Why does our leadership team keep missing our quarterly Rocks, and how do we actually get them across the finish line by week twelve?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your leadership team is missing Rocks because you are setting too many and writing them as vague aspirations rather than concrete deliverables. When everything is a priority, nothing is. You must limit each leadership team member to three to five Rocks per quarter. If you have seven, you have zero.

To guarantee they cross the finish line, every Rock must be written as a binary, measurable state. By week twelve, it is either done or not done. There is no such thing as ninety percent complete.

To break the cycle of failure, implement a mid-quarter checkpoint. This is where you apply what author Juliet Funt calls a strategic pause. Stop the daily noise for a few hours in week six to assess whether your Rocks are on track or off track.

If a Rock is off track, it immediately goes onto the Issues List for your Level 10 Meeting™. Do not wait until week twelve to admit you are failing. The team must help problem-solve the blockages early.

Finally, assign clear individual ownership. Only one name can be next to a Rock. If two people own it, nobody owns it. If you keep missing them, it is usually because you lack the discipline to say no to new ideas during the quarter. Protect the ninety-day world fiercely.