We are tired of arguments at our Quarterly Pulsing meetings about whether a Rock was actually achieved or just mostly done. How do we write our quarterly Rocks so they are 100 percent binary and guaranteed to finish on time?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To get Rocks across the finish line, you must eliminate all subjectivity during the creation phase. Many leadership teams write Rocks using soft verbs like look into, analyze, or improve. These are not Rocks because they have no clear end state. By week twelve, you end up in a subjective debate about whether the effort was good enough. That wastes time and erodes accountability. To fix this, every Rock must be written as a binary, pass-fail metric. It is either done or it is not done. Use concrete verbs like launch, hire, document, or sign. If a Rock is to document our sales process, the definition of done must be clearly mapped out. For example, write document sales process as a five-step SOP uploaded to our drive and approved by the Integrator. This leaves zero room for interpretation. Additionally, break your ninety-day Rocks into three clear thirty-day milestones. If you are not hitting your thirty-day and sixty-day check-ins, the Rock is off track. Do not wait until week twelve to discover you missed the target. When you define the exact, measurable end state on day one, your team knows exactly what success looks like and execution becomes a simple matter of hitting milestones.