How NC Fusion runs a nonprofit youth sports club on EOS

Executive overview

Most strategic plans end up on a shelf. NC Fusion, a 110-person nonprofit youth soccer club, replaced theirs with EOS and achieved alignment from the leadership team down to part-time coaches over two and a half years.

The visionary–integrator pairing between CEO Scott Wollaston and Chief Experience Officer Sarah Bridges is the engine. Weekly same-page meetings, quarterly cascading rocks, and Level 10s at every level create accountability without relying on volunteers to police themselves.

The core insight: mission clarity only works if every decision — hiring, firing, rock-setting — is tested against it every week.

The EOS adoption decision

• Strategic plan was completed after three months of work; nothing had changed four months later.
• Three separate people recommended EOS in one week — treated as a clear signal to investigate.
• Biggest hurdle was cost justification for a nonprofit; buy-in came from vetting the implementer as much as the system.
• Early skeptics (finance lead, integrator) became full believers within two and a half years.
• Adoption has now spread from the five-person leadership team to almost all full-time staff.

Mission as a operating filter

• Mission statement existed before EOS but wasn't actively used to evaluate decisions.
• Now every idea Scott generates is tested: does it move the mission forward, and by how much?
• The differentiating word in their mission is intentional — creating experiences that are purposefully designed, not accidental.
• Core values include "believe in the mission" as an explicit value, not an assumed one.
• Hiring and firing decisions are anchored to core values, as is recognition and reward.

The visionary–integrator dynamic

• Sarah's role is to say no — not no forever, but "not yet" or "how do we make this work?"
• Scott's crystallizer score is unusually high on the integrator side, which reduces friction when he hears no.
• Past moments of "out-kicking punt coverage" (moving fast without pausing) validated Sarah's filtering role.
• Scott now focuses almost entirely on the three-year picture; the team handles one year to 90 days.
• Weekly same-page meetings function as a holding tank for Scott's ideas — some get deleted before they're even discussed.

Creating accountability in a nonprofit

• Level 10 meetings are the single biggest accountability lever — staff report on-track or off-track every week in public.
• Transparency normalises being off-track; the team shifts to problem-solving rather than blame.
• Volunteers and part-time coaches can't be in L10s, so accountability for them comes through clear written processes and cascading communication from full-time staff.
• After each leadership quarterly, all departments hold their own quarterly at the same time and place — rocks from each group align closely with leadership rocks, showing traction is reaching the field.

Continuous improvement (kaizen)

• NC Fusion aims to be a model sports club — but no existing model to copy, so they're building it from scratch.
• Documenting core processes is the hardest, least glamorous work in a sports organisation; it's been a recurring rock for two and a half years.
• Sports analogies make improvement culture tangible — players focus on individual improvement, not just wins; the organisation mirrors that.
• Delegate and elevate surfaces that right people in wrong seats often appear as performance problems; moving them fixes it without losing them.

The trust foundation between visionary and integrator

• Eleven years of shared history means hard conversations carry less risk of misinterpretation.
• Scott created space early for Sarah to disagree without fear of retribution — the relationship reflects that investment.
• Both treat their dynamic as a public model: if they're not holding a higher standard, they can't expect it from the rest of the organisation.
• The full leadership team's working genius types collectively cover all six types — every strength is represented.

EOS tools referenced

• Crystallizer assessment — clarifies visionary vs. integrator wiring; not pass/fail, helps people see where they show up naturally.
• Delegate and elevate — maps love/great-at against competence; surfaces tasks to hand off and tasks to protect.
• VTO core values and core focus — used in every people conversation, not just as wall art.
• Level 10 meetings — weekly accountability rhythm for all full-time staff.
• Same-page meeting — weekly visionary–integrator reset; manages idea volume and surfaces friction early.
• Quarterly rocks — cascaded from leadership to all departments simultaneously to ensure alignment.