Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman explains the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a practical way to run a small or midsize company. EOS says every business has six key components: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process and Traction. Each one gets a simple tool, like the Vision/Traction Organizer, the Accountability Chart, a weekly Scorecard, 90-day Rocks and a weekly Level 10 Meeting where the team solves issues with IDS.
- EOS boils running a company down to six components and gives each one a simple tool.
- The V/TO puts your whole vision and plan on two pages by answering eight questions.
- Structure comes before people. Draw the seats first with the Accountability Chart, then fill them.
- Traction comes from a rhythm: 90-day Rocks plus one 90-minute Level 10 Meeting every week.
- You can self-implement with the book or hire a Professional EOS Implementer to run the sessions.
What Traction and EOS are about
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business is Gino Wickman's book on the Entrepreneurial Operating System, or EOS. It was first published in 2007, and the system behind it came out of Wickman's own work running and fixing companies. The promise is simple. Instead of running your business on gut feel and heroics, you run it on a handful of tools that everyone on the team understands.
EOS is aimed at entrepreneurial companies, roughly ones with a leadership team and somewhere between a handful and a few hundred employees. It fits owner-operated service businesses well, because it's built for people who are great at their trade but never learned how to run a company.
The frustrations EOS is built to fix
The business runs you. You don't have the time or freedom you expected when you started.
Employees, partners or customers don't listen, don't follow through or don't share the vision.
Revenue may be up, but there's not enough money left at the end of the month.
Growth stalls and nothing you try seems to break through.
You've tried programs, consultants and apps, and none of it stuck.
If two or three of those sound familiar, keep reading. The rest of this summary walks through every part of the system in our own words.
The six key components of EOS
Wickman's core idea is that every business, no matter the industry, comes down to the same six components. Get each one strong and the business runs well. Let one slip and you feel it everywhere.
The EOS Model
| Component | The question it answers | Main tool |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Does everyone know where we're going and how we'll get there? | Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO) |
| People | Do we have the right people in the right seats? | Accountability Chart and People Analyzer |
| Data | Can we see the health of the business in a few numbers each week? | Scorecard and measurables |
| Issues | Do we solve problems for good, or keep talking about them? | Issues List and IDS |
| Process | Is our way of doing things written down and followed by all? | Core Processes and the Three-Step Process Documenter |
| Traction | Do we execute the vision with discipline every week and quarter? | Rocks and the Meeting Pulse (Level 10 Meeting) |
Vision: the V/TO and its eight questions
The Vision/Traction Organizer, or V/TO, is a two-page document. Page one is the vision. Page two is the traction, meaning the plan to make the vision real. You build it by answering eight questions with your leadership team.
The eight questions of the V/TO
The V/TO only works if it's shared. Wickman's point is that a vision living in the owner's head isn't a vision. Read it to the team, hang it on the wall and revisit it every quarter.
People: right people in the right seats
EOS splits the people question in two. Right people share your core values. Right seat means they're in a role that matches their skills and passion. You need both.
The Accountability Chart
The Accountability Chart replaces the usual org chart. You design the structure first, the seats the business needs to hit its vision, and only then put names in them. Each seat lists its five or so main responsibilities. At the top sit two seats that often get confused:
Big ideas, key relationships, culture and solving the major problems. Often the founder.
Runs the day to day, holds the leadership team accountable and turns the visionary's ideas into results.
Below them sit the three major functions every business has: sales and marketing, operations and finance and administration. In a small company one person may sit in several seats, and that's fine. Drawing the seats still shows who owns what. The Visionary and Integrator pairing gets its own book, Rocket Fuel, by Wickman and Mark Winters.
The People Analyzer and GWC
The People Analyzer rates each person against your core values. For the seat itself, EOS uses GWC. Does the person Get it, Want it and have the Capacity to do it? All three need to be a yes.
Right person, right seat
Data: the weekly Scorecard
EOS asks you to manage by a small set of numbers instead of feelings. The Scorecard is a weekly report of 5 to 15 numbers that tell you how the business is doing, with each number owned by one person and tracked against a weekly goal. Teams usually look at a rolling 13 weeks so trends jump out.
Pick activity numbers that predict results, not just results. Here's what a Scorecard might look like for a small remodeling company. The goals are only an example.
| Measurable | Owner | Weekly goal (example) |
|---|---|---|
| New leads | Marketing lead | 25 |
| Sales appointments held | Owner or sales | 8 |
| Proposals sent | Owner or sales | 5 |
| Jobs sold | Owner or sales | 2 |
| Jobs finished on schedule | Production manager | 100% |
| New five-star reviews | Office manager | 3 |
| Cash in the bank | Bookkeeper | Above the set minimum |
Beyond the leadership Scorecard, EOS says everyone in the company should have at least one number they own. When a number is off track, it goes straight to the Issues List.
Issues: IDS and the Issues List
Every company has issues. The difference is whether the team solves them or just talks about them every week. EOS keeps an open Issues List at three levels: long-term issues on the V/TO, short-term issues in the weekly meeting and departmental lists for each team.
IDS: how EOS teams solve issues
Two habits make IDS work. First, prioritize. Pick the top three issues on the list and solve them in order, instead of jumping to the easiest. Second, be open and honest. If people won't say the uncomfortable thing in the room, the real issue never gets identified.
Process: document your way of doing things
Most companies have between six and ten core processes, the handful of ways they get work done. EOS asks you to name them, document them in broad strokes and get everyone to follow them. That last part is called FBA, for followed by all.
Identify your core processes
Typical ones are HR, marketing, sales, operations (how the work gets delivered), accounting and customer retention. Give each a name everyone uses.
Document each one, 20/80 style
Capture the 20 percent of steps that produce 80 percent of the results. A few pages of bullets beats a binder nobody opens.
Package it and make it FBA
Put the processes where people can find them, train the team and check that they're actually followed. Update them as you learn.
Traction: Rocks and the Level 10 Meeting
Traction is the component that turns vision into results. It rests on two tools.
Rocks
Rocks are the three to seven most important priorities for the next 90 days. The company sets its Rocks first, then each leader sets their own. Every Rock gets one owner and a clear finish line, so at the end of the quarter it's either done or not done. Wickman's advice is that fewer is better. If everything is a priority, nothing is.
The Meeting Pulse
The EOS rhythm
The weekly Level 10 Meeting is the heartbeat. Same day, same time, same agenda, starting and ending on time. It's called Level 10 because at the end, everyone rates the meeting from 1 to 10, and the goal is a 10.
The 90-minute Level 10 Meeting agenda
Agenda per EOS Worldwide
Notice where the time goes. Everything before IDS is reporting, and it's quick: on track or off track. Anything off track drops to the Issues List. Then the team spends an hour solving the most important issues.
How to start EOS in a small business
There are two ways in. You can self-implement using the book and the tools EOS Worldwide shares online, or you can hire a Professional EOS Implementer to guide your leadership team through a set of full-day sessions.
| Self-implement | Hire an EOS Implementer | |
|---|---|---|
| Who leads | The owner or integrator | An outside facilitator |
| How it runs | Read Traction, then roll out tools one at a time | Focus Day, Vision Building Day 1 and Day 2, then quarterly and annual sessions |
| Biggest upside | Low cost and you go at your own pace | Someone outside the team holds everyone accountable |
| Biggest risk | The owner runs the meeting and dominates it | Cost, and the team leans on the implementer |
| Good fit for | Small teams with a disciplined leader | Leadership teams stuck on people or partner issues |
Read the book as a leadership team
Everyone reads Traction. If some people won't read a business book, Wickman's fable Get a Grip tells the same story as a novel.
Draw the Accountability Chart
Seats first, names second. It's often the most eye-opening hour of the whole process.
Start the weekly Level 10 Meeting
Pick a day and time and run the agenda exactly, every week. Build your first Scorecard and Issues List as you go.
Set your first Rocks
Three to seven company Rocks for the next 90 days, each with one owner.
Build the V/TO
Once the weekly rhythm is steady, work through the eight questions. Then share it with the whole company.
EOS pairs well with clear marketing. Once your core focus, target market and three uniques are written down, the website, ads and follow-up should all say the same thing. That's the work we do every day. See how it works, or read our summary of The 6 Types of Working Genius for help putting the right people in the right seats.
Questions people ask
What are the six key components of EOS?
Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process and Traction. Gino Wickman's Traction explains each one and gives it a tool, such as the V/TO for vision, the Accountability Chart for people and the Scorecard for data.
What is a V/TO in EOS?
The Vision/Traction Organizer is a two-page plan that answers eight questions: core values, core focus, 10-year target, marketing strategy, 3-year picture, 1-year plan, quarterly Rocks and issues.
What is a Level 10 Meeting?
A weekly 90-minute leadership meeting with a fixed agenda: segue, Scorecard, Rock review, headlines, to-dos, 60 minutes of IDS and a conclusion where everyone rates the meeting from 1 to 10.
What does IDS stand for?
Identify, Discuss, Solve. It's the EOS method for solving issues: find the real root issue, discuss it openly and briefly, then decide and assign a to-do.
Can a small business use EOS?
Yes. EOS was built for entrepreneurial companies, and even a team of five can run a weekly Level 10 Meeting, keep a Scorecard and set 90-day Rocks. In a small company one person often sits in several seats on the Accountability Chart.
Who wrote Traction?
Gino Wickman, the creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System and founder of EOS Worldwide. Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business was first published in 2007.
Rob built Feedbackwrench and Nuance Financial Tax & Accounting. Since 2015, our team has helped transform 550+ small businesses with marketing, strategy and systems.
