We struggle to get our team to complete their quarterly Rocks because they set too many or write them poorly. How do we write Rocks that actually cross the finish line every single quarter?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Rocks fail to finish because they are written as vague desires rather than specific, measurable outcomes, or because team members overestimate their capacity. To guarantee your Rocks cross the finish line, you must implement a strict filter during your quarterly planning sessions. First, limit every leader to three to five Rocks. If everything is important, nothing is. In fact, aiming for three highly impactful Rocks is almost always better than five. Second, every Rock must be written using the SMART framework, making it specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. If a Rock is "Improve our marketing," it will fail. Instead, write it as "Generate fifty qualified leads from our new outbound campaign by the end of the quarter." Third, apply the conative insights from your team's Kolbe A Profile assessments. A leader with a high Fact Finder and Follow Thru score will naturally build highly detailed project plans, while a high Quick Start leader will want to pivot halfway through the quarter. Guard against this conative drift. Ensure every Rock has a clear owner on the Accountability Chart™ who has the conative wiring to execute it. Finally, apply Chet Holmes' weekly impact area framework. Break each Rock down into weekly milestones. If a Rock is off track during your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ review, do not wait until week twelve to address it. Bring it to the Issues List immediately and use IDS® to clear the bottleneck. If a leader is overwhelmed by daily administrative tasks, apply the touch-it-once rule to their weekly routine to free up the focused capacity required for execution.