How to Complete Your Strategic Priorities

Issue #35
3-minute read

Hi Reader,

Your annual plan is solid. You know which systems to build. You have the budget and the team buy-in.

And then Q2 ends. Only half of your priorities shipped.

You were buried. Urgent donor calls. Board prep. Event planning. Forty-seven other things that felt critical in the moment.

This is the gap between annual planning and actual completion.

The fix isn’t better time management.

It’s System Seven: Quarterly Planning — the practice that protects your big projects from everything else that demands your attention.

When Good Intentions Hit Bad Timing

Here’s what happened in our Q3 planning cycle. (We operate on a July–June year.)

December was chaos. Year-end fundraising. Holiday closures.
The management team couldn’t find time for quarterly planning.

So we pushed it to mid-January.

By then, my go-getter staff had already written their Q3 Rocks. They chose what felt most urgent to their day-to-day work and what they remembered from the annual plan.

Then we finally held the planning meeting. We set new 90-day priorities:

• Update our corporate engagement program
• Write a new strategic plan for the philanthropy committee
• Host new UHNWI cultivation events

And the problem was immediate. Half the individual Rocks didn’t support the 90-day strategic goals.

The lesson wasn’t subtle:
Timing isn’t a detail. It’s the whole system.

We’ve now made this non-negotiable. Quarterly planning happens at least two weeks before the quarter starts.

Our Q4 planning meeting is scheduled for March 19.

The Meeting That Gets Things Done

I’m not saying this is the right way. I’m sharing it because it’s what finally got us to finish what we started.

This is our 2.5-hour quarterly planning meeting. It’s adapted from EOS.

15 minutes: Opening Warm Up

30 minutes: Previous Quarter Review

60 minutes: Next Quarter Priorities

30 minutes: Current Issues and Problem Solving

15 minutes: Commitment and Accountability

One Rock. SMART Format. Supports the Plan.

Everyone gets ONE Rock per quarter. The limit forces real choices.

Rocks must be specific and measurable.

If it doesn’t support our 90-day priorities, it isn’t a Rock. It’s regular work.

What Keeps this from Falling Apart

1. Weekly Level 10 management team meetings. Check the yellow or red light status and discuss.

2. Achievement updates at bi-weekly department meetings

3. A shared document that lists every Rock. The owner. Due date. Status.

What to Test This Week

If you’re curious whether this would help keep strategic work from getting buried:

• Schedule your planning meeting at least two weeks before the next quarter starts
• Cut your 90-day priorities to 3–5 total
• Ask your team, “What’s your Rock?” and support their achievement

Coming Next Week

Your Rocks are set. Your team is aligned. So why does everything still get derailed when your CEO has a new big idea?

Next Sunday: System Eight — CEO Partnership

Your Turn

How many strategic priorities is your team trying to execute right now?

Reply with the count.
I want to know whether my “one Rock” rule is too restrictive or exactly right.

Until next week,
​Christine​

PS: Last week, a CDO replied: “I’ve been trying to explain to my CEO why we can’t fix everything at once. Your four questions gave me the exact framework I needed.” If the Chief Fundraiser operating systems are helping you lead differently, I’d love to hear about it.

PPS: Want my full quarterly planning agenda template? Reply to this email, and I’ll send it to you.

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I’m Christine Bork, Chief Development Officer at the American Academy of Pediatrics. I write Chief Fundraiser Weekly to share what I’m learning as I lead a growing team and try to do the work in a way that’s sustainable and thoughtful.