Core Values are the handful of rules that will remain constant over time that you believe are key to the long-term success of your business. They already exist and are evident in the behavior of individuals that represent the very heart of the organization. Discovering, understanding and encouraging these core values will strengthen your company’s culture and will provide a good basis for every individual in the company to make decisions on a daily basis.  Core Values and purpose are what drives your company and keeps employees engaged.

Your BHAG - Big Hairy Audacious Goal creates a vision of future success for your company. It should paint a picture of what things might look like 10-20 years in the future when you have achieved this wildly ambitious, measurable goal. Our classic BHAG examples will also provide inspiration for your people and will create a framework for strategic decision making to help you define yours. In Rhythm, we have provided a work space for your team to collaborate and work on some additional concepts necessary to identify your Hedgehog and determine your BHAG. These are Purpose/Passion, Best in the World, and Profit/X. There is also a place to record any specific actions necessary to live your Core Values, fulfill your Core Purpose and achieve your BHAG.

Here you will focus in on the next 12 months and set the measurable results you want to achieve this year, during your annual planning session. This should include Revenue and Profit targets, and could also include other targets like Market Cap., # of Employees, # of Customers or # of Locations. In addition to setting these targets, you must also prioritize and select 3-5 specific Key Initiatives you will commit to completing this year. The right Key Initiatives will support your ability to hit your Targets, move forward on your Key Thrusts and Winning Moves, and execute your core business with excellence.

The purpose of the Annual Planning Meeting is to align your team around a handful of priorities for the year that once completed will move the company closer to achieving its 3-5 year targets, and ultimately the 10-20 year visionary BHAG.

Your Annual Plan will provide inspired focus for your people and will serve as the foundation of each one of your Quarterly Plans. In this meeting, you should focus on columns 1-4 of the OPSP. In Rhythm, Annual Planning falls into the Plan Rhythm, but it also crosses over into your Think Rhythm. We don’t believe that all of the strategic thinking you and your team will need can be accomplished in your Annual Meeting or even your Quarterly Meetings. It requires a consistent, disciplined and iterative approach of collaboration, testing and refining. Rhythm supports you in doing that by providing work spaces for each of the strategic topics included on the OPSP along with planning screens for your Annual Plan that include prep work, planning notes, financial Targets, your Main Thing/Theme, Critical Numbers and Key Initiatives.

Unless the DNA of the senior team – namely the knowledge and values required to make good decisions – is sufficiently instilled within the middle managers on down, the top leaders will find themselves increasingly overwhelmed by the demands of a growing business. A well structured Monthly Meeting focused on learning, sharing, and problem-solving that includes senior leadership plus middle managers and supervisors is a great way to develop leaders in your company. Rhythm supports Monthly Meetings in a section called Other Meetings. In Other Meetings, you can add attachments, store meeting notes, plan your agenda, and create Action Items.  Once the daily huddle is established information moves through your company much more quickly and adapt to the ever-changing market conditions.

The Rockefeller Habits Daily Huddle, as we call it, is a 10-15 minute standing meeting designed to sync your teams up at least one time every day. The agenda is simple - Good News/Victories, Daily Metrics, Top Priorities for the day, and Stucks. It’s not a meeting for problem solving or deep debates; save those for the Weekly, Monthly or Quarterly meetings. The purpose of this meeting is information sharing, pattern recognition, accountability and alignment. Getting this meeting right will remove much of the clutter that bogs down your other meetings allowing every meeting to run much more smoothly and quickly. We also recommend that you cascade your Daily Huddles. Each member of the executive team should also huddle with their direct reports either right before or after the executive team huddle. This ensures that information is flowing in both directions and across all departments.

• Learn the basics - whether your company, a group or a new user is implementing Rhythm for the first time, you can learn everything you need to know right here.
• Work on your strategy - We call this the Think Rhythm; working on the future of your business through strategic thinking. Learn how to use Rhythm to do effective Strategic Thinking to grow your business.
• Plan your year and quarter - We call this the Plan Rhythm; execution planning that helps teams and individuals understand what they are supposed to do. It requires figuring out the company priorities that will drive your strategy forward, and then making sure that every single person understands and is aligned with those priorities.
• Do the work and adjust - We call this the Do Rhythm; your process of getting work done and executing your plan. By being accountable to your plan, you can discover which critical adjustments need to be made and brainstorm options and opportunities. When we make adjustments proactively, we achieve our goals faster.