Discovering Growth: Using EOS to Transform our Team Engagement
Jan 09, 2024
Aubrey Baptista
Ever thought of how a simple operational system could transform your business's communication and team alignment? That's what happened to us at Biz Radio when we embraced the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). Through its straightforward IDS process, we've been able to identify problems, facilitate discussions, and generate effective solutions that keep our team constantly moving forward. Our personal experiences have shown us EOS's power in fostering a shared vision among our team members, and we're eager to share those insights with you.
Shifting gears, we dive into a candid conversation with our guest, an experienced therapist, who enlightens us about the potential of EOS in the field of therapy. With the staggering ratio of one therapist to 1500 people in the US, we delve into the idea of EOS being the game-changer in making therapy more accessible. Our guest shares their unique perspective on adapting EOS from construction to therapy. Rounding off, we share our exhilaration for a new integrated system that promises to revolutionize our team's productivity and engagement. So, buckle up and join us on this insightful journey of discovery and growth.
Ever thought of how a simple operational system could transform your business's communication and team alignment? That's what happened to us at Biz Radio when we embraced the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). Through its straightforward IDS process, we've been able to identify problems, facilitate discussions, and generate effective solutions that keep our team constantly moving forward. Our personal experiences have shown us EOS's power in fostering a shared vision among our team members, and we're eager to share those insights with you.
Shifting gears, we dive into a candid conversation with our guest, an experienced therapist, who enlightens us about the potential of EOS in the field of therapy. With the staggering ratio of one therapist to 1500 people in the US, we delve into the idea of EOS being the game-changer in making therapy more accessible. Our guest shares their unique perspective on adapting EOS from construction to therapy. Rounding off, we share our exhilaration for a new integrated system that promises to revolutionize our team's productivity and engagement. So, buckle up and join us on this insightful journey of discovery and growth.
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Speaker 1:
Alright, so I'm excited to talk to you, Erin, about this, because you were the one who brought this to like Biz Radio and implemented it within the teams. I don't know if you implemented it or your dad did, but like EOS is like the entrepreneurial operating system and so, yeah, I learned about it through Biz because you guys use it as part of like the monthly meetings that we meet up for with the rest of the cohort and the team getting to know everybody else and those teams are. Those team meetings like are pretty long, considering the fact that this is actually like not a very complicated system. It's like really easy to get through. So like we probably could get through that meeting like a 30 minute stint, right, but like we drag it out just because we're like in really partnership and like it's a two hour space for us just to like hang out and like talk for a bit. That's kind of what it feels like.
Speaker 1:
It's like more of a casual business meeting, but in the background we have this like structure and it helps keep us accountable to like what our goals are and what we're trying to achieve, and it keeps us like moving forward as a team so that we're all trying to like get on the same page with what we're doing.
Speaker 1:
So like we all have a vision in Biz Radio, like we're all working towards community partnership, like trying to like further each other's businesses. But really that's like in favor of trying to like bring our messages out to the community and that's like the vision within Biz Radio. But like everybody, including myself, knows that from the get go, it's like what Matt Mattan like lives and breathes for Biz Radio your dad right, and so like it's just so clear all the way through and everybody knows that and that's why, like everybody's on this team because we all like share that same vision and I really feel like inspired by that. So I was like okay, well, I've already tried doing bits and pieces of this in my practice. So now over the next like week or two, I'm working on like implementing this system into my own business.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's great to hear.
Speaker 1:
Because I've been like doing all of these things this whole year, thinking like, okay, well, I'm doing all of these things, how do they all kind of tie together? And so I finally want to just like sit down and start like pulling those things together. So anyway, that was a bit of a monologue. I don't know if you have comments.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot to a lot to tell. Kind of the backstory of why I brought EOS to to biz radio is I had worked for a company that operated with this system and in a totally different industry. This was in the construction industry, so the the use of it was was a lot more of you know, physical problems that you run into that need quick solutions, and so kind of breaking down what EOS is is it's a. It's an operating system that, like you said it, it you know it has. It has accountability aspects to it, but it's primarily focused on on communication internally. So it's it's incentivizing and also creating a communication system that lets you address problems at the lowest level possible so that you can produce solutions as a team instead of having to just either rely on on external resources or, you know, have to fill up the bandwidth of of across a different department or, you know, in a higher position of chain of command, whatever it may be and what it does.
Speaker 2:
You were talking about the monthly meetings. So Biz Radio is a full US company, so we have our leadership team that does a weekly L10 as well. That's what they call the meetings, and in that we do the same exact process and anything that we call the group of hosts. And, by the way you said it, it goes a little long. Try wrangling a room full of radio personalities A 30 minute window, it's impossible. But we bring everything to produce. All the solves are produced from the IDS portion, which I'll kind of explain here in a second, but over to the leadership team and we do the same exact process on those topics that are produced once a month, or those solutions is we'll IDS it from our perspective of you know, we have a social media manager, a programming director, general manager, and all these different perspectives towards executing that, either that vision or that solving a problem, whatever it may be. So it attacks both ideas and problems in the same system, in the same way. So it's really easy to adopt, it's really easy to understand, which is very important, especially in a company that is more community based and have far less touch points than, say, a construction industry job, where it's our IDS which is Identify, Discuss, Solve.
Speaker 2:
We identify a problem, we discuss it as a group and then somebody may be able to produce a solve for it. Let's say it's a flat tire. Somebody says, oh OK, well, I'm going down to do a caught myself. I almost said a name brand. I'm going to go down to the tire shop on Tuesday. I'll go ahead and get that tire replaced. Great, Are you? You're good for me to put your name on that solve and then that moves into it to do the next week or the next month.
Speaker 2:
All the to-dos are reviewed, you check it off, You're trying to get a percentage as a team of 90% or whatever the predetermined amount is, and that's where the communication portion of it turns into accountability, where it's more so accountability for yourself. And so, yeah, we actually reviewed, even though I was familiar with this program. We reviewed quite a few different operating systems for what would be best for a community-driven business and, funny enough, EOS kind of won the bid and it's been fun seeing it become infectious. Joel, host of the Mindful Marketplace, actually worked in an EOS company prior to Biz Radio, and so he's really helped pioneer the transition and seeing you get excited about it and your applications for it are awesome, and I'm excited to be a resource for your implementation of it, Because there's a lot more than what's in that little orange book that we gave you.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I was going to say because I'm only partway through the book right now, and so it kind of gives you some templates for developing your vision and your strategy and I think, as it is right now, just starting from that basic level of understanding where I'm at, I'm thinking about maybe creating objectives for the quarter, thinking about what I'm currently doing in terms of basically thinking about my practice, my private practice, which serves clients within the community, within North Carolina I do also serve Florida and how am I I both reaching those clients, how am I serving those clients and how am I continuing to generate value for the practice, both financially and just by being able to produce resources and content that are going to continue to both benefit Kindred Art Therapy but also the community, like both within, like the western North Carolina and North Carolina, and as I expand into other places as well. Right, but right now that's really where I'm trying to focus.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's awesome. And there is one thing that's important to understand too and this is applicable to most operating systems that are communication based is that it, even though it gives you a platform to to kind of oil the machine and which leads to to, you know, smooth operations and, eventually, scalability, it is not. It is it doesn't produce clients, it doesn't produce sales, it doesn't. The operating system itself is not a vessel for it. Well, it is a vessel towards working, working your way towards those goals and being able to systematically produce results among your team, but it's very much on the individual and it's very much on on the, the atmosphere in the, in the work environment of of your own business. It's not just a, you know, a fix all solution. It's. It's it's really just a big tool for identifying some of the you know, some of the issues, and it's it is humbling to on when, when you apply it to some of the, the harder-to-chew Issues that you have in your business. And I try to forewarn anybody that is interested in this is what it'll. What it'll do is you'll, you'll see a pattern of Either you you don't have measureables hit, which is how you, basically you pick a set of Task, like weekly touch points that move the needle the most. So the things that are most important, say, for you know a grave digger, it's going to be digging graves is the thing that moves them needle for that business the most, and Sourcing headstones, and you know things like that. So you, you just want maybe like three or four measureables, with a, with a KPI or a target, and and then have those hit every every week. Now, if it, if it goes red, what you do? Instead of saying, instead of treating it like a report card of like, okay, you've, you've been read two weeks in a row, we're gonna have to take disciplinary action you simply just throw that onto the IDS list, which is a working document throughout the week.
Speaker 2:
You, if you think it or you have a problem or an idea or something, you throw it onto the IDS List and then that gets ranked from all the team members of what's most important to them. So it guarantees that even if, say, I have, say, we lost 10,000 Daily users on our, on our website overnight, that's a big problem, right? But then your issue is my, my mic broke. Well, whenever you're looking at them side by side or in a normal Kind of orthodox business structure.
Speaker 2:
How long would you be sitting there without with that broken mic? You know it? Until the 10,000 listeners is addressed, then that's when you're gonna get a job. Well, that's not so much the case with the US. If you, if I rate my problem one and you rate your problem one, guess what. They're both going to get addressed with equal importance and from with the backing of the entire team. The entire team is gonna pay attention to your broken mic and offer a solution and along with the you know the, the other bigger problem. So what that allows you to do is is take a, take a cold hard, look at some of the issues that are Recurring and then there's kind of a another step if you can't produce a solve that can be accomplished within a week or as you were talking about, like the quarterly Projects, those are actually called rocks.
Speaker 2:
I don't know if you got to that yet, yeah, yeah, so it's. It's kind of the same deal and there's a structure for that which is a simple just check-in. But if something needs to be moved into a rock and it's it's problem-based, then Then you you go about it, trying to identify is this a people or a process issue? And you the whole, the whole structure is just Built to be simple but it works because you can. You can I Quickly identify Okay, you have a quarter of red on on the measurables For one category, for five different people. Well, that's obviously a process issue, not a, not a people issue. If it's one person and everybody else is green, well that's a people problem.
Speaker 2:
Maybe we don't have the right person in the right seat, maybe we should IDS us with the team. You know, you can. It gives you, it gives you the Ability to exhaust every effort Without just taking the easy out, and the same applies to your business as well. You'll start realizing oh, I'm setting people up for failure in this way and this way, even though it's a thing I need. Now we have to think outside of the box to satisfy both the business's need and the pain point of the individual. Usually it's not simple. It's very important to understand before just jumping in to EOS is that it's a cold hard look. Most of the time, if it's a good EOS meeting, you don't really walk out of it feeling good.
Speaker 1:
Because you're walking out thinking like, oh man, I have a bunch of things I need to do.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I have a ton of to-dos that are all going to contribute to the end goal what we all want. We all share a vision. It's not easy to get everybody rowing in the same direction. It's really not.
Speaker 1:
No Well and a big part of it, too, is just taking that step back and having a vision for where the company is going. That's what I've been doing over the last well, really I've been doing it over the last period of time that I've been in practice like year and a half now Really it's like the better part of the last year that I've had the majority of clients Really like a year in practice now and been reflecting just on a lot of this different work that I'm putting into it. I'm working on different profiles and different pages and keeping those up to date and making sure that I am doing networking with colleagues and doing coffee chats, all of these different things that, for my practice, really move the needle on getting to move people or getting to meet people, getting to get the word out, getting to talk to people. But in my mind I'm like, okay, well, if I want to be able to reach more people and help get more people, help. Because here's the thing, erin, I did a math problem.
Speaker 1:
Like therapists don't do math, but I think very analytically and I think people appreciate it when I kind of spell things out in simple terms and numbers Very roughly. There's like about 300 million citizens in the United States. It's a little bit more than that, right, but then there's about 200,000 therapists and it's like slightly less than that. The numbers are, you know, these really long numbers. When you divide them you get this other like random number that's close to right around like 1500. And the idea is that one in 1500 is being served by a therapist, really, because that's how many therapists are in existence for how many people, right.
Speaker 1:
And so like there's not enough therapists for people like I can't have more of a caseload of like 50 in a month.
Speaker 1:
You know that would just be way too much for me.
Speaker 1:
But if we can create environments for people to work where they're feeling like included and accepted and part of the team, and it's a community effort and we're really trying to like work together and feel good about this work that we're doing for our clients and create that atmosphere.
Speaker 1:
It's kind of like that family atmosphere that you guys are always talking about, it, biz radio and it's kind of the same idea that I have with like Kindred, you know, is providing that, that, that space for people, and I actually put in a contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina so that I can serve, so they serve like two thirds of the population of North Carolina and so once that goes in, I just imagine that all of those people who've called me so far and have not been able to come and work with me because I haven't been in network with them that those numbers are going to start increasing and I'm going to want to be able to take on that volume with a team that's prepared and feels really well connected and supported, and I feel like EOS can really help with that.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, that's great. I mean, like you were saying towards the beginning of the show, you know it is a platform that you can. You can cater it to, to your needs, you know. But you don't want to, you don't really want to bend the lines on some of the, some of the core infrastructure of it. You know some of the fundamental elements, like, for instance, the the meeting time is a good, you know small bite size example of it's. That meeting is structured in a way to, to, to hold accountable the, the conversation of the prior week or the prior month, which, going through all the, all the review portions of it, it adds up to about you know, 20, 25 minutes once you throw in rocks and then and then the IDS portion is is kind of the bread and butter that's. That's about 60 minutes and so all in all you have, you have about an hour and a half of of meeting time and I just book two hours so that there's 30 minutes of of, you know, kind of chopping it up, since we, most of us, only see each other face to face once a month. But but yeah, that that's a good example of like for some of the core foundational elements of EOS. You don't really want to veer from too much, like you don't really want to restructure the meetings you don't want to restructure. You know the core of what it is.
Speaker 2:
But as far as application in, for instance, my only like I was saying, my only experience was in construction with it and then bringing it over to this. You know we were able to mold it in a way and I think that would totally service you in what your dreams are and what your vision is for you know, reaching out and being able to help more of the more of the community and start start making an impact on some of those really just sad numbers. You know I, that's a, that's a shocking statistic that you know needs to be addressed and and the only way to do that is to do it. And, and EOS is, it's a great way to it. Basically, it, it shows you. It shows you what you're, what you're lacking to get that done. Where, where, what's holding you back from, from doing that? It's not a. If I do this, I'll get this, it's, it's all right, you don't have this because of this. That's like kind of the most simple way I can. I can break it down.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, what I like about it is really that it's integrated because, like, I have been using other systems and and ways to track things, but my hope is is that this is going to help to, like, tie things together a little bit more. So, yeah, I'm I'm excited to use it and just really glad that you were able to introduce it to me. Yeah, I think it's going to really help move the needle for our team both of our teams collectively because it's it's really going to try to help benefit my engagement with the station as well.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's great. I'm excited, I'm I'm really excited to see you know what you do with it and we, we totally jumped, jumped right into this conversation.
Speaker 1:
This was not pre, pre-conversed, no, but we've been talking about it for months in our team meetings and you know it it's more of a a passing conversation, but I am excited to to be kind of jumping into it and you know, I think it's helpful to kind of review it and get some content for the radio show about it, you know, cause I think that the listeners who are coming in here are are just really interested in being able to learn more about this. So, anyway, thanks again, aaron.