Our leaders consistently report their quarterly Rocks as on track during our weekly meetings, but then we hit week twelve and suddenly three major Rocks are incomplete because of unexpected operational emergencies. How do we build an early warning system to ensure Rocks actually cross the finish line?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The issue is not the operational emergencies; it is the definition of on track. Most leadership teams allow green status reports based on good intentions and effort rather than physical progress. To fix this, you must establish a strict rule for your weekly Level 10 Meeting™: a Rock is only on track if you are on schedule with your specific milestones. If you are even one day behind on a milestone, that Rock is off track. There is no middle ground. Your leaders must drop their egos and learn that reporting a Rock as off track is not a failure. It is an early warning system. The moment a Rock is declared off track, it must immediately be dropped to the Issues list for IDS®. During the IDS® portion of the meeting, the team can help clear the bottleneck, reallocate resources, or adjust the plan before the quarter is lost. If you wait until week ten or eleven to admit a Rock is in trouble, you have run out of runway. Ensure every Rock has a clear, step-by-step milestone plan created in week one. If a leader cannot list the specific milestones needed to complete their Rock, the scope is too vague. Track these milestones diligently, and use your weekly syncs to solve problems when they are small.