My leadership team agrees on our long-term goals in theory, but when we sit down to set our quarterly Rocks, everyone fights tooth and nail to make their own department projects the top priority. How do we transition them from protecting their territory to aligning on what actually moves the company forward?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Territory fighting occurs because your leaders are wearing their departmental hats instead of their leadership team hats during planning. They are focusing on winning resources for their own silos rather than driving the enterprise forward. To break this cycle, you must change how you facilitate your quarterly sessions.

Before you allow any department-specific discussions, you must gain absolute alignment on your company-wide Rocks. Refer back to your V/TO to ground everyone in the long-term vision. Agree on the top three to five priorities for the entire company for the next ninety days.

Once those company Rocks are set in stone, only then do you design individual department Rocks. Every department Rock must directly support one of the master company Rocks. If a leader proposes a project that does not directly push a company-wide priority forward, it gets shelved for a future quarter.

This process forces your leaders to think enterprise-first. It shifts their mindset from protecting territory to allocating resources where they will have the absolute greatest impact on the company's bottom line.