In the last few years we've come to accept that the founders of Menlo won't be here forever, and that the surest way to produce a smooth transition to the next generation leadership team is to implement a more formalized approach to running the company, akin to the systems thinking we use to run our client projects. Our history has been to focus on simple, repeatable, measurable, and visible systems for our software design and development work. That same thinking was applied to running the business, but not completely, and not as rigorously as our customer work.
As we surveyed the landscape of possible choices, we quickly settled on EOS for a couple of reasons:
1. Its popularity meant there were myriad resources to help guide us. This would include EOS® Certified Implementors, books like Traction, conferences and communities where ideas and experience could be shared.
2. The weekly iterative structure of EOS mirrors many of our Plan-Do-Check-Act style processes for our software efforts.
We decided to Run the Experiment!
The process of implementing EOS began in earnest in January of 2024. We engaged a wonderful EOS® Implementer, Richard Price. Richard has guided us along this path since then. We started with some intensive day long sessions, and have now settled into a pattern of quarterly offsites, including our first annual 2 day offsite in January of this year. These sessions have proved invaluable for helping us focus our attention "on the business" rather than the typical daily efforts "in the business".
In a period we referred to as "everything, everywhere, all at once", we also engaged a strategy firm, Shepherd Advisors, to help us set 1 year, 3 year and 10 year visions for the future, which inform our quarterly "rocks" (top priority management team goals). This was an intense time of forming our senior leadership team, establishing a new pattern of weekly L10 meetings, setting near term and long term goals, and then making sure these goals remained in focus as we worked our way through the year.
Our instincts were correct. We needed the simple, repeatable, measurable, (and in our case, because we are using paper based artifacts) visible system to assist our efforts in regularly working "on the business". We've always had a great appreciation and respect for systems thinking, and EOS fits right into that for us. Our worry along the way is that this would introduce levels of hierarchy and bureaucracy that would have felt unnatural for our, traditionally, very flat organization. One thing EOS teaches us is that most organizations run into "ceilings" that stymie growth, both financially and organizationally. We could feel that over the past few years. We've never wished to grow simply for growth's sake, as we had no imperative to do so. There were no outside investors, so we were always free to chart our own course, which can lead to a level of comfort that can inhibit organizational growth.
This journey, like most in business and life, has no set destination, but offers opportunities for personal growth and organizational growth and new insights at every step. We are seeing that. Our newly elevated leaders were ready for this as they have all been with the company between 10 and 20 years.
We are excited and energized about this new way of leading our Menlo team into the future that we collectively decided will be our best path forward.
I will keep you posted on our progress as we make our way forward!