Bloom Growth, formerly Traction Tools: pros, cons and an alternative
The software formerly known as Traction Tools runs meetings and plans for leadership teams. Clearahead lets AI run the model instead
The short answer
Bloom Growth, formerly Traction Tools, is software for leadership teams: strategic planning, roles, and weekly leadership and departmental meetings, compatible with EOS and other business operating systems. Clearahead takes a different approach: one goal, the constraints holding it back and the moves that clear them, kept current by AI without prescribed meetings. If your team runs on a weekly leadership meeting and wants better software for it, Bloom Growth fits. If you want to spend less time in that meeting, look at Clearahead.
Weighing up other options too? See EOS alternatives compared.
What is Bloom Growth?
Bloom Growth is software for leadership teams. It gives a team tools for strategic planning, for defining roles, and for running weekly leadership and departmental meetings, so the plan, the people and the week's work sit in one place. Bloom describes the platform as an ecosystem for growth, and offers coaching and learning alongside it.
It's built for the kind of business operating system that EOS made popular: a long-term vision, short-term priorities, a set of numbers, an issues list and a weekly meeting to work through them. Unlike some EOS tools, it isn't tied to EOS, so teams running a different system, or their own blend, can use it too.
Where Bloom Growth came from
Bloom Growth started life as Traction Tools, founded by Clay Upton, and from 2013 it was licensed software for EOS. In October 2022, after EOS Worldwide cancelled that licensing agreement to build its own software, Traction Tools rebranded as Bloom Growth. It said its software would stay compatible with all business operating systems, including EOS, and that while the EOS terminology would change, its commitment to clients wouldn't.
That history matters for buyers. Bloom Growth carries the habits of the EOS world, the weekly meeting at their heart, without being bound to EOS's vocabulary. We've covered EOS itself in EOS vs Clearahead.
Bloom Growth pros and cons
What Bloom Growth does well, and where it struggles.
Where Bloom Growth shines
- It’s been around a long time and knows how leadership teams run their week.
- It isn’t tied to EOS, so it works with whichever operating system you use.
- It covers planning, roles and meetings in one place.
- It supports departmental meetings as well as the leadership team.
- It offers coaching and learning alongside the software.
Where Bloom Growth struggles
- It’s built around the meeting. The weekly session is still where the picture gets refreshed.
- Plans, goals and issues still need people to keep them up to date.
- If you’ve left EOS behind, you may still be running its rhythm, renamed.
- It centres on leadership and department heads more than the whole company.
Bloom Growth vs Clearahead: side by side
| Bloom Growth | Clearahead | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Software for strategic planning, roles and leadership meetings | Software for one company goal: the constraints holding it back and the moves that clear them |
| History | Traction Tools, licensed EOS software from 2013; renamed Bloom Growth in 2022 | Built on the Theory of Constraints, for teams that work with AI |
| Operating system | Works with EOS and other business operating systems | Its own: the operating model for the AI era |
| Meetings | Built around weekly leadership and departmental meetings | None prescribed. People meet when a decision needs the team together |
| Keeping it current | People update goals, issues and plans, usually around the meeting | Owners tell AJ in a sentence; AJ updates the model and logs the evidence |
| Who works in it | Leadership teams and department heads | Everyone, with advisers and the board as Viewers at no extra cost |
| Cost | See Bloom Growth for current plans | Free for up to 3 people and 1 workspace; £297/month or £2,997/year for the whole company |
How Bloom Growth and Clearahead differ in practice
Both tools want leadership teams focused and following through. The difference is where the work of keeping everyone informed happens.
The meeting, or the model
Bloom Growth is built around the weekly meeting: that's where goals are checked, numbers are reviewed and issues are worked through. Clearahead moves the information out of the meeting and into the model. Owners tell AJ, the AI inside Clearahead, in a sentence when a move starts, gets stuck or finishes; AJ updates the model, logs the evidence and writes This week from AJ, with up to three things that need a decision. People meet when a decision needs them together, and spend that time on the decision. We've written more about this in Information is cheap now. Decisions aren't.
Priorities, or constraints
Meeting-led systems usually track a set of quarterly priorities. Clearahead is built on the Theory of Constraints: one goal per workspace, the constraints really holding it back in the order your team chooses, and the moves under each. When a constraint clears, the team finds the next one.
Leaders, or everyone
Bloom Growth serves leadership and department meetings. Clearahead puts the whole company in one model, and lets the board, investors and advisers follow along as Viewers at no extra cost.
What Clearahead doesn't do
Clearahead doesn't run meetings, hold an org chart, track a weekly scorecard or offer coaching programmes. If those are what you need, Bloom Growth covers them and Clearahead doesn't.
Should you choose Bloom Growth or Clearahead?
Choose Bloom Growth if
- Your company runs on a weekly leadership meeting and you want great software for it.
- You use EOS or a similar system and want a tool that isn’t locked to one framework.
- You want coaching and learning alongside the software.
- You’re already using it and your meetings are working.
Choose Clearahead if
- You want to keep focus without the weekly meeting carrying all the updates.
- You want the whole company working in the same picture, not just leadership.
- You want a model built around constraints, not a set of meeting tools.
- You want AI to do the updating, chasing and weekly summary.
Our honest read
If your leadership team gets real value from its weekly meeting, better software for that meeting is a sensible buy, and Bloom Growth has years of experience building it.
If the meeting has become the job, if most of the hour is updates and only a few minutes are decisions, then better meeting software won't fix it. That's the problem Clearahead was built for: one living model of the goal and what's in the way, kept current by AI, so people only meet when they need to decide something together.
Questions about Bloom Growth
Is Bloom Growth the same as Traction Tools?
Yes. Traction Tools rebranded as Bloom Growth in October 2022, after EOS Worldwide ended its software licensing agreement. Bloom said its software would stay compatible with all business operating systems, including EOS.
Is Clearahead a Bloom Growth alternative?
For teams moving away from meeting-led systems, yes. Clearahead covers setting the goal, finding what’s in the way and following through, without the weekly meeting doing the updates. It doesn’t offer meeting tools, org charts or coaching programmes.
Can you use Clearahead with EOS?
Some teams do: they keep EOS’s vision and accountability tools and use Clearahead for the goal, constraints and moves. We compare EOS and Clearahead on its own page.