The 80/20 Problem Most EOS Organizations Face
You've done the hard work. Your leadership team is running Level 10 Meetings. Rocks are getting completed. Your Scorecard numbers are being tracked weekly. The foundational EOS tools are finally working.
So why does accountability still feel like a struggle in parts of your organization?
The Real 80/20 Problem
Here's what most leaders don't realize: implementing the five foundational EOS tools produces about 80% of your results. But here's the catch—many organizations never actually get those five foundational tools rolled out beyond the leadership team.
The five foundational EOS tools are:
Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO)
Accountability Chart
Rocks
Scorecard
Level 10 Meetings
The reason? Weak LMA. The tools work beautifully in leadership team meetings, but accountability still feels like a struggle everywhere else because leaders aren't doing the critical work of cascading EOS throughout the organization.
If leaders don't share the vision seven times, it won't be integrated. If they don't set clear expectations about Rocks, ensure people truly GWC their roles, establish measurables that drive accountability, run great Level 10 Meetings, and hold people accountable to being a core values fit—all of that work getting EOS done well at the leadership team level is for naught.
What Is LMA?
LMA stands for Leadership, Management, and Accountability. It consists of five leadership practices and five management practices that help managers create environments where accountability thrives naturally.
LMA represents the number one role for anyone on your Accountability Chart who has direct reports. Yet most organizations roll out EOS tools while assuming their managers already know how to lead and manage effectively. They don't address the leadership gaps that prevent accountability from taking root at every level.
The Real Problem
Consider Monica Weaver, Visionary at TGI Direct. She was drowning in day-to-day delivery issues while strategic growth projects sat untouched. Her departmental managers constantly needed her input because they lacked the information and confidence to make decisions independently.
The solution? Monica had each manager read How to Be a Great Boss, then held a full-day workshop on the 5 Leadership Practices and 5 Management Practices.
The result: Managers who could make confident decisions without constantly seeking approval. A Visionary who finally had bandwidth for strategic work. An organization where accountability spread naturally rather than requiring constant enforcement.
The Ripple Effect
When you create an environment of accountability at the leadership level, something incredible happens: it spreads.
Your people see how the leadership team operates—how you report on numbers honestly, admit when you're off track, follow through on commitments. They start modeling that behavior in their own teams.
This is what separates good organizations from great ones. Great organizations don't just have accountability systems—they have accountability cultures.
