Our leadership team agrees on Rocks, but we struggle with the distinction between a company Rock and an individual Rock when it comes to shared projects. How do we assign clear accountability for cross departmental execution?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Shared accountability is a myth that always leads to missed deadlines and finger pointing. When a major project requires input from multiple departments, you must still assign a single owner to the Rock.

In EOS®, every Rock must have exactly one name next to it on the V/TO®. That individual is not necessarily the person doing all the work, but they are the single point of accountability for its completion. We call this the owner. If the Rock fails, the owner is the one who has to explain why and lead the IDS® process to resolve the breakdown.

To make this work for cross departmental projects, distinguish between the company Rock and the supporting tasks. For example, if the Rock is to launch a new software platform, the Integrator or Product Head might own the overall Rock. However, the Sales Leader might have a weekly To Do to write the new sales training material, and the Finance Leader might have a To Do to integrate the payment gateway.

These supporting tasks are tracked weekly on the To Do List or as individual milestones. The Rock owner is responsible for coordinating these efforts and raising a red flag in the Level 10 Meeting™ if a departmental partner is falling behind. By maintaining a single name on the Rock, you eliminate confusion and ensure that someone is always driving the project forward.