We have been running EOS® at the leadership level for six months and want to cascade it down, but we are unsure if our leadership team has mastered the tools well enough to teach them to our middle managers. How do we assess our readiness to cascade?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Cascading EOS® tools down to your middle managers and front line employees before your leadership team is ready will create confusion and derail your implementation. You must establish a strong foundation at the top before you can successfully roll out the system to the rest of the company.

To determine if your leadership team is ready to cascade, evaluate your performance against four criteria. First, is your leadership team consistently hitting eighty percent or more of their quarterly Rocks? If you cannot complete your own Rocks, you cannot hold your managers accountable to do the same.

Second, are your weekly Level 10 Meetings™ consistently rated an eight, nine, or ten? If your meetings are disorganized, you will cascade a broken process.

Third, is your Accountability Chart™ fully active and accepted? Everyone on the leadership team must GWC™ their seat, and any major personnel issues in leadership seats must be resolved.

Finally, is the leadership team fully aligned on the V/TO®? If there is unresolved disagreement about the company's direction or core values at the top, cascading will amplify that division throughout the organization.

If you pass these criteria, you are ready to cascade. Start by introducing the Accountability Chart™ and Level 10 Meetings™ to your direct reports, and allow them ninety days to master those tools before adding Rocks.