that get drafted around that.
So if, anybody's listening to thisand they hear me say Take a risk,
jump off, that kind of thing.
Just remember, it's not justyou, your family, your friends,
the people you work for and witheverybody gets drafted in a decision.

(44:42):
So I hope over the years I'm doing abetter job of it's a conscious decision
instead of, oh yeah, we'll be fine.
But I will tell you that's been agrowing thing for me and a long time ago.
So I haven't just been jumpingoff the dock a long time ago.
I decided I need to make decisions.

(45:03):
Let's face it when you're a teenagekid and you run into something 99% of
the time you don't make a bad decision.
You don't make a decision.
You just go with it.
So what I told my grandson was.
If I could do everything over,and what I'd like him to remember
about me is do things in thisorder, pray, decide, then act.

(45:24):
And if I could go back to the things inmy life, I think I could do much better.
I could do much better.
That's not to say thatI regret these things.
I regret the hurt that's comefrom them, but not the experience.
It's all been good.
It's all been good.

Joe Jurec (45:39):
Thank you for, being willing to share and that is vulnerable.
That's something like I felt it when youwere describing it because it's real.
And while I think there isabsolutely some truth and wisdom,
even in the so being decisive.
Has value, but we so often failto realize how much power and

(46:06):
influence we have over those aroundus and how for, good or bad, right?
Like we don't recognizethat we can do so much good.
In the lives of those that we careabout, of those that we're surrounded by.
We also sometimes have tunnel vision anddon't realize the unintended consequences.

(46:30):
And that sentiment that you shared,it like, shows your awareness,
your mindfulness of how you know,some of those moves, while yes, it
was a storm and something that Hadchallenge with Upside that it was
really conquering as a personal step,recognizing how you eloquently put

(46:50):
others would get drafted into everydecision I think is a pretty profound
one, I appreciate you sharing that.
Thank you.

I'm sure I heard somebody smarter than me say that somewhere, Joe.

Joe Jurec (47:02):
I'm, sure you didn't, but that's a nice way to just lay it,
layer, get out the butter knife andlay on some, additional humility, Jim,
as you'll so often do, but, so youwere introduced to EOS in that manner.
You brought it into your businessthat you'll never run it again.
Never run a business again without EOSand then started to explore what it

(47:26):
would look like to become an implementer.
Met with Ron.
Yep.
Joined forces at CultureShoc.
What has that been like?
Now break it down for
us.
Like the entrepreneurial operating system.
Maybe the way you'd explain it to people.
Some of the things that have been mostmeaningful from it for you or some.

(47:48):
Stories that you had with, clients.
Let's start with how you'd explain it.
What, is EOS?

So for me, EOS when I'm telling somebody you need EOS, the
two words that I use are clarity andaccountability, or clarity and trust.
They're very, interrelated.
But the words we use in EOSare clarity and accountability.
So why, if I'm we also use thephrase hitting the ceiling and

(48:17):
this can be anything from a revenueceiling, a performance ceiling.
I just want to do somethingnew and different.
Maybe, it's a ceiling created bythe environment or the economy
or a competitor, but there'ssomething that's stopping you.
That's keeping you from growth in,in numbers, in quality, in value.

(48:40):
One is always, when you ask somebodywhat's your biggest problem running
this business, they say people.
Most of the time they include themselvesin that equation, and I think that's wise.
So what problem do people have?
They, nobody's accountable for anything.
Nobody takes ownership.
Okay, good.
Are they clear on what they own?

(49:01):
So let's be clear.
Let's have clarity.
And then let's keep everyoneaccountable, including ourselves.
So you know here, Joe, we haveour L10 meetings and we hold
all each other accountable.
Hey Jim, you said youwere going to do this.
How's that going?
Hey Joe, you're workingon the podcast room.
How's that going?

(49:22):
It's not browbeating anybodybecause the question we follow
up with is, how can I help?
So it's not who's to blame.
It's what do we need?
What are we going to do?
That's really accountability, butit is a mind shift from people
who say, that's not my job.
I'd look through my job description,it doesn't say specifically this to

(49:46):
people who say in a meeting in frontof others that's on me, I've got that.
And it is on them, whether it'sgreat results or not great results,
that ownership is critical.
So how can we foster that as leaders?
We have to be clear and to be clear.
So I'm going to get into myother big thing here, which is
the five abilities of a leader.

(50:07):
Okay.
So this is Pure Lencioni.
It comes from his book,The Five Dysfunctions.
And the five dysfunctions of a team,trust, conflict, right up that ladder.
So what are the fiveabilities of a leader?
Simplify, delegate, predict,structure, and systemize.

(50:30):
I think I said them in, the reverse order.
It's systemize and structure.
I love that order.
Mainly because that'sthe order we get to it.
If I'm a leader in an organization andnobody's able to get all their work done,
I probably am making things too complex.
I probably have 51 differentexceptions to every rule.

(50:53):
Instead of letting my people know,Hey, here's the three ways we do it.
This is the way our organization runs.
If you get an exception to that.
You are empowered to do this andthis, otherwise, let's get with the
team and figure out how to help it.
That's the simplify.
The delegate number one, you'vegot to have a good structure

(51:14):
before you can start delegating.
You have to have clarity beforeyou can start delegating.
And the biggest thing youneed clarity on is yourself.
What can I do well?
What am I micromanaging thenpredicting and we're not talking
about predicting the next recessionor the next COVID we're talking about.
Are we going to need overtime next week?

(51:35):
I don't know.
We have to wait till next week and see.
Sorry.
No, that's not a good answer.
People need to plan.
You need to plan.
Let's look at the data we have.
Let's make our best prediction.

Joe Jurec (51:45):
Yep.
Form a hypothesis based on theinformation in front of you or Exactly.
Have that big picture, forwardthinking way of looking at it, right?
Exactly.
Yep.
You're going to be wrong.

And we'll fix it.
We'll adjust it.
We'll move on.
But

Joe Jurec (51:58):
still having an educated guess or prediction that you then make sure is
clearly communicated with other people.
I get it.

I talked earlier about one of the mistakes I'd
made in the past, and that was it.
I couldn't tell my people ifthey needed to work overtime
on Saturday until Friday night.
They hated it, and deservedly so.
without knowing how we were goingto do it, my leadership team came
to me and said, Jim, can we telleverybody on Wednesday if we're
going to need to work on Saturday?
That's a brilliant idea.
Let's do that.

(52:29):
Nobody knew how, but as soon as we toldthe rest of the team, we will tell you
by Wednesday afternoon so you can plan.
Oh, we were brilliant.
They didn't know how we weregoing to do it either, but
they thought we were brilliant.
And we made that work.
We made that work.
And it was it was a reliefto everybody, especially me.
That.
Simplify, delegate, predict, and then thesystems and systems are just processes.

(52:55):
And I'm a big, believerin simple processes.
I'm not talking about the row of binders

Joe Jurec (53:00):
on your wall.
Oh, yeah.
Manual the, processguide that will take you.
Yeah.
To, go through that nobody'sreally going to follow.

I had a good experience in one.
So back in the days when I worked inpackaging, we would set up a suite.
We called it a big room wherewe would do some contract job.
It might be there six days, six weeks.
We had one suite with two differentlines in their packaging a product.
I don't remember how many people inthe room, but there were 13 different
languages spoken in one room.

(53:32):
Wow.
Many of those people spoke one language.
Nobody spoke them all.
So our.
SOPs, our work instructions, everythinghad to be very simple and what they
came up with, I can't take creditfor this, what they came up with was
pictures, one laminated picture frontand back because everybody could read
the digit one, two, three, with arrowswith a one and a two and a three.

(53:57):
That was the things youshould have been trained.
Oh, I set one, then I settwo, then I checked three.
If you didn't know what youwere supposed to do with number
seven, you go ask your leader.
And it was an amazing difference.
So when I talk processes,that was a full process.
Simple.
If you're, if your kids or grandkidsplay with Legos, they make some

(54:19):
of the best processes in the worldand they use no language at all.
You're right.

Joe Jurec (54:23):
I've done visual merchandising direction and field
communication where I'd work withdifferent business units and.
Find out how, can we make thismost executable by thousands of,
people in different locationsall across the country.

(54:44):
And often.
It was realizing we overcomplicated it.
We need to make it simple enough foreveryone to look at it quickly, but
also give them the benefit of the doubtthat they're smart, they're capable.
They're going to figure it out.

(55:04):
Yes.
You don't need to overengineer instruction, right?
That's where that, that simplifyand the systematized components
of this five leadership abilities.
And it really resonated with me.
Have you seen the Candylandfigure I have on my desk?
Yes that's, fantastic.
Do you know, did I tellyou the story of this one?
No, Alright I've got the little green.

(55:25):
Joe, you've got a lotof figures on your desk.
There's a couple over there, they,my little tokens, they each mean
something, they're a way to remind me.
I figure some of them I'm going to gettattooed because the desk is starting to
fill up and then I can at least look atmy arm and be like, oh yeah, say less.
But the Candyland one in particular issomething that I would bring to meetings.
With my team before something wentout in a mass field communication to,

(55:53):
as a reminder, keep it simple shapes,colors, numbers don't overdo it.
And I, I keep that as my, I'll lookdown at it and remember Oh yeah,
it's my kick in the butt, my selfcheck to say, could I simplify this?
Could I make it easier tounderstand, save people time and.

(56:15):
When you were describing thatprocess for 13 different languages
and how you went about doing it,even for was somebody else's idea.
You can take partial credit for it, Jim.
It's all right.
I think there's, absolutely somethingmeaningful there for, leaders to
realize, because that's a gap areais there's not, when people think

(56:37):
of leaders, they're not like they'reall really good at simplifying.
Ron's really good at simplifying.
Some of the people that I think ofin peak leaders are, some aren't.
And I can see why that's such animportant piece of EOS for you.
So what about the last one?
Then I think you hit on the first four

structure
So structure is that's whereaccountability lives, but
also where strategy lives.
So what we tell people is wecall it our accountability chart.
But what we tell people is this is yourstructure for the next six to 12 months.
And I encourage people to havelike tabs in an Excel sheet.

(57:15):
All right.
This is your.
Written structure yourhard copy structure.
What's the next one going to looklike when do you want to go to that

Joe Jurec (57:23):
and for those not familiar with Eos or at least not
operating on Or implementing us.
We're talking about essentiallycommon language and org chart

But I throw up a little bit when

Joe Jurec (57:36):
you call it that.
I was going to say.
But on some steroidswith a different take.
We'll save the full blown tool review ofan accountability chart for a later one.
But when you're describing this, I thinkthat's a good way people can visualize.
And I guess just keep that in mind.
If you can, at a high level, explainsimply the accountability chart.

(57:58):
Sure.

Simplest form.
And let me say it this way.
The difference between an org chart andaccountability chart accountability chart
is what seat, because we always build theseat and then figure out who goes in that
seat, what that seat owns, not tasks theyshould do, but areas, responsibilities,
accountabilities that they actually own.

(58:22):
And Joe, this runs from the bottomof your organization to the top.
It makes it clear to everyone.
And by the way.
This seat is accountable to this seatdoes not mean you can only talk their
communication goes across the board,but accountability is a very direct.
There are no dotted lines.
There's never more thanone name in a seat.

(58:42):
Your name might appear in morethan one seat, but there's never
more than one name in a seat.
Because if more than one personowns something Nobody else.
That's it in a nutshell.
We say there's seat and roles, thinkfunctions, think areas that I own and I,
won't drill down any further than that.
It is a powerful tool.

(59:04):
Kimberly refers to it asthe root of all evil which I
always smile, but she's right.
If there's a problem with how thingsare going, let's start with the
accountability chart that gives us thebest picture of what it ought to be.
Now let's see where the rootwhere the evil really lies

Joe Jurec (59:20):
the clarity aspect of having the absolute role associated
with the seat Was a big one for me.
I was like, oh that makes too muchsense To break it down this way.
So yeah, thank you for that.
And those five leadership abilities,I think Hopefully everyone listening
can find Something there that'srelevant, meaningful for them and that,

(59:43):
they can sharpen their acts with alittle bit, that they can apply some
additional focus on in every episode.
We say, use this as aclarity break in some way.
Yeah.
Use this as a moment to pause, toself assess, think about what are
the things you're really good at.
One of the things that you needto put some additional care
and effort into strengthening.

(01:00:05):
And I'm sure there's one ofthose five leadership abilities.
That each person recognizes, Hey, thisisn't necessarily my top strength.
This is somewhere that I shouldtake some deliberate or intentional
efforts to get better in.
So I'd encourage everyone to do that.

Jim Tennant (01:00:22):
I would as well.
One of the things from my work withmy EOS teams is I see after, let's
say a year, four or five sessions.
We have issues list where here's someproblems, some issues we need to solve.
And we use that terminology.
We say, okay, which of the fiveabilities do we need to pour some
extra on this issue to get it solved?

(01:00:44):
It's a great word picture ofwhat we can do to move forward.
And it helps us sharpen our, what yousaid, sharpen our ax, make a finer point.
Yeah.

Joe Jurec (01:00:55):
When groups have a system like this, It gives them clarity
because there's common understanding,common language, common tools.
Everyone's rowing together, right?
It's not that you've got John overhere, who's introducing this way of
thinking or a philosophy or a toolthat nobody else has seen while

(01:01:19):
Susan has her own take on things.
Just getting on the samepage is so important.
And I'd felt that with different systems,tools over the years, but not assembled
in the such a way that EOS that justperfectly puts a bow on it and makes it

(01:01:42):
easy if, you're entrepreneurial minded.
And I've seen some larger, organizations.
Implemented successfully at a divisionlevel or they're like, I'm going
to find a way to muscle this thing.
And I know our target market for EOSclients is a little bit small to midsize

(01:02:03):
businesses, but we're not talkingabout companies that have 10, 000
employees, unless they do truly have.
That entrepreneurial mindset and away of doing it at a division level.
Who would you say what, is that kind of.
Is there an ideal target market orclient that you've seen for EOS?

So my current clients run from, say, 15, 17 employees
to 3 million a year, up to around200 million, maybe 200 employees.
I know Kimberly, Ron, theyhave some larger than that.
We generally don't go smaller than that.
The rule of thumb is, areyou entrepreneurially led?

(01:02:50):
So for example, one of my clients ismultinational multi continent, but they
are led from the top by six people.
And those six people knowthe business inside out.
They could go down and work onthe floor of any place, right?
They're not.
A big corporation where the decision thisdecision has to go through this committee.

(01:03:13):
That entrepreneurial mindset that youjust said and let me turn this around on
you a little bit, Joe you're not an EOSimplementer, but you work with a lot of
our EOS teams from the end to the storm.
What do you see?
That is different.
What do you see that, that, wow, thisis the mojo feels different here.
What do you see with

Joe Jurec (01:03:35):
those that are operating on EOS?
Yes.
The meeting effectivenessstands out for sure.
But I think it's the rocks, like the,quarterly initiatives, the, okay.
Other people may have a hand toplay in these, but ultimately it's
this person's risk, the way thatrocks tie into our level tens.

(01:03:57):
And our milestone with cascadeinformation so that way anyone
affected or involved knows thisis what the company is working on.
This is what's important.
Who is responsible for it and theprogress being made against it.
That has been something I hear.
I see and I've lived that areprobably some of the most meaningful

(01:04:21):
aspects or unique aspects of it.
As far as target market, like evensome of the clients I work with are
not necessarily right sized for EOS,but I also have interactions where
like with everything that we do, we'reinfluenced by countless different things.

(01:04:42):
Find what's relevant, findwhat's meaningful, find
something that helps you grow.
And make incremental progress.
And when I talked to somebodywho's maybe a huge organization
that is not entrepreneurial,I'd still recommend traction.
Oh, absolutely.
I'd still recommend anything fromthe library or the, tool set as a

(01:05:07):
way for you to just get stuff done.
And I think there, there's apurity component of it when
you are right size that.
You, Ron, Kimberly, help organizationskind of stick to because it
can get really muddy, right?
If there's Chad OS and Bill OSinstead of EOS, these hybrid forms.

(01:05:31):
But I think for, everybody as withas much as you're consuming, as
you're influenced by exposed to.
If we can just get more disciplinedabout capturing it in some way and
taking intentional actions to implementand make some progress on it, I
think we'll be in a better place.
I think

that's...
And I would throw this in as well.
It is about people whowant to make a change.
They want...
to be different and better.
Some of my clients are not businesses.
They're non profits.
A church with three different campuses.
I have some pure non profitorganizations, but their leadership

(01:06:09):
team, they know they've hit a ceiling.
They know they are workingfor the greater good, which is
another very large aspect of EOS.
What is the greater goodfor this organization?
And I have absolutelyno dichotomy in my head.
It works well for these groups as well.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I am a bonafide capitalist, but when Isee this work so well in nonprofits, it's

(01:06:33):
about making a change, making it better.
Yeah.

Joe Jurec (01:06:37):
People.
In every company group I've beena part of, there's an attempt to
get everyone on the same page androwing together, but I'd never seen
something else quite like a VTO, whichvision, traction, optimizer, right?
Organizer.
Vision, traction, vision,traction, organizer.

(01:07:00):
What's a VTO?
Can

you explain that?
I can.
And I laugh because I've got anerdy little admission to make
as well, but so you have a visionpage, you have a traction page.
There are eight questions that youanswer about your organization, and this
becomes your touchstone, your guiding.
It helps you make decisions.

(01:07:23):
It helps everybody get on thesame page of where we're headed.
What are our priorities?
What are our core values here?
And it's not, we don't,these aren't aspirational.
They're not the promotional poster on thewall the inspirational poster on the wall.
These are real things andqualities we have now.
And they are used, this is the secret,they are used to hire, fire, recognize,

(01:07:44):
and reward from top to bottom.

Joe Jurec (01:07:46):
They are actually used somewhere, not as just fancy
writing on the break room wallor in the onboarding packet, but
you're talking about the values.
They are

practical, pragmatic, yes.
And all of it.
It when you've got that CEO or ownerand they come in with the flavor
of the month, this shiny thingthat attracts them, you and I are
both victims of that syndrome, Joe.
We victimize others.

Joe Jurec (01:08:12):
We victimize others.
In that way.

This because we have as one of those eight
questions, what is our core focus?
What is our core niche?
It helps us encapsulate or incorporateall the things that we should be doing.
But it also helps guide theorganization away from the shiny stuff.
So it's really good.
So my nerdy little admission, mywife and I have our own personal VTO.

(01:08:35):
Love it.
We've used it for retirement savings.
We've used it for projectswe're going to get around.
I hesitate to say this because itsounds like marriage counseling,
but I will readily admit thatit helps me communicate better.
And she's always been a good communicator.
Me, not so much, but it really helps us.

(01:08:56):
We don't do a weekly, but we doa regular and it's, really handy.
So I see it as an organization.
I have one team, they laminated their.
There's and put it up on the wall.
And if they're in a meeting with theleadership team or some mid manager
team, and there's a big discussiongoing on, they point at it and say,

(01:09:16):
Hey, this thing we're talking aboutthis problem or this idea or this
strength or weakness, how does it affectwhere we're headed in the next year?
The next three years, the next 10 years,is it in line with our core values?
Is this what we tell people we do?
It's a great,

Joe Jurec (01:09:33):
tool having it captured on a front and back that this
is what we need to stay true to.
This is how we can actually make decisionsbased on what we agreed on, but also
get others rallied around what we'reall about and make sure that they're

(01:09:53):
included, involved and aware of what'smost important to us as an organization.
That's where I see it.
Having so much value is I've seenyou and other team members guide
some of our clients through havinga town hall or a state of the union.
What is there an EOS term?

(01:10:15):
We call it a rollout, right?
And EOS rollout, a way of gettingeveryone in the organization on the same
page in review of that VTO document.
And then.
There being some sort of updateto what's happening with it
is just brilliant and simple.

(01:10:36):
And I think that's really somethingevery organization can benefit from.
And it's, it helped me jump right in withCultureShoc and make decisions based on

you could see that here's how we do it here and here's who
does it here and here's what they do.

Joe Jurec (01:10:53):
Yeah.
Otherwise, I would not have had.
Nearly the level of confidence putting mythumbprint on the sort of things that I
have because I would have been questioningif this decision was in line with what
got us here and what formed CultureShoc.
And because of that, I canconstantly look to it and say does

(01:11:13):
it align with this core focus?
These values?
Can I say hell?
Yeah, let's go.
I know that I Everyone else willbe aligned and in support of this
because that's our North star.
Exactly.
I don't want to beat it todeath, but I just felt like that

was important though.
It is so powerful.
And so important that I give it away.
If anybody's listening and they'relike, Hey Jim, could we get a BTO?
Yes, I will come sit down withyou, show you how to use it
and leave it with you for free.
Awesome.
Okay.
So it's just, I'm a believer

Joe Jurec (01:11:45):
in the description.
I'll make sure that yourinformation is on there.
If you're curious about what thislooks like or how to actually fill
one out, you can reach out to Jim.
I'll take care of it.
We'll talk you through it and atleast get you off on the right foot.
Yep.
Love it.
What else, Jim, what would you say?
We, hit on quite a few things.
This isn't the only time we'regoing to have you on here.

(01:12:06):
So I don't want either of us tofeel like we got to get it all in.
I'd like the listeners to, hear moreabout the, time as an implementer
and the storms that you face, someof the, things you overcome and
that your teams have overcome.
We can do a few moreepisodes in the future.
What would you say though?

(01:12:26):
You're great at distilling.
Wisdom down and the way thatyou shared that story about your
personal best and how you sharedthat with your grandson, right?
My grandson.
How would you do that for our listeners?
Like when you think about I'm sure wehave some folks that are executives
and owners tuning into this, butalso emerging leaders, first time

(01:12:50):
managers, middle managers, peoplelooking to grow their career.
what would be your, sentiment,wisdom, advice, anything that you
did not yet get a chance to sharethat you think could help somebody.
Who might be listening to this

today?
That's a great question, Joe.
I can tell you this simply.
So I started my first businessin 1995 and was a great run.
I love doing it.
I'm still proud of that work.
Still have a lot of friends weused to work together there.
Had I a business method, then, like this,I might still just be doing that business.

(01:13:32):
Or, I might have movedon to 20 new things.
This is a, this is somethingthey don't teach you in school,
that I purely wish they would.
It is such a foundational, fundamentaltool that that's the best thing I can say.
I wish I had learned it a long time ago.

(01:13:53):
We're talking to EOS.
We're talking

Joe Jurec (01:13:54):
EOS.
And that says something.
So I know that was one of thetopics I wanted to cover today, but.
But with it having such a profoundimpact that you go back and
tell your 25 year old version.
So six or seven years ago, versionof you that, that advice or
wisdom and also for our listeners.

(01:14:17):
I'm sure everybody can take somethingfrom it and it can have that a similar
impact if not the same regardlessif you're a business owner or not.
I imagine, what would you sayif I am a first time manager,
how do I dip my toe in?
What would you recommend?

So the way I started we'll send you a book, give me a call,
I'll get you a book, read the tractionbook, bear down on the L10 meeting.
That is a skill that you candelegate up, down, or sideways.
It will help you in any meeting that youhave to run or any meeting you're in.
Fantastic tool.
It's a great, as you say, agreat place to dip your toe in.

(01:15:00):
And frankly, it's a goodstarting point because that's
a weakness for many, people.
When was the last time you werein a meeting you loved, Joe?

Joe Jurec (01:15:09):
A week or two ago.
But before that, some ofthem got pretty rough.
Yeah.
And at the end of it, we're like, wait.
Who's doing what did anybody capturethat did do we all have different
notes and different action items here?
Does anyone actually knowwhat the other persons are?
Why did that take an hour and a half?
I feel like that was the samemeeting we had three days ago
Right the list goes on right there.

(01:15:29):
We've all been subjected to and probablysubjected others to some really bad
meetings Yes, I love that recommendation.
That's a good one.
Thank you reach out to Jim.
He'll get you a copy attractionif you'd like it Take you through
the vision traction organizerPersonal or professional, right?
Do one for the business, or ifsomebody wants to do the personal
plan, I would be glad to help you.
He'd be happy to help.

(01:15:49):
Jim is one of our coaches.
Jim has worked with us onto theInto the Storm leader side, doing
facilitation and team building.
Jim is there's different levelsof EOS implementer, right?
Or like certification.
Yeah, so I'm a professional.
He's a professional EOS implementer.
He's a former business owner.
He's helped people sellbusinesses, build businesses.

(01:16:11):
He's an awesome human being.
Truly, man.
I just, I'm grateful to work with you.
I, love our dynamic and relationship.
We've had some, healthy conflict at timesin some of our meetings, which we embrace.
I don't think it takes anything away.
In fact, I think it adds to the dynamicand the connection that we have and the

(01:16:32):
great things that we can do together.
So reach out to Jim.
He is the man.
Thank you, Joe.
Anything else that you want to sharewith our listeners today before we wrap?

Just really appreciate you having me in to talk today, Joe.
You do a great job withthis and I appreciate it.
Thank you.

Joe Jurec (01:16:45):
I appreciate you.
I hope the listeners do too.
They found something valuable in this.
Like I said, you can check in the shownotes, the description for the links that
we mentioned regarding some of the books.
If you want a copy of Traction, ifyou want to reach out to Jim and
anything else that we mentioned today,I'll make sure is linked down there.
Thank you for tuning in.
I hope that you'll subscribe,share this, like it.

(01:17:07):
If you were just listening today.
Hop over to YouTube.
We are recording videofor all of these as well.
And subscribe to ourCultureShoc YouTube channel.
So that way you can tune into thevideo version of some of our episodes.
See you next time.

Microphone (RODECaster Pro Stereo)-9: Yes, you did it. (01:17:22):
undefined
You hung around to the end on this one.
I knew you would.
I appreciate you.
And I just wanted to tellyou, thank you very much for
tuning into the storm leaders.
I hope that you're findingsomething of value in each of
these episodes that you listen to.
And it helps you level up as a leader.
Your people deserve it.
Listen, we'd really appreciateif you take it one step further.

(01:17:44):
Share what we're puttingout there on social media.
If you're listening to this hop onYouTube, hit subscribe, help us grow this
thing and get it in front of more peopleso that way we can make a direct and
positive impact on more emerging leadersand ultimately more workplace cultures.
If you do shoot me a note afterjoe@cultureshoc.com I'm happy to send you

(01:18:04):
a free Buffalo t shirt for your efforts.
Thank you much.
We'll see you next time.

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S1E8: From EOS Client to EOS Implementer | Jim Tennant

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S1E8: From EOS Client to EOS Implementer | Jim Tennant