IBEX

Rockefeller Habits help with organizational alignment and focus.

In his book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Fast-Growth Firm, author Verne Harnish provides entrepreneurs with clear and practical tools for back-to-basics growth.

In chapter 5, Mastering Organizational Alignment and Focus, Harnish emphasizes the need for managers to identify the five most important priorities, both for themselves and their employees, in order to keep a company growing.

"It's critical that everyone in the organization determine his or her own Top 5 priorities, aligning them with the company's, and creating the activity clarity that's crucial for top performance," Harnish writes (p. 53).

Once everyone is aware of the company's top-five priorities, and has identified what their own top-five priorities are in line with the company's, the next step is to identify a Top 1 of 5 for the short term.

"Begin by asking yourself, what do I need to be doing today to keep this company moving towards its plans at the speed of market demands?"

Harnish is also an advocate of a corporate daily meeting.

"Absolutely everybody in a fast-growth company should be in some kind of five- to 15-minute huddle -- daily," says Harnish (p. 86). The daily meetings, whether in person or by conference call, a full corporate gathering or by department, accomplish three things:

• Save time: daily meetings mean employees are available to one another for "substantive consultation."
  
• Peer pressure: "having everyone on the same call for a few minutes takes the heat off the leader and provides peer pressure that increases the rate of deliverables."
• Collective Intelligence: "A daily meeting focuses the collective intelligence of the team on the issues at hand."

Harnish recommends choosing an obscure time for the meeting, like 10:12 in the morning, because people seem to be more punctual for meetings that aren't scheduled at the half-hour or hour. Other recommendations for meeting structure include having people stand for the meetings to keep them short and make sure the meeting is led by someone who is structured and disciplined, even if that person isn't the CEO.

IBEX has adopted both the top-5 and top-1 philosophy as well as the daily meeting. Every day at 10:12, the IBEX Herd gathers for its daily Herddle (an ibex is a type of mountain goat that moves in herds, hence the references), to regroup and make sure we're all going in the same direction. It's during the Herddle that we've incorporated the Top-1 philosophy. The meeting is held in the common area in the middle of the office, takes anywhere from five-to-15 minutes and follows the same agenda every day:

• Good News the Herd is encouraged to share professional as well as personal good news. Whether someone was observed going above and beyond the call for a client, or the sales department accomplished a challenging goal, or the newest baby in the IBEX family said his first word, Good News allows us to celebrate each other as professionals and friends.
• Numbers We have a number of metrics we track every week such as budget versus actual, processing times and new customers. It lets everyone know how the company is performing week after week and helps us identify ways of improving our levels of service.
• Top 1 Each Herd member announces the number-one task that he or she has identified as a priority that's aligned with our stated corporate goals.
• In the News Company announcements, questions about a project and items of importance to every department are discussed.
• Missing Systems Whether the photocopier isn't working properly or someone needs a software update, Missing Systems is our opportunity to let the appropriate people know what tools we need to do our jobs.
• The Cheer We Herddle in to the middle and break with, "Go IBEX!" The gesture sets the tone for a great day ahead.

Whether you master the Rockefeller habits or come up with some ideas of your own, fall is a great time to implement new ideas. Plan now for the coming months and prepare yourself for "dynamic growth (Mastering the Rockefeller Habits)."

For more information about about Rockefeller Habits, visit Harnish's website at gazelles.com.