Open and Honest 101 | Gino Wickman

This message is 25 years in the making. I've done over 2,100 EOS sessions, and nearly 900 implementers worldwide have done hundreds of thousands more. There's one expectation that's been consistent through every single one of them, and at the 2026 EOS Conference, I finally unpacked why.

I asked the room to rate their leadership teams on a scale of 1 to 10. The average? About a four. And I'll just say this: four sucks. But there's something that separates the fours from the tens, something I call the "secret, secret, secret ingredient." It's not a new tool. It's not a hack. It's a feeling, and it's been hiding inside EOS since day one.

I also shared what I believe is the real reason I get away with being ruthlessly honest, and it's probably not what you think.

I wrote three hours of content for this talk and picked the best of it. My goal was simple: give every person in that room three golden nuggets that would flip a switch. Different for everyone. But if even one of them lands for you, everything changes on Monday.

If you run on EOS, or you're thinking about it, watch this one. I put my soul into it.