We set our quarterly Rocks during our last planning session, but a sudden market shift has made two of our primary goals obsolete. Do we abandon these Rocks mid-quarter, or do we force the team to finish them for the sake of completion?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Forcing your team to work on obsolete goals for the sake of completion is a waste of resources and damages company morale. However, abandoning Rocks mid-quarter must be done with extreme care to avoid creating a culture where people quit when things get difficult.

Before you abandon any Rock, you must run it through the IDS® process at your next Level 10 Meeting™. The leadership team must collectively agree that the market shift has genuinely rendered the Rock useless or counterproductive to the business. This prevents individual team members from unilaterally deciding to drop a goal because they are struggling to hit their milestones.

If the team agrees to kill the Rock, document the decision on your Issues List and remove it from your active tracking sheet. Do not replace it with a new Rock. The quarter is already in progress, and introducing a new major goal mid-stream will only cause confusion and stress.

Instead, reallocate those resources to supporting your remaining active Rocks or addressing the immediate market shift. This keeps the team focused on execution while maintaining the integrity of your quarterly planning discipline.