EOS Traction for Your Workplace Goals
For years, Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) Certified Implementer Michele Mollard has helped entrepreneurs build strong, accountable teams and thriving businesses. She does it through honest conversations, clear systems and a people-first approach - transforming not just businesses, but the lives of everyone in the organization.
In Traction for Your Workplace Goals, hear Michele offer perspective on the solutions she brings to businesses with her "honesty with heart" approach.
MIchele's passionate plea is: We face the truth, fix the problems, and build the skills—because good enough is never enough. You and your team deserve better.
EOS Traction for Your Workplace Goals
(EOS Episode 21) Handling Mid‑Quarter “Emergencies” Without Threatening Your Rocks
Certified EOS Implementer Michele Mollard digs into what happens when new priorities land mid‑quarter and how to protect your team from burnout and whiplash while still shipping what matters.
We share a simple litmus test, ways to renegotiate scope, and how to build safety so people can push back.
Episode Resources
More Information
Email Michele
EOS-Traction for Your Workplace Goals is a Livemic Communications production.
I'm Richard Pyatt. This is EOS, traction for your workplace goals with Michelle Millard, certified EOS Implementer, Entrepreneurial Operating System, helping you reach your rocks. We're going to elaborate on that. Reach your goals that you have for your business. Michelle, today we're going to talk about those rocks. And by the way, episode five in this series does sort of the 101 on rocks. Five, 101? Yes. So episode five is uh where you might want to start and then come back to us here if you haven't heard it already, where we're talking more or less in part two about rocks. But let's just, Michelle, if you don't mind, define what rocks are briefly here so we can continue.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So rocks are the goals or the priorities that companies that are running on EOS have each quarter. And so every single quarter they'll reset that. Sometimes rocks are tied to the one-year goal, and there's four rocks to help us, or four quarters, four rocks to get us to the one year goal. And sometimes they're one off to ultimate ultimately get the company where they want to be. So they don't always have to be tied to the one year, but they're just big priorities that are, in essence, non-negotiable projects that take sometimes 10, 12, 13 weeks to get done. And so they're not a seven-day to-do. They're a bigger project, a bigger movement, something that's going to take us a while to do.
SPEAKER_00:Hence the title of that episode five, Put Your Goals on the Rocks. So today we're going to talk about what happens if the Rocks have to change, or perhaps uh more to the point, what happens if a new rock comes along in the middle of the quarter? Does this upset the balance?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it definitely upsets the balance. And I think that companies that are not running on EOS probably don't see how it upsets the balance, but this is uh experience shares of watching it happen uh when it does. And so let's just say any old company, not even necessarily running on EOS. If I'm an employee and I have four projects, four goals to do this quarter that are due, arguably 90 days from now. And then a manager, owner, somebody comes in and says, Hey, I got something else I need you to work on. Potentially they didn't realize that that four plus their every day is a lot. It is already at their 50, 55 hours, wherever they're in 40, depending on where their, what we call their 100% is, not realizing this is more. And so initially it's a kind of a little blow to the chest of going, well, now how am I going to get this done? Right. And so it just sometimes levels employees to the fact that, like, I can't do more and I've given blood, sweat, and tears, and I love this company, and I'm ready to bite the bullet and go and do more. It's just that it can't, right? And so something has to give. And so if they only have so much time, potentially one of those other rocks, one of those other projects just won't be done to the extent that they wanted to get it done. And so then they feel uncomp incomplete at the end. And so there's a really uh it's it's a vicious cycle uh going round and round, Richard, when it when it happens that way.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it sure makes a lot of sense that it it would do that and it could take your breath away. I mean, you if you feel as though you've been making progress and then something stands in the way of that, you don't want it to take the wind out of your sail. How does EOS address it?
SPEAKER_01:We address it by saying, don't do it. Now, we know that it will happen, right? We know that as companies are starting to learn, we call it being better predictors, right? The there's an aspect of when you hit the ceiling, you're not predicting well. And so uh predicting what this quarter needs to look like from an effort standpoint, when we get better and better and better at that, there's less and less of what we call rock throwing, right? I'm throwing you a rock in the middle of the quarter. And so we tried to get to the owners to say, understand and see what that does. We just talked about the deflation of what that does. Um, and the, you know, there's some employees that'll just work themselves to the bone. And then if you do it on and on and on again, there's just no light at the end of the tunnel. One time rock throwing, okay, I can manage it, right? But maybe it's two and three and four times, and it's just always going uh that they just can't manage it. So we just say don't do it. But I want people that are listening to this understand intent versus impact. And I'm sure we've shared this uh and actually know we share this in one of the other podcasts, uh, but it can be across any part of the business. Your intent is to inspire them. Your intent is that we have to get this done. Your intent is this would be very exciting for them to do. The impact may not be the same. And so, for just as owners, we might have to understand that the impact is, yes, I really want to do it, but it's it's not exciting me. If you give it to me another quarter and we planned it out, it would be very exciting for me to do it. And sometimes we just don't realize that is that we've impacted the employees negatively to do it because we haven't thought the quarter through. And so, as an owner looking at that and saying, owner, manager, whatever, what does the department really need? Make your list of 20 things. Sit with the team and say, How do we divide all these things up? But if everything's important, nothing's important because everything will be done half you know what, right? Or potentially things will be done half you know what, as opposed to these are the four things are the biggest priorities. Let's run after them and nail them 100%, and then let's parking lot other things for another quarter.
SPEAKER_00:So it's about temptation to want to run with all these things, and that's just not realistic. But I'm also in this zone trying to imagine what the circumstances are. To the extent that you have implemented EOS, you're using this process by which your rocks are identified, and the process to get there is identified, and then something gets added, a rock gets thrown. I had a presumption that it's perceived that thrown rock as an emergency. We got to get this done. Is that typically what that is? Some kind of emergency interruption, or is it just saying, man, you know, it would be nice if we could do this too. Let's do that too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yes. And so I always say, if truly right to both, right? So yes, if it's truly an emergency, you know, let's be real. Like we've all weathered a pandemic, right, as we're recording this, or we've all weathered something, right? And so sometimes there has to be. Sometimes just has to be a pivot in the middle of the quarter. Then we have to do it. We've got to go, we've got to do it. We're off and running. Uh, and so I'm saying limit them, really think hard about what you really need before you do it. But there are cases in point where we have to do it. What I would also say though, understand that in a healthy organization, when you do do that, the employee has the right to say, hey, but I can't get them all done. And so now what is less of a priority for me to do a little bit less of, to not do, to whatever, and have that negotiation, then I would say, then perfectly fine, right? Just be careful of that. And then I would also say sometimes we have people in the organizations that are running after shiny objects. So when something shiny shows up, it's like, oh, I want to do that. Oh, I want to do that, right? And so there's a terminology out there we call it organizational whiplash. And so, as an owner, as a manager, we're like, okay, we're running over here and we're gonna do this project. And then we're running over here and we're gonna do this project. And I'm I'm viciously going across the screen uh visually uh because that's what it feels like to most of our employees. And so we have to understand that even the throwing a rock can say, okay, this is the new priority, and then I'm running over there, and then I finish it or don't finish it. And right. And so it just really is really a hardship. And I mean, we just have to really understand, and I just say it's a little bit of blind faith that you might have in me to share with you that this is what it's causing our employees to feel like.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean, just think about what whiplash is like, and if you do that over and over again, eventually a person says, time out, bad enough of that. Not to mention, it can undermine the confidence about what's being done, true?
SPEAKER_01:It definitely can undermine the confidence, especially if they don't understand the connection, right? And so sometimes Simon Sinek wrote the book, start with why, right? And so if we have a project that we have to circumvent in the middle that explain the why that you think it's more important than the other stuff that they're working on or why it needs to happen, right? And so just asking them just to do it because I told you to, um, I would say doesn't work anytime. But it really doesn't work in this case, right? And so if you're really dropping it in there and just saying, hey, but this is why we have to do it, in that, you know, something's happened in the world economically, uh, supply chain tariffs, uh, right, all the things that can disrupt an organization, there's always reasons of why things have to continue to change. But I would say, let's try to be better predictors. And then when this happens, it's rare. If it happens all the time, you're not predicting well what you need to get out of your employees and what the most important things are that they need to be working on. And that's what's the problem is when it happens once in a while, people are like, Yep, I got you. We'll do this. If it happens all the time, it's just normalcy, right? And it's chaos.
SPEAKER_00:So is there a short litmus test of some kind that you can use when the rock is being thrown or even before that, to say, is this really a priority right now? And you come up with a definitive answer.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I would say my litmus test is depending on where you sit in the organization, is really ask others if this feels like a priority. Is it really what others see as a priority, or could you just wait a quarter? Right. And so sometimes we think it's urgent, right? But it's really just more important. And it's just right. So it's it's just an urgency versus important. Uh, and we're just, we just feel like it's gotta go, it's gotta go. And we gotta get it done and we gotta get it done. And um sometimes if we stop, ask others, breathe a little, think about it. We'll talk about clarity breaks. We actually already have in the podcast series, but take a clarity break around it and be like, okay, so what's gonna happen when I give this to Joe? How is he gonna feel? What's the impact? How do I explain it better? And so I would just say if you're gonna do anything, slow down, really just double check, maybe check with other people on the leadership team or check with other people that are managers and to see how it's gonna land. Um, and then if you have to land it, you have to land it, right? But I think we just need to slow down a bit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I want to go back to something you said before. Yeah. That employees have the right to say, I don't have the capacity for this. I presume that some employees might not feel comfortable doing that, right? They might say, Well, now I'm gonna look like I don't want to do it. Uh I don't have the capacity to do it, I'm jeopardizing my future here, my my next uh race. For sure. All these things go through your mind. Yeah. Uh so how do you think about that logically? Uh how can you appear not to be trying to just not take on more, but be legitimate about that when you say it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think again, it it goes back to how healthy the organization is, right? And so even if you're not running on EOS, if you have a great rapport with your employees and they are great employees, they should be able to at least have a conversation about pushing back, right? And to say, okay, this is what I hear you say, this is what you want me done. And then, you know, how do we do that? And so I guess if an employee is listening to this and you don't have that, then I'm sorry, convince them to change their ways and try to get that. But ultimately, that's what the world of EOS is, is right, is accountability. And so it's hard to, as an individual, be accountable to a moving target in a dark room, right? And so if you're telling me that I'm accountable for these four things, and then you throw five and you throw six and you throw seven, then I gotta be accountable to it all and I'm pulled in a million directions. And so, besides, you know, selfishly saying run on EOS because it gives you that, there's no way. And so, as a boss, you can do a better job having an openly honest conversation with them and say, My door is open, literally meaning that they can come in and have a conversation to say, these are the four things I'm working on. You just gave it to me. I don't want to sound like I'm in grateful. I don't want to sound like I am not working, I won't work hard for you. I don't want to sound like I it's not my job and I won't do it. But I do need to understand what we can negotiate that has to give in order for me to do this. And so that's what I would say as a leader of the organization, that you'll want to be able to have that kind of um rapport with your employees. And if you don't have it, get there. And as employee, try to get there as well and push hard back at it. But I can't I don't want to tell employees to do it and then they get fired. So that's what not what I'm saying. It just depends on the culture that you're in, right?
SPEAKER_00:Sure. Well, you you use some phrases there that would help set a tone, and I think that's what you were after. I also want to confirm what the alternative is. I think I heard you say that uh, you know, a thrown rock really is an opportunity for a rock in another quarter, and that's the consideration that needs to happen. Is that right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, there's lots of considerations and negotiations that can happen, right? So the rock that is thrown got it, it's important. Good. The end one of these other rocks, right? That's we look at them saying, now we got five. What's the most important things? Those are the four, gosh, that this five can wait one quarter, right? That would be the simplest one. Uh, another way would be, okay, so here's the five. Is there one or two of those rocks that we could take in phases? Meaning that we could do a little bit, not all the way to what we defined as completion, and say, okay, let's do phases one and two of these rocks and three, four, and five, we'll go for another quarter, right? So it doesn't have to actually be put in complete, but it has to be started. And so to what point would it be good enough for now? And at whatever point, right? So if we're talking here, if we're talking October, November, December, right? That's a typical quarter for people to do it. If this needs to be done by December 31st, what part of that may I just not get all the way done and I can negotiate back and forth? So it's sometimes it's the whole rock that's not done. Uh, when a rock is thrown, uh, sometimes that rock is not even accepted, the thrown rock, right? We could renegotiate that. And then there are other ones that I could say I could do parts of um that we might be able to do it. And the beauty of it is sometimes we do get the opportunity to actually complete all five, right? And say, I can do that, I will do that, and I'll go the extra mile this quarter. Um, it's really a problem when it's done every single quarter. That's really the killer of it all in all, right? If if it's done off one, it's off the time. Of course, most people will say, I'll step up and do that.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And you make a great point. And one that I was thinking about. Boy, if somebody throws a rock and it gets done, that means another rock, an extra one, might get thrown in a future quarter. And there's still some angst about that happening, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, definitely. I mean, again, just be careful. Like in our world, you know, like I always just say, once a year, barring anything major, right? Like a major upset in the economy, a major upset in the business model or your world or market or something like that. Once a year, we would say, oops, we didn't see this priority, right? As opposed to now, again, if something tragically happens, right? The supply chain, something like that, all hands on deck, well, then there's nothing we can do when everyone's all hands on deck, right? But yeah, it's just when it happens over and over.
SPEAKER_00:Well, this has been great. You know, we have spoken on many occasions about, you know, the the overall primers of EOS, but this brought us a real-world example of something that can happen that challenges that process. So very interesting. If this prompted questions for you, it's just a simple click-through to Michelle's website in the show notes for this episode, and her contact information is there. So feel free to find it. Also, we invite you to subscribe to this podcast, and you can do that wherever it is that you're finding it. Michelle, until next time, thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Until next time, Richard, thank you.
SPEAKER_00:EOS Traction for Your Workplace Goals with Michelle Millard, certified EOS Implementer.