Our leadership team gets highly enthusiastic during our session days but we struggle with internal friction and procrastination when we return to our desks. How do we combat this natural human resistance during the quarterly cycle?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This drop in momentum is a classic psychological reaction. During our sessions, we are working on the business, which is exciting and strategic. When you return to your office, the gravity of daily operations takes over, and resistance sets in. To combat this, we structure your quarterly commitments with extreme specificity. We do not leave a session day with vague intentions. Every Rock we agree upon must be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. We also assign a single owner to every single deliverable, eliminating any diffusion of responsibility. The antidote to mid-quarter procrastination is your weekly Level 10 Meeting™. This meeting acts as a weekly course correction, forcing your team to report on whether their Rocks are on track or off track. If a Rock is off track, we do not let it slide; we drop it down to the Issues list and IDS® it. This weekly accountability ensures that procrastination is exposed early, before it can ruin your entire quarter. We also encourage your team to embrace the concept of white space, scheduling unscheduled time in their calendars specifically to work on their Rocks, protecting them from the constant operational noise.