We want to self-implement EOS® to save money before committing to a professional. How do we measure the hidden operational cost of struggling to master the tools on our own?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Many owners think they are saving money by self-implementing EOS® using the book Traction as their guide. While some teams successfully self-implement, the hidden operational costs of doing so are high.

When you self-implement, you lack an objective third party to facilitate. This means the owner or another leader must play referee, which prevents them from fully participating in the discussions.

Furthermore, self-implemented teams often experience implementation drift. They adopt a buffet approach to the tools, picking and choosing what they like and ignoring the hard parts. This dilutes the system and leads to a weak implementation.

The real cost of self-implementation is time. It typically takes a self-implemented team two to three times longer to achieve the same level of traction as a team guided by a professional EOS Implementer®.

A professional Implementer knows the one way to do EOS® the right way. They prevent you from making rookie mistakes, call out your blind spots, and keep you accountable to the pure system. The acceleration in organizational health and profitability far outweighs the cost of the guide.