If you spend a day at Enquiro, you’ll hear people talking about their rocks. No, this isn’t an initiative to build Inukshuks. The process is based on a story in Stephen Covey’s book, First Things First.

Covey tells a story that illustrates how we should fill our days with the things that are important.

A professor fills a jar with large rocks. He ask the students if the jar is full and they say yes. Then he pulls out a pail of pea gravel and adds that into the jar. Again he asks if the jar is full and the students agree the jar is full. Then he pulls out a can of sand and fills the jar for the third time. This is a little parable about how we fill our days. Most of us give our attention to the things that seem urgent, rather than to those things we have decided are important to us – the big rocks.

Corporate planning: At Enquiro, we use the term “Rock” to describe what Mr. Covey calls the Quadrant 2 projects - Important but not Urgent. Examples include preparation, planning and prevention activities. Quadrant I examples include crisis, pressing problems, deadline driven projects ad last minute preparations, Important and Urgent. The more Quadrant 2 work we do the less time we will spend in Quadrant 1.

A Rock is a general, “big picture” statement of an outcome. The rock title describes the ultimate mission. We use behavioral verbs and include specific conditions (how well or how many) to describe the rock.

How do we define our corporate rocks? It’s this focus on the tasks at hand that make the Rock process successful. As each month goes by, we continually identify our five top corporate priorities (or pains), and then at the beginning of each quarter, the management group meets to rank the priorities and determine accountability to provide a solution for that pain (or pains). We want to ensure that the entire company is mobilized and focused to solve these pains as quickly as possible. Once a pain is solved, that Rock is marked complete and we can take another on.

At the beginning of the quarter, the management team meets to reviews the list of Quadrant II items. This meeting  makes sure we’re still aligned to our corporate 10 year BHAG, purpose, 3 – 5 year targets and 1 year goals,  it ensures no superseding short term issues have come up, and it allows for natural course corrections.

After a discussion of the items, the team votes and the top 5 are chosen as rocks for the quarter. An owner is assigned takes to each rock. Typically this is the strategic area owner, but not always.

We assign a theme to the quarter, and set the measurable targets and critical numbers. We also decide on a celebration for obtaining the goal. This quarter, our theme is Planting the Seeds and the team celebration (when we achieve our quarterly targets and critical numbers) is a tour and dinner party at one of the beautiful wineries in the Okanagan Valley.

In almost all cases, there will be short term and long term issues. We have learned (and keep re-learning!) that we have to keep the scope to something that can be delivered in weeks, not months. We live by the spirit of “Good Enough”. We’re looking for a series of small successes. They add up to big wins over time.

Rock planning: When a person takes accountability for a Rock, the following steps can act as a guideline on how to approach it.

Step 1: The rock owner works in a brainstorming session to break their rock into the objectives – the deliverables or big steps required to complete the rock.

Whereas the rock title describes the ultimate mission; the objectives describe the milestones that must be met to achieve the rock. These objectives are solutions for the pain. Each rock usually has several objectives. Each objective can be further broken down into tasks. The tasks form the basis of the work plan, and assist in monitoring progress during each stage of the project. If there are more than 2-3 objectives, you probably need to cut back on the scope of the rock. Match your suggested deliverables for that solution against the pains.

Step 2: Continuing with the brainstorming session, break down the deliverables/objectives into tasks. This is a list of the specific activities needed to accomplish the objective and ultimately fulfill the rock.

If you are struggling with this, consider working backwards. Begin with the end in mind; tell the story of how things are now that you have achieved your rock and describe how you got there. This description will contain your tasks. Ask yourself questions, as this will fill any gaps in the plan and it may identify flaws. This exercise is sometimes called “chunking”, because you are breaking down an objective into manageable tasks. The secret of working backwards is to keep it creative and fun; done well it can really take the stress out!

Step 3: Get estimates of the work. This has to be done by the people assigned to the work. We try to mobilize the entire company to tackle our five rocks, so the rock owner needs to delegate as much as possible. At the end of the process, everyone should have at least one task that comes from one of the five rocks. We’re looking for fairly short timelines here. Your entire rock must be done in 60 – 90 days duration.

Finally, the Rock owner works with the project manger to document the tasks, estimates and resource assignments in MS Project; exactly the way we do for our clients. Here is a simplified example of the Rock Plan  

The five Rock Project Plan goes to management team for approval. This process ensures the proposed solution matches the scope required, the resources required are reasonable, and the timelines are acceptable. Once approved, the rock owners reporting weekly on issues and objectives cannot be removed without approval from the management team.

Individual planning: Each team member is expected to use the following steps to manage their time.

Step 1: Set aside time to plan. To make sure the week goes according to plan, you have to have “a plan” to start with. Make planning a habit, and do it faithfully. In the beginning, it may take you longer than an hour, but once you’re in the habit, you’ll get better at it. You will also feel much more focused when you have identified what you want to accomplish for the week.

Step 2: Open your calendar to the “week” view.

Step 3: Schedule the tasks from your Action Plan by carefully placing each into an appropriate morning or afternoon segment of the week.

Step 4: Then – and only then – you can plan the rest of the urgent tasks around your Rocks tasks for the week. What you may find is that by Friday, at least 50% of the tasks you thought about on Monday morning won’t get done. So with that clear knowledge, why not make sure that at least the projects with the maximum long term impact – the rock tasks – always get completed? Then every Friday afternoon you will have a strong sense of achievement!