Headwater

Bloom Growth is a business operating system for scaling companies, with meetings, goals, metrics, issues, to-dos, an org chart, and a business plan. Headwater has its own method. In Headwater, the vision is joined to each quarter’s climbs by pillars and initiatives, and progress is worked out from milestones at every level.

By 2029, Halden is the coffee people ask for by name across the North.
Brilliant cafés52%
Open café five in YorkDW
Sign the lease for the York unitJul to Sep
Fit out the York caféOct to Dec
Company
Open the York caféJan to Mar
Start a barista academyAR
Train 12 baristas to level twoOct to Dec

Bloom Growth started as Traction Tools, which was software for EOS until 2022. Most of its parts have a place in Headwater. The business plan becomes the vision and pillars, goals become climbs, and meetings become huddles.

Headwater has no metrics or to-do list. Work a team agrees in a huddle becomes a milestone on a climb or a new issue, so it is part of the plan and counts towards its progress.

Initiatives, weekly check-ins, the rulebook, and Headwater in Claude have no row on Bloom Growth’s side. Choose any row to see it in Headwater.

In Bloom GrowthIn Headwater
  • Vision and pillars

    The vision is one sentence about where the company will be by a set year. It comes with targets and a list of things the company has decided not to do. Under the vision are three to five pillars. A pillar is an area of work the company has chosen to reach its vision.

    By 2029, Halden is the coffee people ask for by name across the North.37%
    Win wholesale34%
    Grow subscriptions35%
    Brilliant cafés52%
    Roast at scale28%

Every climb in Headwater has a few dated milestones, and its progress is the share of them ticked. A climb also counts the milestones on every climb that supports it.

Climbs link to initiatives, the projects that run across quarters, and each initiative belongs to a pillar. The progress of each initiative and pillar is added up from the climbs below it, and the whole plan from its pillars.

Tick one of Maya’s milestones on Sign 12 new cafés in Leeds to see each level change.

Halden Coffee37%
The average of its four pillars
Win wholesale34%
The average of its two initiatives, 46% and 22%
Open trade in Leeds and Manchester46%
11 of 24 milestones across its three climbs, including next quarter’s
Sign 12 new cafés in Leeds58%
  • Tasting at Kiln Café
  • Call Northern Bloc
  • Tasting at Bean There
  • Send the trade pack to Headingley cafés
  • Sign the last three cafés
  • 7 milestones done earlier in the quarter
7 of 12 milestones ticked

Every Monday morning, each person goes through their open climbs one at a time. They mark each climb on track, off track, or done, tick the milestones they have finished, and raise any issues.

Every update appears in the team’s huddle that week, so nobody reads out a status in the meeting. The huddle lasts an hour, and 40 minutes of it are for solving issues.

Maya’s check-in is open from her My Flow page. Mark her climbs and tick her milestones.

My FlowCheck-inMonday 16 November
Good morning, Maya
Weekly check-in
2 climbs
Crew
JBRPECSHPSDW
Your climbs
  • Sign 12 new cafés in LeedsOn track
  • Hire two trade repsOn track

Bloom Growth comes with a framework, coaches, and BloomU, its online learning academy for everyone in a company.

Headwater has its own method, in six steps. Each step has a guide on this site with examples and exercises, and Headwater is set up to follow it, so a team can start on its own.

  • Yes. Start with the vision and pillars, add the initiatives under them, then set this quarter’s climbs with their milestones. It can be done in one planning session, and everything can be changed later.

Details about Bloom Growth are from bloomgrowth.com and its announcement of October 2022. Bloom Growth, BloomU, Traction Tools, and EOS are trademarks of their owners. Headwater is not affiliated with Bloom Growth or EOS Worldwide.

Book a demo and we’ll show you how Headwater would run your week, from the vision down to Monday morning.