Tip 2.4 Quarterly Theme/Critical Number posted throughout the company and employees are aware of the progress each week.
The Quarterly Theme is a fun motif you can use in your internal marketing to rally everyone around achieving your Critical Number. Especially for those new to the process, start with a few initial themes that last no longer than a quarter. It takes several quarters to master choosing and setting Critical Numbers.
It’s amazing what a little excitement can do to galvanize the troops. A team I work with had a health and fitness challenge which created terrific interaction among the employees. This emphasized what a quarterly theme can accomplish and they are now ready to create one for their company. I think of mastering the Rockefeller Habits as a continuum – once you perfect the cadence of meetings and the setting of priorities it’s time to add themes.
What if in the middle of a Quarterly Theme or an annual one, you feel the team is going to miss the Critical Number, maybe substantially? Do you adjust midstream? Do you lower the target? If, in the middle of a Quarterly Theme or an annual one, you feel the team is going to miss the Critical Number, you have three options:
- Repeat the Critical Number in the next quarter if it’s still crucial that the organization achieve the target.
- Move on to another Critical Number if you sense that enough momentum was created with the previous target to keep the organization trending in the right direction.
- Do a root cause analysis to uncover the reasons your organization didn’t achieve your Critical Number. Choose one of those reasons to fix in the next quarter.