We find that even when we define our Rocks perfectly, we hit a wall at week six because we do not have a systematic way to track their progress during our Level 10 Meeting™ beyond a simple on track or off track status. How do we run the Rock review portion of our meeting to catch slipping projects before it is too late?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When leaders report that a Rock is on track week after week, only to declare it incomplete at the end of ninety days, you have a tracking problem. To fix this, you must change how you review Rocks during your weekly Level 10 Meeting™.

During the five minute Rock review, team members must only state whether their Rock is on track or off track. There is no room for stories, explanations, or excuses. If a Rock is off track, you do not solve it right then. You immediately drop it to the Issues List to be addressed during the IDS® portion of your meeting.

To prevent false reporting, every Rock must have three to four milestones defined at the start of the quarter. A milestone is a specific sub-task with a clear deadline. During the weekly review, the owner of the Rock must look at their milestones. If they are behind on a milestone, the Rock is officially off track. This removes the subjective feeling of being on track and replaces it with concrete, binary progress.

If a leader is hesitant to admit a Rock is off track, you must build a culture where dropping an issue to the list is viewed as a healthy ask for help, not a failure. When the team works together to solve the bottleneck during IDS®, you keep the momentum going and ensure the Rock crosses the finish line by week twelve.