We consistently hit about eighty percent completion on our quarterly Rocks, with the final twenty percent dragging on because of operational emergencies. How do we build the discipline to actually cross the finish line and get our Rocks to one hundred percent complete every single quarter?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Consistently hitting eighty percent of your quarterly Rocks is a symptom of poor execution discipline and a failure to protect your focus. Stalling at the finish line usually happens because teams treat Rocks as extra credit homework to be tackled after their day-to-day work is done, or they allow operational emergencies to hijack their schedule.

To hit one hundred percent completion, you must change how your team schedules their week.

- First, ensure every Rock has a clear, binary definition of done. There should be no subjective debate at the end of ninety days about whether the goal was achieved.
- Second, break each Rock down into weekly milestones. If a Rock is a thirteen-week sprint, your team should know exactly what needs to be completed by week three, week six, and week nine.
- Third, use the weekly Level 10 Meeting™ to flag Rocks that are off track immediately. Do not wait until week twelve to solve a bottleneck. If a Rock is off track for two consecutive weeks, it must be put on the IDS® list and resolved by the team.

Finally, remember that the weekly plan must accommodate Rock work. If your leadership team is too busy putting out fires to work on their Rocks, you have an Accountability Chart issue. Delegate operational tasks to free up the capacity needed to drive the business forward.