Since we started implementing EOS®, my leadership team feels busier than ever and has no time to think. How do we create the necessary white space to work on the business?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your team is drowning in work after starting EOS®, you have likely added the system on top of your existing bad habits instead of using it to eliminate them. Implementing EOS® requires you to prune the dead weight from your calendar to create what Juliet Funt calls white space.

You must practice the strategic pause as a leadership team. This means intentionally carving out unscheduled time for thinking, planning, and creating. If your calendar is packed back-to-back with meetings, you have no time to actually execute on your Rocks or solve the issues identified in your Level 10 Meeting™.

Take a hard look at your Accountability Chart. If leadership team members are still doing low-level administrative work, they are violating the GWC™ framework. They do not have the capacity to lead. You must delegate those tasks down to free up their minds for high-level strategy.

- Block out at least two hours of unscheduled white space on your calendar every week.
- Audit your weekly task list and delegate at least twenty percent of your low-value activities.
- Say no to any new initiatives that do not align with your current quarterly Rocks.