Change is hard. Convincing people to change takes a special person (aka a champion) to keep insisting the efforts will pay off. When a company begins its journey to Running on EOS™, they need people like that to lead the charge. That’s why I find naming your business’s EOS champions so important.
What Is an EOS Champion?
The Integrator™ acts as the overall EOS champion who leads their team to the promised land. They’re also responsible for getting the entire organization on board with Running on EOS.
However, EOS has a lot of parts to learn, so I’ve found that having champions for specific sections evens the load. These champions serve as the head cheerleaders and coaches for particular parts of the organization’s EOS journey.
The selected individual will champion things like Rocks, The Accountability Chart™, or the Scorecard for the leadership team. I even suggest they have someone act as the Level 10 Meeting™ champion.
These champion roles are so important that I encourage leadership teams to bake them right into their Accountability Charts. So, as part of the 5–7 roles for a seat, [X] champion takes one of those roles.
For example, the Accountability Chart champion ensures everyone in a leadership role leads, manages, and holds their people accountable (LMA™).
- Some EOS champion roles include:
- EOS Overall
- Accountability Chart
- Level 10 Meeting
- EOS Level 10 Meeting Scribe
- Rock
- Scorecard
- Process
- Department champions (to help with rollout)
- Wordsmithing
I suggest leadership teams select someone other than the Integrator to fill the separate champion roles. This way, others support the Integrator in a capacity that capitalizes on their talents and expertise.
I often see patterns like the finance leader serving as the Scorecard champion (not always, of course). And unsurprisingly, the marketing leader (or someone who loves words) will usually take the wordsmithing champion role for Rocks and the V/TO™.
The only exception is the Level 10 champion. It may make the most sense for the Integrator to run the meetings. On the other hand, sometimes the Integrator likes to listen and take everything in rather than running the meeting or taking notes. Usually, another person should serve as the scribe since it’s really hard to run a great meeting AND take notes.
One note: The Integrator is responsible for ensuring that if their company has 200 people, then all 200 people attend a Level 10 Meeting and have Rocks and measurables. To make this happen, the Integrator (aka EOS champion) needs EOS champions at all levels and departments of the company. These champions serve as additional guides, ensuring concepts are driven throughout the entire organization to attain the maximum value of EOS.
How Can You Identify the EOS Champions in Your Business?
I ask my clients to think about all the EOS processes and tools they use most often. Do they have someone in charge of making sure the rest of the team uses them regularly and purely? If not, I ask them to think about people whose natural talents and skills best align with championing that tool. The Integrator can’t do it all.
Having someone else obsess about The Accountability Chart or wordsmithing process documentation keeps everyone focused. This individual is the coach and facilitator for their particular activity between sessions. It also helps keep every leadership team member engaged, accountable, and committed to the journey.
Other champions include process and culture champions. In nearly every organization, you’ll find someone who loves to do processes and happily takes on the role of process champion. The culture champion is typically the Visionary or whoever started the company. This person needs to obsess over the company’s core values and culture.
I also remind them that they can’t say, “Well, Joe’s good at everything. Joe should champion the Level 10 Meetings, Scorecards, wordsmithing …”
Nope. While Joe may be GOOD at everything, inevitably someone on the leadership team is GREAT at it. I gently ask that they consider giving poor Joe a break and let another person handle the Scorecards. They can always change things next quarter if it doesn’t work out.
With my clients, I’ve found that naming EOS champions helps keep everyone working toward mastering Running on EOS. Especially when a company starts out, having an in-house “expert” on, say, Rocks makes the learning curve more manageable. Do you think your business could benefit from having EOS champions? Read Get a Grip to see how one company did it.
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