Hi! Longtime reader, first time poster here.
TLDR; EOS is weird and I want to hear your stories.
I'll try to keep it short. I've been trying to find posts on people's experiences working in a company that uses EOS/Traction. It's weird because I feel like I hear about a lot of companies that use it but nobody wants to talk about it and that actually kind of contributed to the ick that I get from it.
For those who don't know, EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) is a super specific way to run a business that focuses on meeting formats, cultural jargon, and “putting the right people in the right seats” and it's based on a book called Traction.
I've been working for this company for almost a year and there's a lot I like about the structure but I feel like certain systemic issues are overshadowed by the toxic positivity and people will EOS their way out of having real conversations.
I had a big quarterly meeting yesterday where I dared to ask “are we getting in our own way by using EOS to avoid hard topics?” (This is ironic because one of the principles of EOS is that it encourages hard conversations, but it seems there are certain topics that are still off limits) – anyway, Ive been challenged to come up with a list of examples of weaponized EOS to share with the team because I wasn't able to articulate them in the moment.
Some examples I've come up with:
-people set quarterly goals and use them to either do the bare minimum to check a box, or they use their goal (rocks) to supervise someone outside of their department.
-ive been given measurable to-do's that are set up for failure, and then I have to report those failures to the whole company once a month
Please tell me I'm not alone in this frustration (or tell me that it is just me and that I should get over myself)