This is Local Legends — a deep dive into the craft of building enduring small businesses. 🏆

Here, we share insights on constructing a business that's not just built for the short term, but soulfully crafted to withstand the test of time — and why that matters if you want to make an impact in your own entrepreneurial journey.

In today’s post, I pull back the curtain on Decada’s operating cadence and unpack some critical concepts that can help streamline your organization.

I'm passionate about today’s topic because a well-crafted operating cadence simplifies everything — it enhances information flow, facilitates growth, and aligns daily operations with your overarching vision.

Let’s dive into how to nail your operating cadence.

IN TODAY’S POST:

As each new year rolls in, my Chief of Staff and I engage in an essential exercise: fine-tuning Decada Group’s operating cadence — the rhythmic way we connect with our leaders across our portfolio of companies.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve spent many hours working to hone our meetings and the way we drive alignment with our leadership teams. Our companies have grown and evolved, which requires adjustments to meet the new needs of the business.

Now that I’m in that headspace, I want to elaborate on some thoughts that have developed as we’ve overhauled our meetings. Let’s dive in.

Nailing Your Operating Cadence

An operating cadence is the heartbeat of your business, akin to the operating system on a computer. It's the foundational backbone that manages the flow of activities and processes — the meetings, the internal customs, and the traditions that set the tone for how you operate.

Often, the cadence within organizations emerges by default rather than by design. It's common to see rhythms that are merely convenient, sometimes erratic, or lack the consistency needed to truly be effective.

As a business scales, the leap from a small, tight-knit team to a more structured organization brings a new web of complexities. How do you ensure everyone is rowing in the same direction? What are the highest priorities? Who calls which shots? How do we keep score?

The operator’s job is to navigate all of this as the organization grows…all while preserving the organization’s harmony and efficiency. This is where your operating cadence is is critical.

It synchronizes daily tasks and weekly projects, aligning them with the your long-term goals as a business owner.

Your operating rhythm is what keeps the train on the tracks and dictates the organization's tempo towards achieving its goals. As we explore various approaches to establishing an operating cadence, let's first delve into a widely adopted framework: EOS.

A Model for Inspiration: Traction’s EOS

For those new to the concept of setting an operating cadence, "Traction" by Gino Wickman should be your first stop. While I'm not an outright EOS evangelist and we don't adopt it wholesale at Decada, its principles have inspired and informed many aspects of how we run our companies. 

The book introduces the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a comprehensive framework designed to help businesses craft an intentional, pre-defined operating rhythm. 

EOS is about bridging the gap between your grand vision and the everyday tactics, complete with structured meeting templates, vision-setting exercises, and a unified language to align your team. Here are the six pillars of EOS:

• Vision: How to get clear on where your company is going, setting the North Star of the rest of your operating rhythm. 

• People: Ways to identify whether you have the right people in the right seats. 

• Data: A critical ingredient to ensuring you have a clear pulse on the data, metrics, and objectives critical for staying on track. 

• Issues: A structured methodology for identifying, discussing, and solving problems, ensuring that obstacles don’t impede the flow of operations. 

• Process: Solidifies the way work is done, embedding consistency and efficiency into the operating rhythm, making execution seamless and scalable. 

• Traction: Embodies the rhythm of execution itself and how you translate your vision to actionable steps. 

When I first read Traction years ago I underestimated the significance of deliberate practice in these areas. The prescribed meeting structures and agendas felt rigid. But, over time, I’ve used it as inspiration for shaping and improving our own style of EOS at Decada, which today makes up our operating rhythm.

There’s something to be said about learning from a model that’s used by thousands of companies. From a friend in Colorado who acquired an electrical contractor and implemented EOS: 

Organizational “Clock Speed”

Sriram Krishnan of Andreesan Horowitz posted this below tweet about what he calls “Organizational Clock Speed.” I love it — it puts to words something I’ve talked about for a while and a major differentiator I see between good and great operators. 

Decada's Meeting Rhythm

Because Decada owns and operates multiple companies, it’s required a deliberate approach to how we interact with operators, leadership, and those who run the day-to-day of our businesses.

We believe getting our interactions right sets the tone for a strong internal cadence. It’s what builds the drumbeat that strengthens alignment and trust across our portfolio.

Decada’s operating rhythm works for us and our unique holding company model and management philosophy. Just like EOS, I’m not prescribing it to you wholesale. It’s simply what works for us.

But what I do advocate for is getting intentional with how you run your business and sticking to it.

We've found that a well-defined meeting rhythm conserves time. By emphasizing fewer but more impactful touchpoints, we place a premium on preparation and commitment to the agenda. Our meeting rhythm can be bucketed into four categories:

1. Annual Planning & Plan Attainment

2. Connecting With Our People

3. Leadership Investment & Alignment

4. Internal Operating Company Meetings

#1: Annual Planning & Plan Attainment

We segment planning into annual cycles, quarter by quarter, fostering a rhythm that allows for flexibility and keeps our teams engaged with clear, achievable targets.

Central to this rhythm are our quarterly board meetings and annual summits — predictable milestones that everyone anticipates.

This rhythm strikes a balance between being nimble and maintaining structured foresight, ensuring sequential quarters build upon each other for consistent progress and defined mile-markers as we build.

• 🗓 Annual Planning Offsites - We initiate our annual operating cadence Sep-Nov with a strategy offsite, assessing the prior year and strategizing for the one ahead. We do zero-based budgeting, resource planning, and aim to lay out a detailed plan and budget that form our 'Box' — the benchmark and playing field against which we'll measure the upcoming year.

• 🗓 Annual Kick-off Operator Summit - In January, we convene for the Operator Summit — a forum where our operators present their finalized plans and budgets, outlining their strategies, planned actions, and potential risks. We end with a group dinner and toast to inaugurate the new year.

• 🗓 Midyear Leadership Summit - Come July, we reconvene with our operators and their leadership teams for a midyear portfolio review. My partner Adam and I present a 'State of the Portfolio' address, we assess our midyear standing by company, and partake in sessions led by guest speakers, along with breakout sessions for leadership development.

• 🗓 Quarterly Board Meetings - A formal 3 hour board meeting where our operator presents progress with prepared presentations and financial statements, comparing our status with our annual objectives so we can strategize accordingly.

• 🗓 Monthly Financial Close Review - On a monthly basis, our Chief of Staff meets with each Operator to review the P&L, Balance Sheet, and KPI Dashboard. It’s a prime opportunity for operators to delve into the financials and juxtapose actual performance against the budget.

#2: Connecting With Our People

Because we rely on our operators and team members for daily operations, we've established various touchpoints to stay informed about our businesses' activities and to maintain a close relationship with our teams.

• 🗓 Decada Ride Along - Quarterly, we spend time within the business in a casual "ride along" setting. Whether it's visiting job sites or attending a ceramics class, the aim is to blend in with the day-to-day activities of our businesses alongside our team.

• 🗓 Decada Operational Audit - Twice a year, we conduct an all-day operational audit. We engage with team members, review systems and processes, examine team dynamics and culture, delve into recurring expenses, and identify any areas that may need improvement. The insights gained from these audits are then shared in our quarterly Maturity Score results, which I’ve talked about on Twitter.

• 🗓 Quarterly Social Events - We organize and host portfolio-wide social events. Activities range from Top Golf to bowling and are essential for building camaraderie and nurturing a sense of community within our teams.

• 🗓 Managers Lunch - We attend casual lunches that serve as a platform for relationship building with our leadership teams. These lunches allow us to connect with management outside the office in a relaxed environment.

#3: Leadership Investment & Alignment

Investing in our leaders and maintaining alignment with them are fundamental aspects of our operational philosophy. Our approach is to empower and invest in our leadership while ensuring we move lockstep together towards our collective goals.

• 🗓 Operator Circle - Understanding how challenging the operator role can be, we've established a peer group that encourages open dialogue about personal development, overcoming challenges, and exchanging leadership best practices. Every six weeks, Decada's team and our operators gather in a relaxed home setting for a 2.5-hour intimate discussion for shared support and learning.

• 🗓 Decada Weekly Rundown - A 60-minute video call every week between the Decada operating partner and the Operator. This session is dedicated to reviewing metrics, addressing action items from the previous week, and discussing any immediate issues or topics.

#4: Internal Operating Company Meetings

If things are going well, we don’t attend internal meetings — but here are a few we encourage take place:

• 🗓 1:1's - Every team member has regular one-on-one meetings with their manager. These sessions are crucial for feedback, personal development, and ensuring alignment on goals and expectations.

• 🗓 Sales & Marketing / Pipeline Meetings - Regular meetings focused on reviewing the sales pipeline, marketing strategies, and aligning the team on targets and tactics to drive growth.

• 🗓 Operational L10 - Inspired by EOS, this meeting structure helps teams address operational issues, set priorities, and maintain focus on critical tasks that get work flowing through the organization.

• 🗓 Safety Meetings - Especially important in trades and manufacturing environments, these meetings are essential for reviewing safety protocols, ensuring compliance, and addressing any concerns to maintain a safe workplace.

• 🗓 All Hands Meetings - Periodic gatherings of the entire company to reinforce the mission, discuss company-wide goals, celebrate wins, and stay connected as a unified team.

Conclusion

Establishing a coherent and effective operating cadence is pivotal for any business aiming for long-term success. Our detailed exploration—from the strategic layers of annual planning to the operational granularity of weekly check-ins—serves as a real-world framework, demonstrating the impact of a structured cadence on organizational alignment and efficiency.

The key takeaway here extends beyond the specific practices of Decada. It lies in the universal value of being deliberate with how you operate, ensuring there’s consistency and ritual in how your team works.

Consider today’s post a call to action to examine and refine your own operating cadence. Reflect on the balance between structure and adaptability in your approach, and the ways in which it could better serve your team's alignment and your business's growth objectives.

The journey towards a more cohesive and productive operational rhythm is ongoing, and it's one that can profoundly shape the future of your business.