We start each quarter with high energy, but we consistently end up with half-done Rocks because daily operational fires inevitably pull our focus away. How do we build an execution pipeline that guarantees our quarterly Rocks actually get across the finish line?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Unfinished Rocks are usually the result of three common mistakes: setting too many Rocks, failing to break them down into weekly milestones, and failing to protect execution time.

First, apply the rule of less is more. A healthy leadership team should have no more than three to seven company Rocks per quarter. If you have twenty Rocks, you have zero priorities. Cut the list down to the critical few that will truly move the business forward.

Second, never leave a Rock as a monolithic goal. The moment a Rock is set, the owner must break it down into a clear roadmap of milestones. A ninety-day project must have a thirty-day checkpoint and a sixty-day checkpoint. If you wait until week eight to start working on a major initiative, you have already failed.

Third, track progress weekly during the Level 10 Meeting™. When reviewing Rocks, the response must be a simple on-track or off-track. If a Rock is off-track, even by a little, it must be dropped to the Issues List immediately. Do not accept excuses or promises that the owner will catch up next week. Drop it, run IDS® on it, and determine what operational bottlenecks or resource constraints are blocking progress.

Finally, require team members to schedule unscheduled time, or white space, in their calendars specifically for Rock execution. If their days are fully booked with back-to-back operational meetings, they will never have the capacity to think or build. You must protect their time to work on the business, not just in it.