Our leadership team starts the quarter strong, but we constantly find ourselves rushing in week eleven to finish our quarterly Rocks, resulting in sloppy execution. How do we build a weekly inspection routine that guarantees Rocks are actually completed on time?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To get Rocks across the finish line with high quality, you must change how you review them during your weekly Level 10 Meeting™. Most teams simply ask if a Rock is on track or off track. When a team member says on track for eight weeks straight, everyone assumes it is fine until week nine when they suddenly realize they are hopelessly behind. Stop accepting a simple on track status without verification.

You need to break each quarterly Rock down into clear, measurable milestones with specific due dates at the start of the quarter. During your weekly meeting, when a Rock is reviewed, the owner must state whether the specific milestone for that week has been met. If a milestone is missed, that Rock is immediately flagged as off track and dropped to the Issues List. You must run IDS® on the roadblock right then.

Additionally, ensure that your Integrator is actively managing these dependencies between sessions. If a Rock requires input from another department, that dependency must be mapped out in week one, not week ten. By forcing early milestone tracking and using your weekly meeting to solve delays immediately, you prevent the late-quarter scramble and ensure your team actually finishes what they committed to.