ROCKEFELLER HABIT NO . 7 Core Values And Purpose Are “ Alive ” In The Organization
This habit will give you a baseline for current and future decisions including hiring , sharing praise , and giving constructive criticism . I like to think of core values and purpose as being “ alive ” in an organization .
Having a purpose ( a much better way to say “ mission ”) gives your company the critical “ why ” behind all that it does . Your purpose needs to be more than just making money .
ROCKEFELLER HABIT NO . 8 Employees Can Articulate The Key Components Of The Company ’ s Strategy Accurately
Does everyone in your organization know your brand strategy including your three main brand promises ? If everyone on your team can ’ t share your “ elevator pitch ” when asked , then you might need to work on your team ’ s alignment .
ROCKEFELLER HABIT NO . 9 All Employees Can Answer Quantitatively Whether They Had A Good Day Or Week
Every member of the team , from the senior leadership to staffers , needs to be able to objectively answer the question , “ Did I have a great day or week ?” But here ’ s the key : Each person must report on one or two KPIs weekly .
If they can ’ t , then it might mean that they are not clear on their priorities and their KPIs . In order to move forward together , everyone must be aligned . Think of your organization as if it were a machine . In order for the machine to work flawlessly , all parts must work well and work together .
Some companies use a whiteboard that gets updated daily or weekly ( and discussed at meetings ), and some print charts from spreadsheets and post them on the wall . Others have dashboard systems to automatically generate live data . You will succeed only if every team member in your company looks at the information and makes adjustments or decisions based on their weekly KPIs .
ROCKEFELLER HABIT NO . 10 The Company ’ s Plans And Performance Are Visible To Everyone
Even if you ’ re seated in the nosebleed section of a stadium and can barely see the action on the field , you can always see the score . And now that everything has gone mobile , the real-time digital scoreboards should be the standard by which we monitor our own company performance .
At a minimum , have your metrics , goals , and plans visible in a place where you host the various weekly meetings ( i . e ., establish a “ situation room ” for weekly meetings , whether they ’ re physical or virtual . In the case of a virtual meeting , the “ room ” might be a particular conference line .).
At some point , when the company is bigger than 50 employees and expanding into multiple locations , keeping track of all the cascading priorities , metrics , and data can become an Excel spreadsheet nightmare . And as a growing company must continue to upgrade its accounting , CRM , and operational systems , it is important to have a system in place for tracking and managing the cascading priorities and KPIs .
Having a single place to house all of this very important data makes your business run more efficiently , and your team as a whole will have much greater transparency and alignment to the big company objectives that you set .
The end goal is to keep the output from the growth tools top of mind , like the score of your favorite individual athlete or team .
HOW TO IMPLEMENT THE ROCKEFELLER HABITS
While the habits are listed in no particular order and you can start with whichever you want , we give our clients one rule : they must start with Rockefeller Habit No . 1 — the executive team is healthy and aligned .
It is nearly impossible to implement any of the other habits without checking off Habit No . 1 first . Once that is realized and your team is ready to go ( i . e ., they can fight without killing each other ), pick one or two habits each quarter and work on those .
Start with the habits that will have the most immediate benefits , and over the next 24 – 36 months , you will get through all 10 habits . Outside of Rockefeller Habit No . 1 , the order is up to you .
This isn ’ t a one-time thing but a process that will make your journey easier . As the company scales up , you can continue to refresh the habits .
To download your copy of the Rockefeller Habits Checklist , visit ScalingUp . com today .
Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs ’ Organization ( EO ), with over 13,000 members worldwide , and chaired for 15 years EO ’ s premiere CEO program , the “ Birthing of Giants ” held at MIT , a program in which he still teaches today .
Founder and CEO of Scaling Up , a global executive education and coaching company with over 200 partners on six continents , Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scaleup .
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