We are six weeks into the quarter, and a major external market shift has made one of our company Rocks completely irrelevant and impossible to achieve. How do we handle this dead Rock during our weekly Level 10 Meeting without killing our execution numbers?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

In a healthy EOS® culture, you do not change or delete Rocks mid-quarter just because they get difficult. However, when a massive, indisputable market shift or an existential business pivot renders a Rock completely irrelevant, keeping it on the list as a ghost target is a waste of mental energy. During your Level 10 Meeting™, do not just ignore it or mark it as off-track week after week. Instead, drop the status of this Rock to the Issues List. Use the IDS® portion to decide as a leadership team whether to officially kill the Rock or pivot its scope. If you agree to kill it, remove it from the active weekly Rock review and move any remaining viable tasks to your long-term Issues List on the V/TO®. This is not about letting someone off the hook for poor execution, it is about maintaining a highly accurate, clutter-free focus on what actually matters for the business today. Do this sparingly; if you are killing Rocks every quarter, your planning process is broken. But when a true pivot is required, make the decision collectively, document it, and keep your weekly pulse aligned with reality.