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If your business is running on EOS, you are likely organizing your most important tasks each quarter into what EOS calls “rocks.” At M&R, each team member manages at least one rock. We currently manage rocks across 6 departments and 20+ people, and we collectively complete around 140 rocks per year.

With the EOS system placing so much emphasis on rocks, and with the amount of time they require from your team, it’s important to select the right rocks and plan for their successful completion.

This comprehensive guide will assist you in rock planning in several key ways.

We will:

  1. Review the EOS SMART rock system
  2. Demonstrate how to build an EOS rock plan
  3. Provide EOS rock examples
  4. Share a downloadable EOS rock template that we use for our teams
  5. Point you to excellent resources available in the EOS Traction Library

So, let’s get started!

How to Create EOS Rocks that are SMART

If you have set EOS rocks in the past, you’ve likely heard that every rock should be SMART. But, what does that mean? Well, SMART stands for:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Realistic
  • Timely

When you have SMART rocks, you are more likely to accomplish them. That sounds simple and objective, but it’s true.

The SMART process does several things:

  1. It ensures your rock ideas are worth the time required to accomplish them.
  2. It provides your team the opportunity to give feedback on your quarterly rock plans.
  3. It identifies what the successful completion of your rock will look like.
  4. It ensures your rocks are connected to the 1-year, 3-year, and 10-year targets identified on your VTO.

When you detail the specifics, measure the progress and success, secure resources to attain the desired results, focus on realistic outcomes, and are precise in your timelines, you will find that your rocks are consistently achieved each quarter.

How to Build an EOS Rock Plan

Now that you’ve selected your rocks and made them SMART, you’re ready to build out a plan. This is a step we didn’t include in our first few quarters of running on EOS. We would simply title the rock and add it to our rock sheet. Then each week in our L10, we would spend time in our rock review talking about it. We wasted a lot of time here and didn’t accomplish as much as we would have liked.

So, we started building rock plans.

What Is a Rock Plan?

A rock plan is exactly what it sounds like. It is a plan for how you will successfully accomplish your rock.

After creating a smart rock, the next step is to create a plan. As you’ll see in the Rock Plan Template available for download below, you will identify every step required to accomplish your rock and set a due date for each one.

Here Are 6 Ways Rock Plans Have Benefited our Team

  1. Rock plans are built and presented to the executive team within 1 week after our quarterly planning. During the presentation, the team has a chance to make recommendations and improve the overall rock plan.
  2. When you document a full rock plan with multiple due dates, it provides a high level of accountability from the team. The steps are clearly laid out and it’s easy to know how well you are progressing.
  3. Before we used rock plans, we would waste time during the “rock review” portion of our L10 agenda. Now, we simply say if the rock is “on track” or “off track” and move on.
  4. The better you plan, the better you implement. By creating rock plans, we have seen our company-wide completion percentage improve.
  5. Oftentimes, a rock will include steps that involve other departments or vendors. When we know that a step requires input from someone other than ourselves, we can build in the proper amount of time for their response and efforts.
  6. A lot of rocks are multi-phased and require more than one quarter to complete. A rock plan allows us to clearly see which stage of the rock will be completed this quarter. The final step of the rock will often identify the details and next steps for the following phases.

If you haven’t explored the use of an EOS rock plan for your team, give it a shot. We’ve included the rock plan template our company uses below.

Download Our EOS Rock Template

If you would like to begin planning your rocks better, we have created a free EOS Rock Plan Template that you can download here. Like the EOS rock examples above, this template will help you identify the key steps, accountabilities, and due dates for each rock and will improve your success rate.

Download the free guide here.

EOS Rock Examples

If you are still getting used to creating EOS rocks that are SMART and tied to the goals of your VTO, a few rock examples may be helpful.

Here are 5 recent EOS rock examples from our company.

Evaluate and Improve Project Tracking Process on Teamwork

Department: Production
Rock Owner: Matt Thielke
Additional Team Involved: N/A
Outside Vendors: Teamwork.com Support
Due Date: 6/9

  1. Evaluate and document our current process to track project progress – 4/28
  2. Explore project tracking and budget tracking features/alerts available in Teamwork – 5/12
  3. Test the new features on 10 projects to evaluate performance/usefulness – 5/19
  4. Create an updated version of the project tracking process with new features – 5/26
  5. Present final draft of process to executive team – 6/2
  6. Make revisions and roll out new process to whole team – 6/9

Define Capacity Expectations for Project Manager and Business Development Manager Roles

Department: Sales
Rock Owner: Reece
Additional Team Involved: Nick, Matthew, Sales Team
Outside Vendors: N/A
Due Date: 7/14

  1. Review job responsibilities for each role and identify key factors that determine capacity – 5/12
  2. Review findings with sales team, Nick, and Matthew
  3. Determine values that will be attributed to each factor to set standards for capacity – 5/26
  4. Review defined capacity expectations with Nick and Matthew – 6/2
  5. Update Scorecard based on responsibility shifts within department – 6/9
  6. Compile Books of Business for PM/BDM teams and review with them – 6/23
  7. Review updated Scorecard with the Sales Department – 7/1
  8. Finalize rollout of the new roles – 7/14

Revise General Contract

Department: Operations
Rock Owner: Matthew
Additional Team Involved: N/A
Outside Vendors: Attorney
Due Date: 8/23

  1. Review current contract and flag concerns – 7/12
  2. Meet with Sales to discuss FAQs from clients – 7/17
  3. Present list of revisions to attorney – 7/19
  4. Attorney creates new contract – 8/16
  5. Executive team reviews contract – 8/18
  6. Finalize contract – 8/21
  7. Upload contract to Proposify and network – 8/22
  8. Send contract to all current clients for signature and file on server – 8/23

Catalog Core Processes and Create List of Visuals

Department: Operations
Rock Owner: Matthew
Additional Team Involved: Department Seniors
Outside Vendors: N/A
Due Date: 9/7

  1. Review all current core processes – 8/1
  2. Create list of missing core processes – 8/2
  3. Assign missing core processes to department senior – 8/3
  4. Missing core processes due from seniors – 9/4
  5. Catalog all core processes documents on intranet – 9/5
  6. Create list of core processes to become visuals in office – 9/7

Define and Implement Process for Recommending and Creating New M&R Services

Department: Production
Team Involved: Matt Thielke
Additional Team Involved: N/A
Outside Vendors: N/A
Due Date: 9/8

  1. Identify any current processes (official and unofficial) for establishing new services – 8/4
  2. Create checklist of items needed when creating new services and qualifications – 8/11
  3. Review “new service checklist” with Executive Team and make revisions – 8/15
  4. Use the approved checklist to create a process for establishing new services – 8/18
  5. Review checklist and process with executive team and make revisions – 8/22
  6. Rollout process to entire M&R team – 9/8

As you review the examples above, hopefully you can see how a solid rock plan keeps everyone on track and helps identify who is responsible for each rock and each rock step. As I mentioned, we review these rocks each week in our L10 and simply answer, “on track” or “off track,” and if there is a question or a concern about the progress of the rock, we add it to the Issues list. This allows us to stay on track with our L10 agenda.

EOS Traction Library Resources

The EOS Traction Library is an excellent resource for all your EOS planning needs. Here are a few resources to review as you plan your EOS rocks for your upcoming quarter.

We Partner With EOS Run Companies on Their Marketing Strategy

M&R Marketing partners with hundreds of growing companies across the United States, many of whom also run on EOS. Our Visionary and Integrator co-founded M&R 15 years ago and are active in the day-to-day operations. As a 2x Inc. 5000 company, we understand business growth and how to create and execute a targeted marketing strategy. Our full suite of marketing services includes website design, graphic design and branding, social media management, digital advertising, photography and videography, marketing strategy, and campaign development.

We would love to start a conversation and learn how EOS has transformed your business.

We have created an EOS page to help support other businesses running on EOS; you can learn more about our services, view our work, find more EOS resources like the article you read today, and hear from some of our clients who also run on EOS.