At the end of a quarter, an executive claims their Rock is 90 percent done and wants to count it as complete or roll it over. How do we grade Rocks strictly without demoralizing the team?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Rocks are completely binary. A Rock is either one hundred percent done, or it is incomplete. There is no such thing as an eighty percent or ninety percent complete Rock in EOS.

Allowing partial credit destroys accountability. The moment you permit an executive to claim victory on an unfinished project, you signal to the entire organization that deadlines are flexible suggestions. If a Rock was to install and train the team on new inventory software by the end of the quarter, and the software is installed but the team is not trained, that Rock is incomplete.

Grade it as incomplete on the record without anger or drama. Then, take the unfinished portion and push it directly to the Issues List for that Quarterly Session Day. Use IDS to find out why it was missed. Was the scope too large? Did an operational fire pull the owner away? Was there a lack of cross-departmental communication?

If the unfinished portion is genuinely vital to the company over the next ninety days, rewrite it as a new Rock for the upcoming quarter with an unmistakable definition of done. If the remaining piece is minor, assign it as a weekly Level 10 To-Do. Holding a hard line on completion builds genuine organizational muscle and eliminates chronic under-delivery.