Get in Gear and Act on Your Vision

Get in Gear and Act on Your Vision

In previous articles, we’ve written about five key components of business success. To recap:

• Know where you’re going.

• Hire a great team of people who share your vision, and put them in roles they’re well suited for.  

• Set appropriate measurables that show progress toward your goals, and use your CRM dashboard to capture them.

• Identify and solve issues early.

• Establish a system of processes to give you time to work on your business and make it scalable.

With these components in place, author and business coach Gino Wickman says it’s time to add a sixth: Traction. The alternative is spinning your wheels, and what good would that do you?

He identifies the ability to execute as an area of weakness in many organizations.

The answer? Accountability and discipline.

In his book, aptly named Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business, Wickman says businesses who execute well must identify quarterly priorities, or Rocks.

Rocks - those 90 day priorities:

He named these 90-day priorities Rocks because of the object lesson putting rocks, pebbles, sand, and water in a jar. If the rocks go in first, you can dump the rest in around them and make everything fit. But if you start with the little stuff and water, then try to add rocks, they won’t fit. Rocks have to come first.


Three to seven Rocks are plenty for any business for 90 days. No one has the bandwidth for more than that. Then those get broken down into individual Rocks that all add up to accomplish the corporate one. Each team breaks down Rocks further into Action Steps that can be accomplished in seven days.


Your leadership team’s meeting agendas then need to become a framework for accountability. Annual and quarterly meetings are about Rocks. Weekly meetings are about Action Steps. You solve issues at all of them. Wickman’s meeting plans are disciplined and take into account natural human tendencies. I recommend you give him a read.


Your customer relationship and management software is a key tool to help your team follow progress on your Rocks. We can help you configure and tailor you CRM, such as the adaptable bpm'online system for your own quarterly priorities.

Read more bpm'online CRM where business process management works directly with your customer relationship information to manage your quarterly priorities and day-to-day activities.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in November 2011 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

with Dick to uncover insights and tips to strengthen your team's ability to execute your vision.