Quarterly Rock— Ready? Set and Go with this Execution Plan ⦨ Mastering Quarterly Rocks: A Step-by-Step Execution Plan for Scaleup Success ⦨ Midstage Institute

Quarterly Rock: Ready? Set and Go with this Execution Plan

Quarterly Rock: Ready? Set and Go with this Execution Plan

Effective Ownership of Quarterly Rocks

In their quarterly offsites, the executive team determines up to five quarterly rocks that are key in driving the business forward.

It is a high visibility opportunity to own one of these rocks on behalf of the company. But how do you make sure you deliver on its promise?

Our Quarterly Rock Execution Plan is your guide to setting and meeting your goals. Determine your priorities, assign project owners, and make sure you finish on time.

A Plan for Any Rock

We’ve designed this tool to help you cover any possible rock the executive team may have set. We have seen it work effectively for rocks as diverse as:

  • Launching a major sales initiative;

  • Reducing your error rate;

  • Creating transparent accountability practices;

  • Setting another step towards product-market-dominance

  • Enhancing your delivery speed;

  • Refining your planning process;

  • Lowering costs;

  • Developing a lean workflow.

This one-page tool is designed to help you ask the right questions of your sponsor, and then to have your team build the best answers. Just follow this simple step-by-step process.

Basic Rock Definition

  1. Give your rock a name, if the name you got from the executive team wasn’t clear enough yet. Issue a unique name that defines your project. It should be clear and speak directly to your goal. But that doesn’t mean you have to be boring - feel free to have fun and get creative!

  2. Appoint a sponsoring executive team member to the Rock. Who will lead the rock’s effort? Who’s in charge of making sure the assignment finishes successfully? You want to empower your team with project ownership. Write the name of your sponsoring executive in Box 2.

  3. Assign team members to the rock. Who will support the efforts of the project? What workforce will your project leader have at his/her disposal? This is the team that will make your goals into accomplishments. Recognize your labor. Appreciate the people that get it done.

  4. Define your overall deliverable. What is the goal of the rock? What are you producing? What product, service, benefit, and/or improvement will result from the project’s completion? To define your overall deliverable, try finishing this sentence: “Sponsor considers this rock done when _.” Delineate your overall deliverable into just a sentence or two. You can elaborate during the next step.

Go One Level Deeper

  1. Set requirements for the rock’s success. What’s needed to make sure your project is fulfilled? What tasks need to be complete? Here’s where you get into the specifics. Outline any and all requirements related to the rock’s success. Some things you might consider include project budget, resources needed, and the amount of time the rock will take to finish.

  2. Breakdown the overall deliverable into key milestones. How will you know if your rock is succeeding? How can you measure this success? Step 6 is where you breakdown your overall deliverable into specific phases and milestones. This isn’t exactly a schedule - but rather a map to your vision’s completion. Figure out what needs to happen and in what order. Decide who will be in charge of these phases. Set deadlines for the fulfillment of these milestones.

Risk Assessments and Delegation

  1. Identify risks to the rock’s success. What challenges must be surmounted? What might make your rock fail? Figure out potential hazards you may face in the future. Then, plan in the present. We suggest you ask your sponsor to help your identify potential problems and solutions.

  2. Delegate the next steps. Now that you have your personal, schedule and resources organized, it’s time to hit the ground running. Identify the immediate actions that kick off this momentum. Assign these tasks and decide when they are due. The planning is complete—nowthe real work starts!

Download the Quarterly Rock: Preparing for Successful Execution tool below

"Quarterly Rock: Preparing for Successful Execution"