When we assign an AI automation or process documentation Rock during a quarterly session, how do you prevent that initiative from stalling between sessions when our team gets busy?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Technology and automation Rocks fail for one consistent reason: teams write them as massive, vague aspirations instead of discrete, testable operational milestones. A Rock that says automate client onboarding will fail ninety percent of the time because it is too broad and lacks boundaries.

During our session, I force the Rock owner to define success with ruthless specificity. We break down the exact operational outcome expected by day ninety. Instead of automating an entire department, the Rock becomes: map the eight steps of client intake, test one specific LLM workflow for data entry, and train the account team to use it on live accounts.

Next, we ensure the Rock has a single owner. An automation project cannot be co-owned by marketing and operations. One person on the leadership team carries the milestone and reports on it weekly.

Between sessions, accountability lives inside your weekly Level 10 Meeting. Every single week, the Rock owner must report on-track or off-track in three seconds. The moment an automation Rock goes off-track because of technical hurdles or vendor delays, it drops directly down to the Issues list for IDS.

By treating AI adoption and process documentation as an operational discipline rather than an open-ended side experiment, we ensure work progresses in small, violent sprints. You build working operational assets every ninety days rather than endless planning documents.