Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business

by Gino Wickman

The goal is to streamline.

Eliminate steps, condense steps, and put checklists in place where possible. Some steps in your processes will easily be converted to checklists that can be used on the floor or in the field. You should make your processes bulletproof so that no one can screw them up.

Countless studies have shown the considerable difference between using them or not. Use them for proposals, events, project management, and account management, to name a few.

Another advantage of simplifying each of the processes is to discover where technology can be applied. To connect core processes, or to enhance them on their own, realizes efficiencies and increases your profitability.

Technology must improve your Way.

PACKAGE IT Good news! Now that your core processes are documented, Step 3 is the easiest of all. Here’s where you take all of the great work you’ve done in Steps 1 and 2 and package it. The titles of your core processes now become your table of contents. Each documented process in Step 2 becomes one of your sections.

Your Way is now ready to use for reference and training.

Your business now becomes more scalable, which means that you can add more customers, transactions, revenue, and employees while reducing complexity.

THE TRACTION COMPONENT

Action is the process of doing. That’s what this chapter is all about. Gaining traction means making your vision a reality.

When the first five components are strong, you will take off in the right direction—toward your vision.

The ability to create accountability and discipline, and then execute, is the area of greatest weakness in most organizations.

After more than 20 years of observing failures, I realized how to bridge the gap between vision and execution. I recently learned a word that makes the point. Luftmensch is a Yiddish word made from two others; luft means “air” and mensch means “person.” A luftmensch is an “air-person,” someone who has his or her head in the clouds. I don’t mean this as an insult. Ideas come from having your head in the clouds. Most visionaries would agree with me. That is their gift, their strength, and their value. Nothing exists without visionaries. Yet once the vision is clear, you need to go from luftmensch to action.

What are the two disciplines needed to gain traction? First, everyone must set specific, measurable priorities. Second, you must meet better as an organization. These two essentials are called: Rocks and a Meeting Pulse.

ROCKS With a clear long-term vision in place, you’re ready to establish short-term priorities that contribute to achieving your vision. You will establish the three to seven most important priorities for the company, the ones that must be done in the next 90 days. Those priorities are called Rocks.

Your company will have Rocks, each member of your leadership team will have Rocks, and your employees will also have Rocks. The reason to limit Rocks to three to seven (preferably closer to three) is that you’re going to break the organization of the habit of trying to focus on everything at once. It simply can’t be done.

Once your vision is clear, you will set better Rocks.

By the way, it doesn’t matter what you call these priorities; however, most companies really like calling them Rocks. I learned the term from Verne Harnish, the author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. Verne got it from an analogy in Stephen Covey’s book First Things First. Picture a glass cylinder set on a table. Next to the cylinder are rocks, gravel, sand, and a glass of water. Imagine the glass cylinder as all of the time you have in a day. The rocks are your main priorities, the gravel represents your day-to-day responsibilities, the sand represents interruptions, and the water is everything else that you get hit with during your workday. If you, as most people do, pour the water in first, the sand in second, the gravel in third, and the rocks last, what happens? Those big priorities won’t fit inside the glass cylinder. That’s your typical day.

What happens if you do the reverse? Work on the big stuff first: Put the rocks in. Next come the day-to-day responsibilities: Add the gravel. Now dump in the sand, all those interruptions. Finally, pour the water in. Everything fits in the glass cylinder perfectly; everything fits in your day perfectly.

By coming up with Rocks every quarter, you create a 90-Day World.

The process works like this: Your team meets for a full day every 90 days. You review your vision, and then determine what the Rocks are for the organization for the next 90-day period to keep you on track for your vision.

ESTABLISHING YOUR ROCKS STEP 1 After reviewing your V/TO and getting on the same page, your leadership team lists everything on the whiteboard that has to be accomplished in the next 90 days. On average, you’ll discover about 10 to 20 things t...

STEP 2 With that list of 10 to 20 items in front of you, discuss, debate, and determine the most important priorities for the company in the next 90 days. Make a decision on each one whether to keep it, kill it, or combine it as a company Rock for the quarter. You make as many passes at the list as necessary unt...

STEP 3 Once you’ve narrowed your list, set the date that the Rocks are due. This is typically by the end of the quarter (i.e., March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31). Now define each one b...

A Rock is specific, measurable, and attainable. For example: “Close three core accounts” or “Hire a new controller.” A Rock is not a to-do that is open-ended or vague. “Start working on the Customer Service Process” is not specific,...

A Rock must be clear so that at the end of the quarter, there is no ambiguity whether it was done or not. Here is an example of four company Rocks that were set and defined: Company Rocks due by March 31 1. Close $1 million in new business 2. Document delivery process and train all 3....

STEP 4 Assign who owns each Rock. This is vital for cle...

Each of the three to seven company Rocks must be owned by one and only one person...

STEP 5 Once the company Rocks are set, the members of the leadership team each set their own Rocks. They first carry forward any company Rocks that they own to their individual list of Rocks and then come up with their most important three to seven. Some of the Rocks that were discarded in Step 2 for the company can end up becoming individual Rocks for leadership team members. Please remember—no more than three to seven.

STEP 6 When all that great work is done, you then create what is called the Rock Sheet, which is just a landscaped piece of paper. At the top are the organization’s Rocks, and below that are each of the leadership team’s individuals Rocks. This Rock Sheet is brought into your weekly meetings to review your Rocks.

It will help create clear accountability and focus on what is the highest priority in the organization. With that, a wall goes up, and no one is allowed to throw anything else over it, whether it’s a genius-level new idea or a hand grenade. Once the priorities are set for this quarter, no new priorities can be added!

STEP 7 Share the company Rocks with the entire organization.

STEP 8 Have each department set their Rocks as a team. Just as the leadership team sets their Rocks, each department team follows the exact same process to set theirs as well. In the end, each employee will have his or her own Rocks for the quarter. Please note that while the company and leadership team members should have three to seven Rocks, everyone else in the company should have one to three.