The only way to plan growth in business is backward from the goal, all the way down to weekly execution, and adjust the plan every calendar quarter.

The company’s executive team must think in five time frames and link them all together, starting with what we will achieve in the far future and ending with what we will do next week:

1. Our Big Goal, usually due in five to 10 years.
2. Our 3-Year Picture/Medium-Term Milestones, usually due in three years.
3. Our 1-Year Growth Plan, due in one year.
4. Our Quarterly Rocks, due in 90 days.
5. Our Weekly Execution, due in 7 days.

Your Big Goal, Achieved One Week at a Time

I call Big Goals “moon shots” in honor of the actual Moon Shot, President John F. Kennedy’s vision of “achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

You can make a moon shot in your business by planning all the way backward from the goal to what you need to do next week. Here’s how it works:

1. Big Goal: Set a due date for achieving your monumental, transformative goal. Five to seven years from now is typical. 
2. 3-Year Picture/Medium-Term Milestones: These are the capabilities you must build over the next three years to reach your goal. See, we’re not good enough, smart enough, fast enough, capable enough to achieve our Big Goal—yet. So thinking in terms of capabilities we must develop is thinking backward from the goal. To use the moon shot example, what is your equivalent of thrust, life support, navigation, and safe return?
3. 1-Year Growth Plan: Consists of “from X to Y by when”-measured Company Goals we must hit to make steady progress on each of our Medium-Term Milestones.
4. Quarterly Rocks: A breakdown of the 1-Year Growth Plan that consists of Company Rocks and Team Rocks.
5. Company Rocks are “from X to Y by when”-measured goals we must hit to make steady progress on each of the Company Goals in our 1-Year Growth Plan.
6. Team Rocks are “from X to Y by when”-measured goals we must hit to make steady progress on each of the Company Rocks.
7. Weekly Execution: Consists of additional special focused actions individual team members schedule time to do, while still executing their day-job responsibilities with excellence. 

Your 3-Year Picture/Medium-Term Milestones

We got to the moon with five months to spare because planners thought backward from the goal. They discovered we needed to build four capabilities to get there:

1. Thrust: The Saturn V rocket is fantastically heavy, and Earth’s gravity is strong. Just getting the thing one inch off the ground was A Big Deal.
2. Life Support: Space is trying to kill you. There’s no air, it’s cold, radiation is strong, need I go on?
3. Navigation: The Moon’s a moving target and it’s surprisingly far away. You’ve got very little fuel for course corrections. Miss the mark, and you’re doomed to a one-way journey past the Moon.
4. Safe Return: It’s not the fall that kills you. It’s the sudden stop at the end.

Plans to build these capabilities focused the efforts of 400,000 people to get humans on the moon using 1960s technology. One of humanity’s greatest achievements, delivered before the deadline.

Your 3-Year Picture/Medium-Term Milestones, then, are the capabilities you must build over the next three years to reach your goal. See, we’re not good enough, smart enough, fast enough, capable enough to achieve our Big Goal—yet. So thinking in terms of capabilities we must develop is thinking backward from the goal. 

To use the moon shot example, what is your equivalent of thrust, life support, navigation, and safe return? Building those capabilities is what you’re doing for the next three years on the way to your moon shot.

Your 1-Year Growth Plan

Your 1-Year Growth Plan Consists of “from X to Y by when”-measured Company Goals we must hit to make steady progress on building each of the capabilities in our 3-Year Picture.

Your Company Goals make the most sense when we break them down even further into Quarterly Rocks. So let’s do that!

Quarterly Rocks: What They Are

Rocks accelerate your growth and keep The Whirlwind from blowing you off course.

A Rock is a multi-week or multi-month project, over and above your day job, set for one of two reasons:

1. To make progress on an Annual Goal
2. To make the business:
   1. More Easy, Lucrative, and Fun (ELF)
   2. and less Hard, Annoying, Lame, and Frustrating (HALF)

Rocks build the company you want. They focus you on actions each week that will create your ideal future. 

A goal without a plan is just a dream. 

Rocks are your plan to achieve your goals, and create your dream business. 

And, they’re a great way to slay your enemy.

Rocks help you defeat The Whirlwind

Your enemy is your day job. The 136 small things that come at you every day from up, left, down, forward and back. 

We call it the It’s the massive amount of energy that’s necessary just to keep your operation going on a day-to-day basis; and, ironically, it’s also the thing that makes it so hard to execute anything new. The whirlwind robs from you the focus to move your team forward.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution 

“Make progress on an Annual Goal?”

Annual Goals—the two to four big improvements you plan to make to your business this year—are boulders. They can’t be moved single-handedly unless you’re Sisyphus, cursed by the Greek god Hades. And even then they’ll roll back down on you.

So you need to divide them into movable pieces called Rocks. Then, you move those pieces one week at a time. Most business operating systems like EOS, Pinnacle, and Scaling Up advise setting Rocks quarterly, so you have 13 weeks of “over and above your day job” work to complete the Rock.

Your Annual Goals, by the way, together account for about one-third of your 3-Year Picture. And your 3-Year Picture accounts for about three-fifths of your Big Goal (aka Big Highly Achievable Goal, aka Pinnacle, aka 10-Year Target).

Quarterly Rocks: How to Set Them

Rocks must move an important number so you can track weekly execution. I’ll jump straight to an example, then explain it.

1. Every Company’s Goal (Squishy and Not Committed) Increase revenue 2. This Company’s Goal (Lag Measure) Increase subscription revenue from $2.1M to $3M by 12/31 3. Company Rock (Lag Measure) Increase new subscriptions from 735 to 900 by 12/31

4. Team Rock (Lag Measure) Increase new subscriptions (East Region) from 436 to 500 by 12/31 5. Rock-Moving Lever (Lead Measure) Conduct 20-minute pre-interviews with 80% of first-time clients 6. Rock-Moving Lever (Lead Measure) Recommend next treatment plan with 100% of clients

Now I’ll explain the example step by step. Notice that how we’ll achieve the goal gets more and more specific as we move from 1 to 6. The two final items can be tracked weekly.

1. Everybody wants to increase revenue. But which kind of revenue? By how much? And where are we starting from? If we don’t discuss, debate, and decide those answers as an executive team, we’re being squishy and not truly committing to our goal.
2. After vigorous debate, we decided we’re going to bet on subscription revenue. And we’re committing to generate $900,000 of it by the end of the year. (3M-2.1M=900,000)
3. But how will we get $900,000 in subscription revenue? After vigorous debate, we decided how many new subscriptions we need. And we committed to getting 165 of them by the end of the year. (900-735=135)
4. But how will we get 165 new subscriptions? After vigorous debate, we decided that the East Region team will get 64 of them. (500-436=64)
5. But how will the East Region team get 64 new subscriptions? The team debated, and decided to commit to conducting 20-minute pre-interviews with 80% of first-time clients. This is one of two levers the team will use to move its big and heavy Team Rock. 
6. And what is the second lever the East Region team will use? The team debated, and decided to commit to recommending a next treatment plan with 100% of clients.

“From X to Y by when” side benefit: Clear-eyed alignment

There’s tremendous power in the X. It forces the executive team to agree on where we’re starting from, not just where we want to go. This way we’re not looking at a fuzzy image from:

• Some overly optimistic leaders seeing the world through rose-colored glasses
• Some looking through dark shades of pessimism
• Some not even focused on the goal at all

Just clear-eyed alignment on our vision. Let’s go!

Lead measures are levers, lag measures are Rocks

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. Archimedes

You don’t have to move the world, you just have to move your Rock. But your Rock is too big to move by yourself. So your team’s got to jam a couple of levers under the Rock and push down on the lever for 13 weeks straight (the length of a calendar quarter).

Look back at steps 2, 3, and 4 in the “increase subscription revenue” example:

1. The Company Goal, “Increase subscription revenue from $2.1M to $3M by 12/31” will happen, or not, at the end of the quarter as a result of achieving the number in the Company Rock.
2. The Company Rock, “Increase new subscriptions from 735 to 900 by 12/31,” will happen, or not, at the end of the quarter as a result of achieving the number in the Team Rock.
3. The Team Rock, “Increase new subscriptions (East Region) from 436 to 500 by 12/31,” will happen, or not, at the end of the quarter, as a result of:
   1. individual team members
   2. making special focused efforts 
   3. every week 
   4. to push down on one of the two levers: “Conduct 20-minute pre-interviews” or “Recommend next treatment plan”
   5. all while executing with excellence their standard day-job responsibilities.

A lag measure is something that’s going to happen, or not, at the end of the quarter, as a result of actions taken every week. There are three levels of lag measures, named according to how close they are to the front-line teams creating our results:

• Company Goals
• Company Rocks
• Team Rocks

A lead measure is something you can do weekly to move the lag measure. It’s the lever that moves the Rock. 

You and your team make a bet that acting on the lead measure weekly will move the lag measure in the desired direction, by the desired amount.

Not confident your bet will be right? I’ve got great news for you:

1. If you’re wrong, you’ll find out early in the 13-week calendar quarter, so there will still be time to change your bet.
2. You’ll get more confident as you get better from practicing. And you’ll practice at least once a quarter, or four times a year. 

If you cannot tell what number is supposed to move, or by how much, or by when, you probably don’t have a Rock yet. You have an intention.

Avoid waste with WAIST

Why Am I Setting This (Rock)?

Does it accomplish ~ 25% of an Annual Goal?

Does it make the business more ELF and less HALF by solving a recurring problem?

If not, it might be a ... Pet Rock.

Rocks don’t have to be finished projects

Rocks set to make progress on Annual Goals don’t have to be finished projects in themselves. Instead, “finished” for a Rock means that about one-quarter of the Annual Goal is complete. There are all sorts of reasons each Rock set to accomplish an Annual Goal won’t each be exactly 25 percent of the goal. Just trust me, and allocate the time saved to completing Rocks.

FAST beats SMART Rocks

SMART goals were the rule for decades. Set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timebound. Then MIT’s Sloan School of Management recommended a new method: FAST.

Here’s what that means:

• Frequently Reviewed: At every Level 10 Meeting, the Rock owner reports what they did last week to move the rock forward, and what they will do this week to move it forward.
• Ambitious: Don’t sandbag. Do something big that moves the needle for the company.
• Specific: See “How to write a good Rock” above.
• Transparent: There’s a red-yellow-green Rock status report visible to everyone in the company. Executive team, if you expect your team to keep their Rocks green, you have to go first by keeping your own Rocks green. (Note to EOS users: This goes beyond “on track” and “off track” reporting. Think carefully about whether the gain in specificity is worth the loss of simplicity.)

Quarterly Rocks: Who Owns Them

Everyone in the business should own a Rock. They don’t have to be big.

Say you’ve got a team of 50 people.

Five Company Rocks owned by executive team members each make a 5% improvement in the business.

45 Team Rocks owned by 45 individual contributors each make a 1% improvement in the business.

Now do that again, next quarter.

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world,” Albert Einstein said.

Company improvements compound, too. That’s why Rocks don’t have to be big, and everyone should own one.

For executives, “your Rock” is a Company Rock

When you’re on a company’s executive team, you own what’s called a Company Rock. That Rock is one-quarter of your company’s handful of Annual Goals, and the buck stops with you to ensure it gets done.

You’re the project manager, the conductor, the orchestrator. You call the special meetings, you argue for resources. You report on the Rock’s progress at weekly executive team meetings.

You can and should delegate away the vast majority of the actual work. Not because you’re lazy, but because you want your team members to feel they’re winning every week, which is an end in itself, and also a means to two ends: Increased productivity, and increased retention. 

Quarterly Rocks: Success Tips

Shifting priorities means shifting resources

A shift in priorities without a simultaneous shift in resource allocation is delusional. Anytime we announce new initiatives or change priorities, it requires a change in how we are allocating our resources (team, time, and money).

It also requires that we do less of one thing to allow us to do more of something else. None of us has the ability to keep adding without curtailing or stopping something else.

Keith Cunningham

Put another way, rocks are crystal balls.

In business, you’ll always be juggling balls. 

Some are rubber, and will bounce when dropped. 

Some are crystal, and will shatter.

Rocks are the crystal balls we agree to keep in the air even if it means dropping rubber balls.

Don’t let grenades blow up your plan

When your Executive Team agrees on your Rocks for next quarter, that’s it.

No changes.

Debate, decide, commit, finish.

Then work on more priorities next quarter.

Anyone who wants to add priorities or change priorities in the middle of the quarter is throwing a grenade that will blow up the whole plan.

Your Rocks list is a tall wall.

Members of the Executive Team are individually and jointly responsible to call out anyone—even the business owner—who tries to throw a grenade over the wall.

Debate.

Decide.

Commit.

Finish.

Rocks are not your day job

A Rock is not your normal work. It is not the whirlwind. It is not the routine activity required to keep the lights on.

A Rock is a special priority, over and above the day job, that deserves protected time, weekly review, and a hard due date.

That is why good Rocks accelerate growth. They keep your best energy aimed at something that changes the future, not just something that fills today.

Adjust the 1-Year Growth Plan by setting Rocks every 90 days

Each quarter you make bets that your Company Rocks will move your Company Goals from X to Y on time. You can’t perfectly predict the effectiveness, or the timing, or outside forces and events. So each quarter, you adjust the plan by setting new Company Rocks, and the Team Rocks that move Company Rocks from X to Y on time.

Weekly Execution Beats The Whirlwind

Warning: Something’s trying to kill your growth plans, just like space was trying to kill the astronauts rocketing toward their moon shot. In business, it’s an enemy called the whirlwind.

The real enemy of execution is your day job! We call it the whirlwind. It’s the massive amount of energy that’s necessary just to keep your operation going on a day-to-day basis; and, ironically, it’s also the thing that makes it so hard to execute anything new. The whirlwind robs from you the focus to move your team forward.

You defeat the whirlwind by scheduling time each week to work on your Rock. 

Self-managing teams track their own progress

Everything described so far comes together in the Rocks reporting segment of your Level 10 Meetings. On the executive team, you did the hard work of discussing, debating, and deciding to set solid, committed goals, instead of squishy non-commitments.

Now it’s the front-line employee’s turn. Each East Region Team member knows they must:

• Recommend next treatment plan with 100% of clients OR
• Conduct 20-minute pre-interviews with 80% of first-time clients
• Each week
• While still doing their day jobs excellently.
• So every week, team members make solid commitments to each other during the Rocks review portion of their weekly meeting. Commitments like:
  • I will call 10 existing clients and recommend they enroll in the next treatment plan.
  • I will conduct 10 of the 20-minute pre-interviews we need to do with first-time clients.

And then next week they say:

• I made eight of the 10 calls I promised. This week, I’ll make 14 to get back on track, with extra wiggle room.
• I made 12 of the 10 calls I promised. I’m going to do 12 again this week.

These are self-managing teams who make progress every week on our biggest goals. All because we, the executive team, thought backward from the goal and insisted on checking weekly progress through the Level 10 Meeting. I’d call that #winning.

Winning is pushing the lever weekly—no points for busy

Author Seth Godin writes ultra-short articles that get right to the point. Here’s his “Busy Is Not the Point”:

There’s a common safe place: Being busy.

We’re supposed to give you a pass because you were full on, all day. Frantically moving from one thing to the other, never pausing to catch your breath, and now you’re exhausted.

No points for busy.

Points for successful prioritization. Points for efficiency and productivity. Points for doing work that matters.

Schedule 20 percent of your time to push the lever

Assume a person’s day job will consume 80 percent of any team member’s time, energy, and attention. Look back at the first quotation in this article:

The real enemy of execution is your day job! We call it the whirlwind. It’s the massive amount of energy that’s necessary just to keep your operation going on a day-to-day basis; and, ironically, it’s also the thing that makes it so hard to execute anything new. 

Now, see the parallels between that quotation and Seth Godin’s “no points for busy” article:

We’re supposed to give you a pass because you were full on, all day. Frantically moving from one thing to the other, never pausing to catch your breath, and now you’re exhausted.

We won’t need to give you a pass if you:

1. Push your lever each week
2. Despite the massive amount of energy necessary just to keep your operation going
3. While you were full on, all day, frantically moving from one thing to the other
4. Except when you focused on pushing your lever during the 20 percent time slot you scheduled.

Parkinson’s Law states:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Fulwider’s Corollary to Parkinson’s Law states:

Therefore, you must decrease the time allocated to work.

That is, decrease to 80% the time allocated to your day job, and schedule the remaining 20 percent to push your lever. If you don’t, the day job will rush in to fill all your time.

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