We are setting company Rocks every quarter, but our leadership team consistently overestimates their capacity, leading to half-finished initiatives and missed targets. How do we implement a rigorous capacity planning process during our quarterly meetings to ensure we only commit to what we can actually deliver?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your leadership team is consistently pushing back or downgrading Rocks by week seven, your quarterly planning sessions are flawed. You are likely setting aspirational wishes rather than realistic commitments, or you are failing to account for the team's day-to-day operational capacity.

To fix this, you must change how you set and validate Rocks during your EOS® quarterly meetings. First, apply the ninety-day rule. A Rock must be something that can be realistically completed in addition to running the daily business.

Second, before finalizing any Rock, run a capacity check. Ask each leader to estimate the weekly hours required to complete their proposed Rocks. If a leader has three Rocks that each require five hours a week, and their regular job takes forty-five hours, they will fail. Limit your leaders to one or two high-impact Rocks per quarter.

Third, define the done state with absolute clarity at the start. If a Rock is vague, it will get pushed aside when fires break out.

Briefly, use your Level 10 Meeting™ to track progress aggressively. If a Rock is off-track for two consecutive weeks, it must be dropped down to the issues list and solved immediately using IDS®. Do not wait until week seven to realize you are in trouble.