Mastering the Rockefeller Habits

This morning I had the opportunity to attend the Mastering the Rockefeller Habits workshop facilitated by Verne Harnish at the new St. Regis hotel in Buckhead. Put on by EO Atlanta, the event was over-subscribed and well received. As for the content, Verne does a great job synthesizing ideas from a variety of other well known authors into a cohesive plan for high growth companies to follow.

In the book, the general theme is centered around John D. Rockefeller’s focus on business rhythm, data, and priorities. My takeaway from the event is that when you implement this methodology, the business and corresponding team members have a process to follow that actually eliminates wasteful activities and focuses everything on what is needed to be successful.

In my company, we don’t follow all the steps recommended by the book, but we do do the following:

  • One page strategic plan with our mission, vision, values, BHAG (big hairy audacious goal), three year goals, annual goals, quarterly goals, and several other pieces of information
  • Scoreboard which, for us, is a large LCD TV in our lobby that has a Google Spreadsheet with key performance indicators related to revenue recognition and new customer wins
  • Rhythm of meetings with daily check-ins, weekly tacticals, monthly strategics, monthly all-hands, and quarterly off-sites

The book is well worth the time of any entrepreneur serious about building a high growth business.

Comments

24 responses to “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits”

  1. Ray King Avatar

    Quarter by quarter we’ve been implementing more of Verne’s habits and they really make a huge difference. At first it seemed like too big a time commitment, but we’ve seen that having the roadmap and agreed upon processes really does wonders for internal communication, efficiency and morale. Highly recommended.

  2. davidcummings Avatar
    davidcummings

    We’ve found that once the systems are in place, time is actually freed up. You literally get more productivity with less effort than not having a system in place.

  3. […] recent project has been updating our internal KPI dashboard based on the recommendation in the book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. Currently, we’re tracking the following on our […]

  4. […] monthly financials review. As part of our rhythm, data, and priorities, using the terminology from Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, we try to have consistent, repeatable processes for everything we do. The monthly financials […]

  5. […] goals. In my company, we set our goals on a quarterly, annual, and three year basis as part of our one page strategic plan. My advice is to do a one page strategic plan, update it quarterly at an off-site, and make it part […]

  6. […] in your company. Giving thanks, and celebrating, go together and should be part of the company rhythm. Here’s what we do to give thanks and […]

  7. […] a comment » We employ many of the strategies from the book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits including the One Page Strategic Plan (OPSP). For this year, and going forward, we decided to […]

  8. Edwin Panama Avatar

    Hello. Fantastic job, if I wasn’t so busy with my school work I read your total site. Thanks!

  9. […] do a weekly tactical as part of our Rockefeller Habits rhythm. The goal is to do a very brief KPI review, priorities for the week, and any immediate agenda […]

  10. […] part of our meeting rhythm, which is a hybrid of Patrick Lencioni and Rockefeller Habits, we have weekly tactical meetings. These are similar to staff meetings but are comprised of the […]

  11. […] a fan of frameworks to think through and plan different strategies. Two popular one include the One Page Strategic Plan from Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and Porter’s Five Forces Framework for Analysis. […]

  12. Khadijah Chapman Avatar

    This book is truly a must read… implementing the strategies that are shared here will definitely make a difference in your business.

  13. […] ideas come from a combination of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and books from Patrick Lencioni. I’ve found this approach works well and I highly recommend […]

  14. Bolaji O Avatar

    Hi David!

    I just found your posts via Google search, after loooking for “google docs spreadsheet dashboard”. I’m looking to build Google spreadsheet dashboards for a few businesses.

    Several of your posts touch on the subject – they’ve been extremely helpful!

    Imagine my pleasant surprise to subsequently learn that “this David guy” runs Pardot!
    LOL!

    I’m a former (very satisfied) customer.

    Love the company’s work.

    1. David Cummings Avatar
      David Cummings

      Thanks for the nice comment! I’m glad you found the spreadsheet useful.

  15. […] Check. Not big on accountability? Check. My workaround is to force myself to follow the Mastering the Rockefeller Habits which results in more time spent on planning and accountability. For me, the two biggest things […]

  16. […] Why the Rest Don’t (Rockefeller Habits 2.0). Verne’s version 1.0 of the book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, is one of the top five books I recommend to entrepreneurs. My favorite business tool, the […]

  17. […] and techniques to efficiently run a company. Two of them have been discussed here previously: Mastering the Rockefeller Habits / Scaling Up and The Advantage (including the Six Critical Questions). Another, popular how-to […]

  18. […] taking the core execution elements of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits or Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business and distilling it down into four disciplines and you have […]

  19. […] Mastering the Rockefeller Habits […]

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