During our weekly Rock review, team members repeatedly report their quarterly goals as on-track, but then we arrive at our quarterly meeting only to find out multiple critical priorities are incomplete. How do we tighten the verification of Rock progress during our Level 10 Meetings?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a team member says their Rock is on-track week after week only to miss it at the end of the quarter, it is a failure of clear milestones and healthy accountability. On-track must be a binary, data-driven status, not a gut feeling or an optimistic guess.

To fix this, every quarterly Rock must be broken down into clear, visible milestones with specific due dates when they are first established. During your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ Rock review, the status should only be reported as on-track if all milestones to date have been completed. If a milestone is missed, the Rock is officially off-track.

When reviewing Rocks, the facilitator must enforce a simple reporting rule: team members can only say 'on-track' or 'off-track.' If a leader says 'off-track,' do not let them explain, defend, or start problem-solving. Immediately drop the Rock to the short-term Issues List and move to the next person.

During the IDS® portion, you will then look at the milestones, identify why the Rock is slipping, and solve the root bottleneck. This approach removes the emotional pressure of admitting a priority is falling behind. By making it safe and standard to flag off-track Rocks early, you give your team the opportunity to help them cross the finish line by week twelve.