What happens if we hit our first annual planning session and realize we missed more than half of our quarterly Rocks? Do we pause the EOS® rollout or pivot our strategy entirely during that two-day meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Missing more than half of your quarterly Rocks heading into your annual planning session is a common, frustrating experience for leadership teams in their first year. It is not a sign to pause your EOS® rollout or radically pivot your entire strategy. It is raw data telling us that your execution habits are weak or your planning was unrealistic.

During our two day annual planning session, we do not panic. We use this miss as a diagnostic tool. We will run the IDS® process on your execution history to find the root cause of the failure. Often, the issue is not your strategy, but one of three common issues:
- Setting too many Rocks, causing your team to drown in daily operational firefighting.
- Poor delegation, where the wrong people are assigned accountability.
- A lack of weekly discipline during your Level 10 Meeting™ sessions.

Once we diagnose the root cause, we adjust our planning for the coming year. We will likely set fewer, more impactful Rocks and focus heavily on building weekly accountability. Pausing the rollout is the worst move you can make. The only way to build execution muscle is to stay in the gym, face the reality of your numbers, and adjust your weights for the next round.