A Reasonable Idea That Fails in Practice
After reading Traction (EOS®) or Scaling Up, most leaders try to self-implement a Business Operating System (BOS) in their company.
Those who hire an EOS® Implementer or a Scaling Up coach will be asked to choose a proper tool to support the system.
But without a coach, self-implementers are often tempted to rely on whatever tools they already have.
I wish those BOS books talked more about the real cost and the real danger of duct-taping a solution together instead of using a dedicated tool.
“We already pay for Asana (or Monday, or ClickUp)… why not just use that?”
The logic is understandable. It makes sense to use what you already have when you’re testing whether something works.
But it’s like wearing hiking shoes for a marathon just to see if jogging is for you. You can jog in them, but the experience will be subpar at best, and they’re clearly not designed for the job.
This article explains why that perfectly reasonable idea is, in fact, a terrible one.
So here are four main reasons why using a project management (PM) tool to run EOS® or another business operating system is a bad idea, even "just to test it."
1. The Fragmented Stack: When Your EOS Data Lives in Different Places
The most common argument against dedicated BOS software goes something like this:
"We don’t need another tool."
But the tools they choose rarely work well for everything.
The conversation usually sounds like this:
- What should we use for scorecards?
- Spreadsheets.
- Where should we put our core values?
- Let’s just use Google Docs.
- To-dos?
- Our project management software should work. We already track project to-dos there.
- Rocks?
- I guess we can treat them as projects in our PM tool.
- What about issues?
- We could create a separate list in the PM tool.
- L10 meeting structure?
- We don’t need a tool for that. We’ll just have someone act as timekeeper and keep the meeting on track.
- Org chart?
- I don’t know… Canva? Miro? Let’s figure that out later.
And so on.
As a result, parts of the BOS inevitably get deprioritized because the workaround isn’t ideal. Org charts are a classic example. They’re supposed to evolve constantly with hiring, promotions, role changes, and departures. But when updating them is inconvenient, they quickly fall out of date.
Data exchange between tools (for example, a scorecard referencing a rock) becomes complicated unless you duplicate information. And most of the time, true integration simply isn’t possible.
Running comprehensive reports or building a unified notification system across all these tools requires custom work and cross-platform expertise. Version control, auditing, and permissions are either a nightmare or practically nonexistent. And the constant context switching between tools kills momentum in meetings.
By trying to avoid "one more tool," we end up with something far worse: a fragmented system where information lives in silos, never giving you a clear, complete picture.
And then the small things start slipping through the cracks. Because the overlaps between tools never perfectly match your BOS, things get missed.
Your team will go along with it (if you push hard enough). But what you’ll end up with is a Frankenstein system: fragile, inefficient, and often dependent on one or two people who actually understand how it all fits together.
2. One Size Fits None: The problem of adoption
If you insist on using one single tool for everything in your business in the name of "centralization," be prepared to lose efficiency.
Not only is it difficult to retrofit a Business Operating System into a tool that wasn’t designed for it, but no matter what platform you choose, someone will still have to use a tool that isn’t part of their natural day-to-day workflow.
Multipurpose tools are rarely ideal for specialized work.
Developers need the technical depth of GitHub or Jira.
Marketers need the visual flexibility of tools like ClickUp.
Project managers rely on the task-dependency power of Asana or Monday.com.
And so on…
No matter how you approach it, someone in your company will always need specialized tools. You’re not going to replace GitHub for developers or tools like Google Search Console for SEO. Someone will inevitably have to enter data into an additional system.
So you might as well use the right tool for the right job, instead of forcing one tool to fit almost everything at the expense of performance.
If you’re worried about adoption, book demo calls and see for yourself. Modern platforms like MonsterOps are designed to make onboarding super simple and intuitive.
When we introduced MonsterOps internally, our senior developer was skeptical. After just four weekly meetings, this was his feedback:
That’s what you want your team to say in every department.
"I’m not a fan of bureaucracy or red tape.
I prefer working in a pragmatic, results-driven environment where people are trusted to do their jobs and momentum matters more than box-ticking.
Because of that, I was skeptical about MonsterOps. It felt like it might be process for the sake of process.
I was wrong.
After our weekly team meetings, I now have real clarity on my workload and priorities. Planning is tighter, collaboration is faster, and decisions don’t evaporate the moment the meeting ends.
MonsterOps hasn’t slowed us down; it has removed friction and improved structure.”
3. The Noise of Running Strategy Through an Operational Lens
Fundamentally, project management tools are built for the trenches. They’re designed for granularity, sub-tasks, hourly updates, and a growing stream of noise as the number of participants increases.
Business operating systems, on the other hand, are built for the 10,000-foot view.
Self-implementers who rely on their existing tools often struggle to separate day-to-day operations from strategic planning.
When you put your EOS® Rocks, issue list, and to-dos inside a tool like ClickUp or Asana, they end up looking exactly like every other project or task.
Project management tools = noise: Notifications for every minor comment. Every status change. Every small update. Day-to-day operation.
BOS software = signal: A focus on what actually moves the company forward at a strategic level, scorecard trends, Rock progress, and the issue list. Best for week-to-week or month-to-month cadence.
Keeping strategy and day-to-day execution in the same place may seem convenient, but it’s incredibly confusing.
To lead effectively, a place where you can review your rocks and your scorecard without being distracted by 50 unread notifications.
This might not feel like a problem for the CEO at first. But when every department uses the same tool for both operational work and strategic alignment, separating the two becomes increasingly difficult.
4. The fallacy of cost.
Self-implementers often say they don’t want to pay for a dedicated tool when they’re already paying for plenty of others.
Instead, they end up spending dozens of hours trying to “automate” a scorecard in a spreadsheet or building custom templates in Monday.com, Asana, or ClickUp to mimic a Level 10 meeting agenda.
That’s not even counting the time required every few weeks to maintain and tweak the system (usually by one person who actually understands how it all works). And who knows whether that setup will even scale across the entire company?
Not only is this a massive waste of high-value leadership time that could be better spent elsewhere, but tools like MonsterOps offer a solid free plan. Even the paid plan is a fixed cost that likely doesn’t even equal one hour per month of one of your leaders’ time.
And it’s so simple to use that you have to ask yourself: why spend time building a subpar workaround?
Is this really the problem you want to be solving internally when you can give your entire company access to a dedicated platform that keeps evolving for less than $100 per month?
The True Costs of DIY Tools:
- Lost adoption: If the tool is clunky or it takes three clicks just to find the Issues list, people stop using it.
- Data integrity: Spreadsheets break. Links die. When the data isn’t reliable, the entire “Data” component of BOS collapses.
- Meeting friction: In a Levership meeting, every minute matters. Searching for a buried document drains the energy from the room.
Conclusion: The Right Tool for the Right Job
You wouldn’t use a hammer to perform surgery, even if it’s already in your toolbox.
Self-implementing EOS® is hard enough. Don’t make it harder by fighting against tools that weren’t designed for the job.
By using dedicated EOS® software (like Ninety.io, Strety or MonsterOps), you create a positive space for your strategy. You keep the Vision clear, the Traction disciplined, and the noise where it belongs - inside the departments with day-to-day operation.
Give your leadership team the right tool for the job and get the benefit you seek from implementing your BOS properly.
Try MonsterOps for free and see how quickly it helps your leadership team gain clarity and grow the company.