Our leadership team has a bad habit of overcommitting and setting twenty different priorities every quarter, only to finish half of them. How do you help us narrow down our focus during our session days?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Overcommitting is a classic sign of a team that confuses activity with progress. It is a symptom of Resistance, where setting many goals feels productive but actually dilutes your focus. During our session days, I use a strict pruning process to prevent this operational trap.

We start by laying out every potential priority on the whiteboard. This often results in a massive, chaotic list of initiatives. I then force your team to evaluate each potential Rock against your long-term vision in the V/TO®. We look at your current capacity, current metrics, and seasonal demands to determine what is truly critical for the next ninety days.

My rule is that a leadership team can have no more than three to five corporate Rocks per quarter. If everything is important, nothing is. I will push your team to debate, defend, and ultimately kill projects that are not immediate priorities. This is where we apply the core principle of doing less but doing it with near-perfect execution. By the time we leave the room, every leader will have clear, realistic Rocks that are aligned with their conative strengths, ensuring a high completion rate.