For most business leaders diving into EOS, writing quarterly rocks for the first time is difficult. I’ve previously talked about how to write great rocks, but today I want to talk about something slightly different but still related.
In EOS, we always strive for team-wide 80+% rock completion. Simply, that means that if a team has 10 total quarterly rocks, at least 8 of them are fully completed by the end of the quarter. We can’t expect perfection from our teams, but meaningful forward progress is always the goal!
If your team is struggling with getting rock completion above 80%, here are four tips that might help set you on the right track.
Tip #1: Define Successful Rock Completion
The whole point of creating a rock is to bring yourself or your business from Point A to Point B. That’s pretty hard to map out if you don’t know what Point B is! Before finalizing your quarterly rock, make sure you know what rock completion looks like. It’ll help you better plan how to get there and understand what success is.
Tip #2: Be Patient and Focus on Learning
If you’ve ever heard the expression, “Progress, not perfection,” here’s a great application for it. I get it: life happens, and some quarters it’s harder to complete rocks than others. But the whole idea of a rock is to break it up into digestible pieces to complete on a quarterly basis. If you find yourself continually struggling to take your rocks to the finish line, you may need some team feedback on improving your rocks. Which brings us to…
Tip #3: Use a Rock Hardening Process
I want to be clear: When I talk about “rock hardening,” I’m not talking about making your quarterly rocks more difficult to complete.
Rock hardening is a collaborative process with your team to finalize rocks, making sure they’re SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. A rock hardening session helps you solidify rocks with feedback from your team to make sure you’re meeting team goals, and that each person’s rock continues moving your larger goals forward.
Tip #4: Use Simple Language for Better Clarity
Being able to use clear language to describe your rock means you truly understand it. It allows you to explain it easily to other people who may be able to help complete your rock, and it gives you a solid direction. I recommend using words like “approved,” “plan in place,” and “on track,” to create specific expectations around each rock. This helps everyone understand, set expectations accordingly, and hold you accountable.
Take the First Steps Towards Better Rocks
If your team is already on the right track, they don’t need a major overhaul to improve rock completion rates. As we head into the next quarter of this year, pull your team together and give these four tips a try. You might be surprised by how effectively they impact results!If you have questions, I’m the only Scott Patchin on the internet, so I’m pretty easy to find! Either connect with me on LinkedIn, or shoot me an email to scott.patchin@eosworldwide.com.