We have a bad habit of setting ambitious quarterly Rocks but only finishing about half of them because daily operational emergencies constantly get in the way. How do we establish the discipline to actually cross the finish line?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Consistently failing to finish quarterly Rocks is usually a planning failure, not an execution failure. To establish the discipline of finishing, you must apply the conative insights of your team. Check your team's Kolbe profiles. A leadership team dominated by high Quick Starts will naturally start many projects but struggle to cross the finish line. They need the structure of high Follow Thru team members to implement systems. To fix this, implement three strict rules. First, limit your team to three to five business Rocks, and individual leaders to one to three Rocks. Less is more. Second, every Rock must have an objective definition of done. Do not accept vague Rocks like 'improve marketing.' Instead, write 'launch three landing pages and generate fifty leads.' Third, break each Rock down into weekly milestones. If a Rock takes ninety days, what must be done by week three, week six, and week nine? Track this status weekly in your Level 10 Meeting. If a Rock is off track for two consecutive weeks, drop it to the Issues List and IDS it immediately. Do not wait until week twelve to discover a problem. Protecting your team from conative stress means ensuring they actually GWC their assigned Rocks before committing.