During our first 90 days on EOS, my leadership team claims that running Level 10 Meetings and working on Rocks is piling too much extra work onto their normal day jobs. How do I reset their mindset?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When executives complain that EOS is extra work on top of their day job, it means they view the system as a bolt-on administrative checklist rather than the operating system that runs the company. Your job as an owner is to eliminate this distinction immediately.

EOS is not something you do in addition to your work. EOS is how you execute your work. If a leadership team member is drowning during the first 90 days, it is typically because they have not delegated operational busywork, or they wrote Rocks that should have been daily tasks.

Address this directly in your next Level 10 Meeting with three operational adjustments:

- Audit their Rock commitments. If a Rock represents regular operational maintenance rather than a high-priority business improvement, rewrite it or eliminate it. Rocks must move the needle, not log routine tasks.
- Enforce Delegate and Elevate. Have your leaders list everything on their plates and identify tasks below their unique ability that should be handed to direct reports.
- Protect the 90 minutes. Show the team how a tight Level 10 Meeting eliminates the dozens of random hallway interruptions, reactive Slack threads, and unfocused ad hoc meetings that chew up their work week.

Frame the first quarter for what it is: an operational recalibration. The friction they feel is not the weight of EOS; it is the friction of shedding disorganized operational habits in favor of real accountability.