Rockefeller Habits / Scaling Up

In Short

Provide execution discipline for growing businesses
Best for: Verne Harnish's scaling framework
Rockefeller Habits / Scaling Up is a structured tool for coaching and facilitation. Provide execution discipline for growing businesses. It provides a repeatable framework that can be adapted to individual, team, and leadership development contexts.
Type of tool: Verne Harnish's scaling framework
Expected outcomes:
- Improved ability to provide execution discipline for growing businesses
- A concrete action or development plan to take forward from the Rockefeller Habits / Scaling Up process

In Detail

Rockefeller Habits / Scaling Up is a structured framework designed to help coaches, leaders, and facilitators provide execution discipline for growing businesses. It sits within the category of Verne Harnish's scaling framework, making it particularly useful for practitioners working on capability development, team performance, and individual growth in organisational settings.

In practice, Rockefeller Habits / Scaling Up is delivered as a 3-step process. The process begins by complete the Rockefeller Habits Checklist with the leadership team. The session closes by prioritise one habit to fix per quarter. The structured approach ensures that participants move through a consistent experience while leaving room for the facilitator to adapt pacing and depth to the group's needs.

Rockefeller Habits / Scaling Up provides a shared vocabulary that persists beyond the session itself. When team members reference the same model in day-to-day work, coaching outcomes become embedded in practice rather than remaining as isolated insights from a single workshop.

How to Use

From Rockefeller Habits Checklist PDF. 1. Complete the Rockefeller Habits Checklist with the leadership team. Ten habits: healthy executive team; all aligned on the #1 quarterly priority (Critical Number and Rocks); clear communication rhythm (daily huddles, weekly meetings, monthly leadership days, quarterly off-sites); every process and financial line has a named accountable person; ongoing employee input collected; customer data reviewed weekly; core values alive; strategy articulated in simple phrases everyone knows; effective meetings; plans and performance visible throughout the company. 2. Score the checklist to identify the 2-3 weakest habits. 3. Prioritise one habit to fix per quarter.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Provides a shared vocabulary that persists after the session and supports ongoing conversations Structured approach ensures consistent application across different cohorts and contexts Directly addresses the challenge of provide execution discipline for growing businesses through a proven conceptual structure	Risk of over-applying the model — not all situations fit neatly into any single framework Conceptual frameworks require skilled facilitation to connect theory to participants' actual work Some models have limited research evidence; practitioners should be transparent about this

Created by Verne Harnish

When to Use

This tool is suited to the following coaching and facilitation contexts:

Context	Relevant
Individual Coaching	✓
Team Coaching	✓
Leadership Development	✓
Facilitation / Workshop
Online / Virtual

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