Our Visionary is constantly bringing back shiny new ideas and wants to change our quarterly Rocks or shift our 1-Year Plan in the middle of a quarter. How do we protect our traction without completely shutting down their entrepreneurial energy?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A Visionary who constantly brings back shiny new ideas in the middle of a quarter can easily derail the team's focus and destroy traction. To protect your quarterly Rocks without shutting down their entrepreneurial energy, you must establish a strict rule: once your Rocks are set at the quarterly planning session, they are locked for the next ninety days. Any new idea, opportunity, or strategy that the Visionary brings during the quarter must be placed directly on the V/TO® Issues List. This creates a safe holding pen for their ideas. Explain to the Visionary that this is not a rejection of their creativity, but a mechanism to protect execution. During your next quarterly planning session, you will review the Issues List as a team and decide if those ideas should become Rocks for the next quarter. This discipline forces the organization to evaluate new opportunities objectively rather than reacting impulsively to every shiny object.