Quarterly Initiatives are the output of your annual strategic planning process. These are the “details” of how you’re going to accomplish your big annual goal. In the Rockefeller Habits you’ll here these referred to as “Rocks” – the top priorities the company must accomplish in a 90-day quarter. In the Advantage framework, this aligns with setting a single Thematic Goal or rallying cry for the current period – essentially the answer to “What’s most important right now?”
Initiatives, the execution of which is managed by your Project Manager, give you the specific things you want to run at in any given quarter. By keeping them limited to things that can be accomplished in a quarter you make them tractable and force detailed planing against them.
During the quarter, progress on Initiatives is typically reviewed in weekly meetings, reported on summarily monthly and, after the quarter’s end, reflected on. This cadence creates a healthy pressure to execute and delivers a sense of accomplishment or learning every three months.
Initiative Development Process
- Quarterly Planning Meeting: At the end of each quarter, the leadership team meets to determine the Rocks for the next quarter. They start by reviewing the annual plan and any new developments. The team identifies what outcomes are mission-critical in the next 90 days to move the company forward (Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and One-Page Strategic Plan (OPSP)). This often involves brainstorming and then narrowing down to 3-5 company Rocks (e.g. “Close XYZ Partnership Deal” or “Deploy new analytics feature to 100 beta customers”). If using Lencioni’s approach, they also agree on a single overarching thematic goal that summarizes the intent of the quarter’s efforts (e.g. “Operationalize our new pricing model”) (Thoughts from the Field – Issue #10 – Capitalizing on Clarity | The Table Group).
- Assign and Cascade: Each Rock is given an owner on the leadership team who is accountable for its completion. The leadership then cascades the planning – department heads set their own Rocks that support the company Rocks (Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and One-Page Strategic Plan (OPSP)), and team members may set individual Rocks aligned upward. This ensures everyone has 1-3 personal priorities that contribute to the big priorities. Communicate the company-level Rocks and any rallying cry clearly to all staff at the quarter’s kickoff.
- Execute with Weekly Check-ins: During the quarter, use a weekly meeting (see Meeting Cadence below) to check status on each Rock (often simply Red/Yellow/Green status). This keeps the team accountable and allows issues to be addressed promptly if a Rock is off-track (Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and One-Page Strategic Plan (OPSP)). At quarter-end, hold a review to score how many Rocks were completed and discuss lessons. Then repeat the cycle for the next quarter. This rhythm ensures continuous progress toward annual goals one quarter at a CEOe.