We have a culture where team members hide that their Rocks are off-track until week eight or nine, making it impossible to save them. How do we create a culture of transparency where being off-track on a Rock is raised early?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Hiding off-track Rocks is a symptom of a low-trust culture where being off-track is viewed as a personal failure rather than a business issue. To build a culture of transparency, you must change how you react to red metrics and off-track priorities during your Level 10 Meeting™. When you run the Rock review section of your agenda, team members must only report their Rocks as on-track or off-track. No explanations, no excuses, and no stories are allowed. If a Rock is off-track, the leader simply says off-track, and the Integrator immediately drops it to the Issues List. By keeping the reporting binary, you remove the immediate pressure to defend oneself. During the IDS® portion of the meeting, the team can then objectively look at the off-track Rock and figure out how to support the owner. The goal of IDS® is never to blame the person; it is to solve the issue. When your leadership team realizes that declaring a Rock off-track results in help rather than a lecture, the fear disappears. They will start raising flags early in the quarter when there is still time to course-correct, rather than waiting until week nine when it is too late to save the priority.