We set our quarterly Rocks but always end up with a pile of unfinished, eighty-percent-done projects because we over-scoped them. How do we write Rocks that actually finish on time?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Over-scoping occurs because leadership teams confuse a Rock with an entire multi-phase project. When you leave a quarterly session with a vague, massive objective, you are virtually guaranteeing failure. To ensure your quarterly Rocks actually get across the finish line, you must implement three strict rules during your planning sessions.

First, make every Rock binary. There should be absolutely no room for interpretation at the end of ninety days. A Rock is either done or not done. If it requires a yes or no answer to determine completion, you wrote it correctly.

Second, break large projects into ninety-day bites. If a project takes nine months, your Rock is not the completed project. Your Rock is phase one, such as completing the initial diagnostic or finalizing the software architecture.

Third, make sure every Rock has a clear milestone schedule. The owner of the Rock must break it down into weekly or monthly checkpoints. If they are not sharing their progress on these milestones during your weekly Level 10 Meeting, you will not realize they are off track until week eleven, which is far too late to salvage the quarter. When you scope Rocks tightly and track them weekly, eighty percent done becomes a thing of the past.