Our leadership team starts the quarter with clear Rocks, but by week six, the scope of these Rocks has bloated because of unforeseen operational realities. How do we prevent Rock creep and ensure we still cross the finish line?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Rock creep is a symptom of poor definition during your quarterly planning session. When a Rock is poorly scoped, it naturally expands to fill the quarter, leading to missed deadlines and frustration. To solve this, you must change how you write and agree on Rocks.

First, every Rock must be written using the SMART framework. It must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. If a Rock is simply to improve customer service, it will fail because the finish line is blurry. Instead, the Rock must be to reduce average customer support response time to under four hours by the end of the quarter.

Second, you must list the milestones required to complete the Rock. During your quarterly session, the owner of the Rock must outline three to five major checkpoints. This forces the team to think through the execution steps before the quarter begins, which helps identify hidden complexity early.

Third, use your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ to monitor progress. If a Rock is on track, it is reported as on track. If it is off track, it immediately goes to the Issues List to be resolved through IDS®. Do not allow the owner of the Rock to change the scope mid-quarter to make it look successful. If operational realities change, you must officially agree as a team to drop or pivot the Rock during your meeting, rather than letting it quietly bloat in the background. Keeping Rocks lean and rigidly defined is the only way to build traction.