In a recent EOS^® Quarterly Meeting, the leadership team was proud to report that they had completed each of the ten Rocks (key priorities) that they had committed to getting done. They had gotten close in previous quarters, always exceeding the goal of 80% completion but this was their first “100% quarter”.  In fact, I’ve conducted hundreds of sessions with leadership teams over the years and none has ever completed all their Rocks. So, I asked the Integrator and his team, “What did you do differently this quarter to complete all your Rocks?”

Some leaders and managers have been tempted to deviate from the 5-minute rock review we teach in the weekly Level 10 Meeting™, desiring something more detailed than a simple, on track/off track, report. The concern that team members are inappropriately reporting rocks to be on track when they are not has lead some teams to create elaborate “rock crushing systems” that include breaking rocks down into smaller action steps, plotting those steps out across a timeline, tracking completion of those steps and reporting the progress in weekly meetings.

Are you making Hits in your business or are you focused on Home Runs?  Home Runs are more exciting and usually attributable to success, but Hits are the formula for longstanding success. Look at the careers of Hall of Fame inductees Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays.

EOS-run companies live by their quarterly Rocks. It’s in their DNA. Perhaps you’re not familiar with the term or you’re not clear of the true meaning.

Over the last few months, I’ve been hearing a common theme among my clients. They keep saying, “I have a day job and a Rock job.” At first that confused me a little bit. Then I realized that one of two things is true. One possibility is that we chose the wrong Rocks for the quarter. The second possibility is that the team member is spending most of their time on useless activities.