We have leaders who consistently report their quarterly Rocks as on track during our weekly Level 10 Meetings, only for us to discover at the end of the quarter that they are far from done. How do we build a culture where on track actually means on track?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When leaders consistently report their quarterly Rocks as on track during weekly Level 10 Meetings, only to miss them at the end of the quarter, you have a major traction problem. This usually occurs because the team lacks a clear definition of what on track actually means, or they are hiding their struggles out of fear.

To fix this, you must change how you evaluate Rocks during the weekly meeting. A Rock is only on track if the leader is confident they will hit one hundred percent of the goal by the end of the quarter, based on their current progress and workload. If they are behind on their milestones, or if they have not even started, they must report it as off track.

Reporting a Rock as off track is not a sign of failure. It is an early warning system. When a leader says off track, the facilitator must immediately drop that Rock to the Issues List. During the IDS portion, the entire team can then help solve the bottleneck, adjust the plan, or reallocate resources to get the Rock back on course.

Train your team to embrace the vulnerability of reporting off-track Rocks. If you wait until week twelve to realize a key priority is incomplete, you have run out of time to fix it. Catching it in week four or five through honest weekly reporting keeps your company agile and execution-focused.