Our leadership team consistently completes only fifty percent of our quarterly Rocks, blaming client crises and daily fires. How do we build a culture where Rocks actually finish?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Hitting fifty percent of your Rocks is not an operational issue. It is a focus and commitment issue. Teams fail to finish Rocks because they set too many of them and fail to prioritize them over daily firefighting. To fix this, you must change how you define a Rock. A Rock is not a to-do list item. It is a non-negotiable priority that must be completed within ninety days. First, limit the number of Rocks. The leadership team should have no more than three to five corporate Rocks, and each individual should have no more than three. If everything is important, nothing is. Second, you must use your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ to keep Rocks on track. During the Rock review, the answer is either on track or off track. There is no story and no explanation allowed. If a Rock is off track, it immediately goes to the IDS® portion of the agenda. The team must then solve the obstacle preventing its completion. If a leader is constantly pulled away by client crises, they do not have a resource problem. They have a delegation problem. Use the Accountability Chart™ to delegate daily fires so leaders have the white space to complete their Rocks.