Our leadership team loves the EOS® concepts but we want to customize the tools right away to fit our unique industry vocabulary. What happens when a company tries to tweak the operating system before they have actually run it purely?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Tweaking EOS® before you run on it purely is the fastest way to break the system. This is what we call creating a customized operational mess. The tools in the operating system are designed to work together as a complete, integrated system. When you start changing the definitions or skipping steps, you dilute their impact.

Many smart leadership teams try to customize the tools because they want to avoid the discomfort of real change. For example, they might want to rename the Accountability Chart to avoid hurt feelings, or they might try to combine seats because they are afraid of making hard people decisions. This is not customization; it is avoidance.

To get the full benefit of the operating system, you must run on it purely for at least one year. You need to experience how the tools work together through four full quarters. Let the tools do their job and reveal the underlying issues in your business.

Only after you have achieved a high level of mastery and have run on the system purely should you even think about minor adjustments. In almost every case, once a team runs purely, they realize they do not need to customize anything. The simplicity of the tools is where the power lies. Do not try to outsmart the system before you have actually built the discipline to run it.