Rocket Fuel by Geno Wickman is a part of the EOS book series and goes into detail about the ‘essential combination’ that will change the way your business runs. The book is divided into two main parts, The Context and The How-To’s.
Chapter One starts off talking about the Visionary, and their strengths. They include being extremely passionate, being an idea generator, being a big picture thinker, seeing the future, and having a hunter’s mentality. Then they go into the challenges that visionaries often face. These include staying focused on the day-to-day, having too many ideas, facing organizational whiplash, sweating in the details, and struggling to develop talent. Introducing all the common strengths and challenges for visionaries sets the stage for chapter two, in which the author introduces the EOS Integrator. The Integrator’s strengths include: running the day-to-day, harmonious operator, being a steady force, executing the vision, and being a voice of reason. Their challenges include: lack of appreciation, being pessimistic, discipline and accountability, going slow, and not being Superman. More or less, the Integrator is a master of the day-to-day, and is able to hold everyone, including the visionary, accountable. For their challenges, it has to do with how a visionary might perceive them. The Visionary and Integrator contrast well, and chapter three gets into the working relationship between the two roles. For example, while the visionary generates many ideas, the integrator helps execute the best ideas. Or, while the integrator identifies issues, the visionary can solve them. This chapter goes into the four readiness factors, afterwards. These are:
- Financial: your organization can afford to pay an integrator
- Psychological: you are ready to give up some control
- Lifestyle: you want to work less and not have to focus on the day-to-day
- Unique Ability: you want to embrace the visionary personality
This concludes the first part of the book, and the second set of chapters gets into the tools that are used between Integrators and Visionaries. The next chapter gets into the Accountability chart, which can be seen below:
There isn’t any single way to organize a company, so the accountability chart, from EOS, can always be modified to fit your needs. To see more details about an accountability chart specifically, read our article about them here: https://hedgewaygroup.com/what-is-an-eos-accountability-chart-and-how-do-i-create-one/
However, the chapter goes into some challenges that can arise with these charts: The inability for the Visionary to let go, holding multiple roles, conducting work in multiple roles, and being both the visionary and the integrator. The following chapter goes into the five rules for Rocket Fuel.
- Stay on the Same Page: Monthly Same Page Meetings to keep visions aligned
- No End Runs: avoiding situations in which one bypasses their manager to get a better answer/different answer.
- Integrators Break Ties: this is just as it sounds like, the integrator should hold a tie breaking vote in disagreements/ decisions involving the day-to-day
- Working In vs On the business: Owners and visionaries will feel entitled to make decisions over executives and employees in their roles, but they should stay working ‘on’ the business
- Maintain mutual respect: The Visionary and Integrator should maintain respect and trust in each other’s opinions, decisions, and intuition.
With these big steps, organizations can maximize their relationship with an integrator. In the next chapter, the author goes over the steps a visionary should follow to find an integrator.
- Determine how much visionary your company needs.
- Map your visionary profile.
- Identify your ideal Integrator Profile.
- Use the Four Readiness Factors.
- Search for your integrator match.
- Onboard your integrator.
- Maintain the relationship.
The final chapter goes over the importance of patience, and has different checkpoints. Before- it will take time to find the match. While the visionary is searching for an integrator, they essentially are the integrator. During (1st Quarter) – The Integrator will be observing the entire business. During (1st year)- the Integrator will ramp up their day-to-day and decision making authority. And then after, they can assess if the relationship is working out or not. And this concludes the Rocket Fuel Book, diving into the relationship between the Visionary and Integrator, and how to make it work.
