Integrator™ and Implementer — What’s the Difference?

I’d like to talk to you about something I’ve noticed way too much lately. There’s some confusion out there and I want to do my best to try to clear up some terminology. Simply stated:

Integrators™ are not the same thing as Implementers

Now, the words are really similar. I can understand how people get confused and start mixing them up. So, let’s clear up how they’re different once and for all.

There IS a Difference!

I talk about Integrators all the time. They’re the ones who are going to take the ideas from the Visionary and make them real. They drive execution. They pull together all the different functions in the organization and really get us marching down the path of making the vision happen. And there are a lot of special ways that they work with the Visionary. Hopefully, you’re now crystal clear on what that word means.

Implementers, despite sounding similar to Integrators, are very different. In the context of the things we talk about here, the Implementer is all about implementing the business operating system — in this case, the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) — within the company. That’s really all that word means.

Going back to the Integrator: One of their core accountabilities is the operating system. Now, what I want you to be clear on is that owning doesn’t necessarily mean doing. The Integrator owning the operating system simply means they’re accountable for making sure that EOS is being implemented and working well. In other words, the operating system is doing what we need it to do.

Different Roles, Different Accountabilities

As far as the implementation of EOS goes, this can be led by a Professional EOS Implementer® that you bring in from the outside — someone who does this work for a living and continues to master it on a daily basis, pulling from their experience working with many different clients in many different situations. Or it could be led by another person in your organization, someone already on the team, who is learning the tools and elements of EOS in order to lead your team through the EOS Process®. They may grow to become your internal EOS implementation resource.

Could your Integrator also be your Implementer? Maybe. I just don’t want you to think that by default those two are necessarily overlapping and the same. The Integrator executes the vision, makes it real, and pulls all the pieces together. Implementers implement EOS. These two distinct roles work together to help the team get to where they want to go.

Three key things to wrap this one up:

1. The Integrator and the Implementer are not the same thing. They don’t mean the same thing, and they have different roles and different focuses.
2. The Integrator owns the operating system. The Implementer implements the operating system.
3.  Owning does not necessarily mean doing. The owner is the project manager, the champion. They’re going to make sure that it gets done and works well. There may be somebody else leading the actual doing of the operating system implementation, and that’s the one we call the Implementer.

If you think you have what it takes to be a Professional EOS Implementer, stop by the website to learn more.

Or see if your unique leadership abilities align more closely with either a Visionary or an Integrator by taking the Crystallizer Assessment. Then come join the V/I learning in Rocket Fuel University™ with Rocket Fuel101™.