If our leadership team realizes halfway through a quarter that a critical Rock was scoped incorrectly or blown off course, how should we handle it before our next session?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Rocks are ninety-day priorities designed to create focus and drive execution. When a Rock goes off track midway through a quarter, leaders often panic, try to quietly change the deliverable, or abandon the goal entirely. That undermines your accountability culture.

If a Rock falls behind schedule or encounters an unexpected barrier, you do not wait for our next quarterly session to fix it. You immediately flag that Rock as off track in your weekly Level 10 Meeting. During the Rock review portion of the agenda, you declare it off track and add it directly to the Issues List for IDS.

When you solve the issue with your team, you have two options. In most cases, your peers help you identify what resources, decisions, or adjustments are needed to get the Rock back on track before the quarter ends. That might mean shifting internal support, removing low-priority tasks from your plate, or breaking down a roadblock.

In rare cases, external conditions completely invalidate the Rock. If a key supplier goes bankrupt or a client contract falls through, the Rock may no longer make strategic sense. Even then, you do not rewrite history. The leadership team must formally agree to drop the Rock or re-scope it during your meeting, and you document that decision openly.

The cardinal rule is transparency. An off-track Rock is not a moral failure, but hiding it until session day is.