ColeBreit Engineering started in 2013 as a team of one. Founder and CEO Laura Breit had many great mentors at the company’s inception and grew the staff to 18 over the first nine years. In 2022, Laura had the opportunity to continue the company’s growth with the acquisition of Axiom Engineers. With the acquisition, the company not only grew in staff, bringing the total to over 50 team members, but also expanded to six office locations across Oregon and California, added various remote employees, and expanded its service offerings. Merging processes, developing cross-functional remote teams, and integrating our new teammates and clientele while preserving what made both companies special were some of the challenges the transition presented. This meant we had to quickly figure out who we were, how we wanted to grow, and our vision for the future. Enter the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).
After reading several books on EOS, doing research, and talking to other industry professionals who had implemented this system in their businesses, we decided it fit ColeBreit. The tools were logical (an easy sell to an engineer) and simple. EOS focuses on strategic planning and goal setting, accountability, and efficiency. This was key to building the infrastructure the firm needed to grow efficiently.
The journey officially started in September 2022 with our first session, known as Focus Day. We met our implementor, Sonya Jury, who took us through the EOS Proven Process and some of the key tools we’d start implementing. We then completed Vision Building days one and two. In these sessions, we developed the “who we are” and “where we’re going.” We worked on our Core Values, Core Focus, and identifying our long-term goals. When it comes to Core Values, EOS has a rigorous discovery process that took us a few rounds to get right. Once we had the right values narrowed in, we just felt it. Driven to Perform, Wants to Grow, and Team First aren’t just nice things we say; they are ColeBreit at its core, and we use them to hire, fire, review, and reward our team members.
For strategic planning and identifying future goals, EOS utilizes a simple tool called the Vision Traction Organizer (VTO). The first step was to look out five to ten years and set our long-term goals. Next was to determine the 1-Year Picture, taking some significant steps toward the long-term goals. Finally, we determined the 1-Year Plan and Quarterly Rocks to make manageable progress towards future objectives. All this information lives in one, two-page document, the VTO, that we review once a quarter. This process keeps us on track and accountable for making real progress on what matters to move the business forward.
Explaining all the tools and their functions in the EOS system would require far more than 800 words. So, in the interest ink, there is one last tool I must discuss as it is paramount to making the system work: the Accountability Chart. Affectionately known as the AC, this is the tool used to structure an organization. It’s simple, yet it’s not always easy. There are no titles, no egos; it focuses on structure and accountability. For us, we decided on the structure needed for our organization, asking questions like, “Is our Project Leadership team in the same department as our Production team?” or “Is Admin its own seat?” Once the structure was clear, we added our current team members to the seats we defined and identified a few key hires still needed.
In May 2023, we officially rolled out EOS to the entire company. We shared our Core Values, Vision, and the other tools we’d been developing over the last nine months. Our teams started having Level 10 meetings, setting Rocks, reviewing key metrics through each department’s Scorecard, and mostly embracing EOS, with a few questions. After about six months, we realized our Accountability Chart wasn’t quite right for how we work. We made some significant shifts and ultimately landed with a new structure that we rolled out in February 2024. Since then, we have seen our team thrive. EOS has made our team members’ roles and responsibilities clear, and we all know what is expected of us. We have people managers who are excelling in their new seats and hold their teams accountable.
Thanks to EOS, and a team willing to try something new, we are now a company full of people “rowing in the same direction” and working efficiently to achieve common goals. We know who we are, where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there. It’s not always perfect on the first try, but we’re committed to getting better. Driven to Perform. Wants to Grow. Team First.
