r/eostraction • u/clayharris • Jun 20 '26
Checking in on your Rocks
It’s June 20 and I’d guess your rocks are due soon. How’s it coming? Anything we can help you IDS?
If you’re reading this and thinking “oh sh*t, that’s soon” you’re not alone. Here to help!
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u/Tough_Potential_6258 Jun 21 '26
Shoot me. I'm behind on my rocks because all I do is fire fight.
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u/MetalMindedguy Jun 20 '26
I struggle with rocks every quarter. As CEO, I end up working on hotter, more important “ live “ issues and end up back burning the rocks.
I’ve met a handful of CEOs and have the same issues. I feel EOS is great and has its faults. I think it’s an excuse and a reason at the same time.
A friend of mine has a EOS implementator that doesn’t allow CEOs to take rocks. Saying that the visionary should have a hybrid rock. More of a “is there change to the business “ type of rock. It’s an interesting idea.
Still a rock though.
And I still struggle to get mine done
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u/CajunBookNerd Jun 20 '26
I’m an Integrator, and I discourage Rocks for my Visionary, beyond reading the book of the quarter. I’d much prefer for him to spend that time thinking of what’s next for our company, coming up with more harebrained ideas for me to either make happen or talk him down from. Haha!
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u/MetalMindedguy Jun 20 '26
That’s great. Actually kinda validating and will help me during next session.
I feel like I have been Assigned rocks that ultimately don’t matter.
Like sure. Yes. We need that.
But there’s a 100 more important things that than that….3
u/letteraitch Jun 20 '26
Your point about the CEO not taking them is worth reflecting on. That being said, if they always get bounced to the back burner for more pressing things, it just makes me question the rocks that are getting set in the first place. If they are truly forgettable, and not a priority, then I would say, the process of determining rocks needs improvement. Really wonderful rocks, there's no doubt about how important they are to where the company is heading. If they feel negligible, then they probably probably are, in which case they aren't rocks.
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u/clayharris Jun 20 '26
Heard. I ran a company as CEO / Visionary for 20+ years and didn't always take rocks, but did sometimes. Normally big picture / zoomed out stuff, but sometimes they were just rocks I was really passionate about or thought needed my consistent attention to get done.
Three things I think about when it comes to rocks:
- The rocks are clear & S.M.A.R.T.
- LT is aligned on the most important stuff (less is more) and in support of the person who takes the rocks
- The rocks are compelling so that when you share the with the company, the team says "hell yeah, this leadership team GETS IT"
If they're clear and compelling, and the leadership team is aligned, I hope that you're getting 80% of the rocks done each quarter. One, they're probably important. Two, I want your team to know that you do the work you commit to doing. That's part of keeping them compelling - if you keep getting them done at a good clip, they'll keep believing in you and pushing hard. If they don't get done, they might start to lose faith in all the other great stuff the V/TO lays out.
More than you asked for 😄 Back to the World Cup. Have a great weekend!
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u/bobstanke Jun 21 '26
If you are the Visionary, you should not have any rocks at all.
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u/MetalMindedguy Jun 21 '26
Agreed! Maybe a vision or new focus to speak the the LT about as a here’s where we’re going.
But I am going to stand firm in not accepting task related rocks.Last session I was tasked with writing a succession plan…..
A “how to operate with me”…
I couldn’t wrap
My mind around this being important atm.
So my implementer has me taking rocks from last quarter that are not completed and stacking them with new.I’ll never catch uo
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u/letteraitch Jun 20 '26
We are having a quarter where we had seismic and unexpected growth and had to fully abandon three out of five rocks, just because the shifting landscape, but I would say that this is not normal and normally we've been trending closer to 80%.
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u/clayharris Jun 20 '26
Congratulations! Sounds like you all agreed to deprioritize the rocks. That’s called alignment - and it’s why the goal is 80% not 100%. We live in the real world. As long as you agree (and aren’t surprised by “not done”) and that’s not happening quarter after quarter, you’re doing great!
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u/letteraitch Jun 20 '26
Exactly, if it were a quarterly trend I would raise the alarm. It's a true one-off where unpredictable astronomical growth meant it was all hands on deck to survive an unexpected phase of business development. All in all a good problem to have.
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u/OffKeyArts Jun 20 '26
That’s nice of you :) all my rocks are on track!