4 Disciplines of Execution to Achieve Wildly Important Goals

The 4 Disciplines of Execution offers a powerful framework for achieving your most crucial business objectives. This game-changing book provides practical strategies to overcome the whirlwind of daily tasks and focus on what truly matters. You’ll learn how to turn lofty ambitions into concrete results through a proven system that’s transformed countless organizations.

Discover the secrets to exceptional performance and learn how to implement these disciplines in your own life and business. Keep reading to unlock the keys to achieving your wildly important goals.

Genres

Business, Self-Help, Leadership, Management, Productivity, Strategy, Organizational Development, Performance Improvement, Goal Setting, Personal Development, Economics, Personal Growth, Psychology, Strategic management, Motivational

The book introduces four key disciplines for executing strategy:

1. Focus on the Wildly Important: Identify and concentrate on one or two critical goals.
2. Act on Lead Measures: Focus on high-impact activities that drive success.
3. Keep a Compelling Scoreboard: Use visible tracking to motivate team members.
4. Create a Cadence of Accountability: Hold regular team meetings to review progress and make commitments.

These disciplines help organizations overcome the “whirlwind” of urgent daily tasks that often derail important goals. The authors provide practical advice on implementing each discipline, including how to:

• Choose the right goals
• Identify effective lead measures
• Design engaging scoreboards
• Conduct productive WIG (Wildly Important Goal) sessions

The book includes real-world examples from various industries, demonstrating how companies have successfully applied these principles to achieve remarkable results.

Review

The 4 Disciplines of Execution offers a refreshing approach to goal achievement in a world full of distractions. Its strength lies in its simplicity and practicality. The authors have distilled complex organizational challenges into four clear, actionable steps that any team can implement.

The book’s emphasis on lead measures is particularly insightful, shifting focus from lagging indicators to proactive behaviors that drive success. The concept of a compelling scoreboard adds a motivational element often missing in other goal-setting frameworks.

While the principles are sound, some readers might find the repetition of key concepts excessive. Additionally, the book primarily focuses on organizational implementation, potentially limiting its appeal to individual readers seeking personal development strategies.

Despite these minor drawbacks, The 4 Disciplines of Execution remains a valuable resource for leaders and managers looking to drive meaningful change in their organizations. Its straightforward approach and numerous case studies make it a practical guide for turning strategy into results.

Why is it so hard to execute promising ideas and important goals?

Authors Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling have surveyed over 200,000 leaders around the world to find out why they struggle to execute. The answers varied, but the authors realized all their answers had one thing in common. The main reason leaders and teams routinely fail to execute promising strategies and important team goals is because they spend all their energy dealing with the whirlwind.

At the start of every year, many of us make bold promises to change our lives. We get a gym membership and decide we’ll have those abs by summer. But then February rolls around, and we’re as gym-shy as we were in December. Why is that? Quite simply, it’s because we fail when it comes to execution.

The same is true for companies. Being capable of change is what makes companies succeed – but changing requires execution. So how do you do it?

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (2012) is a manual for CEOs and managers, showing leaders how to execute their strategic goals by getting their staff to behave differently. By introducing the four disciplines of execution, you’ll help motivate your team to achieve broader company goals.

As this book summary will show you, there are four disciplines you should try to follow to improve your execution and reach your goals. We aren’t talking about screaming at your employees or implementing draconic strictures. If you learn to incorporate these disciplines into your company it will become clear what your most important goals really are and you’ll succeed in one of the most difficult things there is: changing people’s behavior.

In this summary of The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling, you’ll learn

• what whirlwinds have to do with reaching your goals;
• why fuzzy goals won’t get you to the moon and back; and
• why you should always have a scoreboard in the office.

“The real enemy of execution is your day job! We call it the whirlwind. It’s the massive amount of energy that’s necessary just to keep your operation going on a day-to-day basis; and, ironically, it’s also the thing that makes it so hard to execute anything new. The whirlwind robs from you the focus required to move your team forward.” – The 4 Disciplines of Execution

The whirlwind includes all the incoming messages you need to respond to, all the important phone calls you need to take, all the problems you need to resolve, and all the meetings you need to prepare for.

“The whirlwind is urgent and it acts on you and everyone working for you every minute of every day. The goals you’ve set for moving forward are important, but when urgency and importance clash, urgency will win every time.” – The 4 Disciplines of Execution

Executing any promising idea or important goal amid a raging whirlwind requires discipline. It requires the discipline to deal with urgent items while remaining focused on what’s important. The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) is a simple, repeatable, and proven formula to do just that.

Recommendation

Strategy without an effective method of execution is worthless, no matter how good it looks on PowerPoint. Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling – all FranklinCovey consultants – provide managers with a process for realizing “wildly important goals.” They offer a simple yet effective four-step formula for execution, from goal setting to application and accountability. Although the concepts are basic, the clear instructions for implementation make this book a standout. Unfortunately, some of the content verges on being too promotional of FranklinCovey’s training, services and products. Setting this foible aside and focusing on the good stuff, we recommend this clear strategy manual to all business leaders.

Take-Aways

• Implementing strategy amid the “whirlwind” of daily work is difficult.
• Identify your firm’s goals by detecting which changes would exert the greatest impact.
• The “4 Disciplines of Execution” (4DX) is a strategic process for achieving “wildly important goals” (WIGs).
• Discipline 1 teaches you to set a target. To achieve a WIG, define a measurable, specific time frame based on getting from one place to another by a set deadline.
• Discipline 2 identifies activities that provide the greatest leverage for achieving the WIG.
  “Lead measures” are actions that affect the outcome, while “lag measures” report the success of past activities.
• Discipline 3 calls for visible scoreboards that show how team members are performing.
• Discipline 4 instills accountability through weekly meetings called “WIG sessions.”
• The roll-out process includes extensive training for leaders and employee coaching.
• The 4DX principles also work well in helping you achieve personal goals.

Discipline #1: Focus on the WIG

The first discipline of execution requires sustaining the whirlwind at its current level while you advance one wildly important goal. To find your wildly important goal, DON’T ASK: “What’s most important?” If you ask that question, you’ll inevitably focus on the whirlwind because everything in the whirlwind seems important. Instead, ask yourself: “If everything else remained at its current level of performance, what one achievement would make everything else seem secondary?” In other words, if you didn’t need to worry about anything else for the time being, what one goal would you focus on right now?

“Once you stop worrying about everything else going backward, you can start moving forward on your WIG.” – The 4 Disciplines of Execution

Discipline #2: Measure Lead Behaviors

There are two measurements you can focus on while executing: lead behavior measurements and lag result measurements. Lag result measurements are measurements of the results you want. Lead behavior measurements are measurements of the critical day-to-day activities that lead to the results you want.

• More sales calls (lead behavior) leads to more sales (lag result).
• More time spent studying (lead behavior) leads to higher grades (lag result).

Measuring results such as sales or grades can be frustrating because it takes time for your actions to produce measurable results. That’s why they are called lag results.

If you measure a value you can’t immediately improve, your willingness to execute will diminish. However, when you focus on a metric you can influence every day or every week, like a lead behavior, you’ll sustain your level of execution. Seeing daily/weekly signs of improvements will increase engagement and drive the execution of your WIG.

Discipline #3: Put up a Scoreboard

Without a scoreboard, you or your team will lose track of your measurements, forget the score, and lose the will to win. Therefore, you need to create an office scoreboard that includes your WIG (title at the top of the scoreboard), your lag measurements (line chart from left to right), and your lead measurements (bar chart below the lag measurements).

Your office scoreboard should be large enough to notice every day and simple enough to know if you’re winning in 5 seconds or less. If you’re improving the lead measurement, and that lead measurement is corresponding to improvements in the lag measurement, then you’re winning.

Discipline #4: Schedule Weekly Accountability Talks

The fourth discipline of execution requires setting up weekly accountability meetings with teammates or peers (not bosses or managers). Holding regular weekly accountability meetings with people at your level (called WIG sessions) ensures you stay in the game.

When you set up reoccurring weekly meetings with teammates or like-minded peers to discuss your efforts, you strengthen your commitment to execution.

During your WIG sessions (~15-minute weekly accountability meetings), do three things: report on last week’s commitment, review the scoreboard and describe the actions you took to advance your WIG, and commit to a lead behavior improvement or a specific deliverable for this week.

Getting people to change is the real challenge of executing strategic goals.

Change is good, especially from a business standpoint. Why? Well, look at it this way: If you aren’t always improving, you’re creating an opportunity for your competition to swoop in. Preventing that is a big challenge. And here’s why:

Even though there are an infinite number of possible growth strategies, there are only two ways to execute those strategies: with the stroke of a pen or by changing human behavior.

Of course, stroke-of-the-pen actions are easy for executives. All they have to do is sign a paper and then someone, somewhere, will take care of the rest.

But these are normally quick-fix actions. Lasting change, on the other hand, requires people to alter their behavior. That’s where most executives come up short – and not surprisingly. Anyone who’s ever stopped smoking or gone on a diet will concur: change is hard. And these examples only involve changing yourself. Changing others is even harder!

After all, your staffers might not understand the company goal or have a clear sense of how changing their behavior will help achieve that goal. Alternatively, they might simply not care.

At first glance, it may seem like there are easy fixes to these problems. You could just hand out detailed descriptions of company goals, be precise about each team member’s responsibilities and fire anyone who doesn’t care. But the heart of the problem is far more complex.

All of these problems and decisions are called the whirlwind – a term the authors use to describe the daily tasks that take up your time and drain your creative energy. The whirlwind is the biggest foe of change. Imagine you spend an hour persuading someone to make certain changes; meanwhile, they’re busy thinking about the ten urgent things that need to be taken care of ASAP.

Although it’s difficult, you can achieve major strategic goals despite the whirlwind. Mastering the four disciplines of execution makes it easier. And we’ll explain those to you in the upcoming book summarys.

Focusing on specific, wildly important goals is the first discipline of execution.

The first discipline of execution is to focus solely on what matters.

We understand the instinct to strive to do more. Since most executives are overachievers, they are particularly motivated in this respect. But the more you try to do, the less you’ll be able to focus on and put effort into individual tasks. If you want to achieve something truly excellent, you have to concentrate on it.

Accordingly, your strategy should prioritize one or two Wildly Important Goals (WIGs), which you can pursue from within the whirlwind.

Cutting costs by 20 percent by the end of the year is one example of a WIG, but here’s a general rule of thumb when you’re coming up with these goals: WIGs should be specific and have a huge impact on your team’s performance.

Specificity is especially important because a WIG shouldn’t function like a vision or a mission statement. Rather, it’s about outlining a clear goal that the whole team will work toward.

To understand why specificity can be so powerful, consider this story: In 1958, NASA operated under the vague goal of expanding “human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and in space.” But that changed, in 1961, when President John F. Kennedy publically called on the agency to put a man on the moon and then return safely to Earth before the end of the decade. And that’s how, with one clear goal and a defined timeframe, Neil Armstrong ended up setting foot on the moon on July 21, 1969.

As the NASA example makes clear, it’s important to find WIGs that make a major impact. You don’t want to use up all your blood, sweat and tears on something that doesn’t really make a difference for your company.

The second discipline of execution.

As we learned in the previous book summary, you have to focus on achieving wildly important goals. And to do so, you should concentrate on measures that help you win, not measures that make you depressed when you come up short.

This is easier said than done, since most people naturally focus on lag measures. To clarify, lag measures reflect past performance, showing your position relative to your goal. Profit margins and customer satisfaction rankings are examples of lag measures.

And although concentrating on those measures is natural, it does little to help you achieve your goal. The point is, these indicators reflect past events you can no longer change, which is why focusing on them can be disheartening.

For instance, let’s say you’re trying to lose weight. It’s not a great idea to wait until the end of the month to jump on the scale and measure the result. Because if you don’t meet your goal, you’ll feel like a loser. And, by that point, it’ll be too late to do anything about it.

This is why, to achieve your wildly important goals, you should instead focus on lead measures. In contrast to lag measures, lead measures reflect current behavior, meaning you can still influence them to help meet your goal.

With the losing weight scenario, calorie counts and exercise metrics would be great lead measures, since they’re predictive of the weight-loss goal. After all, if you monitor your diet and exercise, you’ll most likely lose weight. Furthermore, these are two factors you have direct control over.

Of course, we all know that the path to weight loss involves eating less junk food and exercising more. But knowing and doing are two different things. And you’re more likely to actually follow through on your plans when you keep track of lead measures, since these metrics show you how your current actions directly influence your goal.

Motivate your team by keeping score of their performance.

With the first two disciplines, you define your wildly important goal and identify which metrics will help you achieve it. The third discipline is about helping your staffers identify with the goal, thereby motivating them to help you achieve it!

To that end, you should have your team keep score of team-member performance. This will improve performance, because, after all, everyone likes winning. And people instantly become more engaged when there’s a victory at stake. Accordingly, keeping score is a way of activating that game-face energy and motivation.

For instance, when you watch kids playing football in the park, you can probably tell right away whether they’re keeping score – the way they cheer for every touchdown is all the information you need!

And that’s why your team should create some kind of scoreboard tracking each person’s progress on the WIG. Whether you use a sophisticated online tool or an old-school chalkboard, the point is to show everyone how they’re performing.

Since motivation is the goal of the scoreboard, you should make sure it’s comprehensible and also easy for your employees to manage autonomously. It should also include lead and lag measures, along with essential information about where the team should be and where it is in reality. With all this information clearly laid out, every team member must be able to tell, at a glance, whether they’re winning or losing.

Let’s say that increasing production by 20 percent by year’s end is one of your WIGs. And to meet that goal, your team has to increase production by five percent each month. Your scoreboard should show lag and lead measures related to this specific goal, so your team knows how they’re actually performing.

The fourth discipline of execution is establishing a culture of accountability.

With the third discipline, we learned how to motivate staffers to be part of your wildly important goals. But the fourth discipline is the real heart of the execution process: It’s about making team members commit long-term to the goal.

And in order for that to happen, your employees have to be accountable to each other – not just to you. No one wants to disappoint their peers, so staffers will feel a greater sense of responsibility if they have to answer to their colleagues, too.

That’s why holding regular WIG meetings will ensure a lasting commitment to the goals. These gatherings should include: 1) an overview of the commitments from last week, 2) a review of the scoreboard and 3) a plan for the following week.

These meetings will guarantee steady progress toward the WIG, since every team member will be responsible for setting and meeting weekly commitments that have an impact on the lead measures.

It’s important to allow staffers to choose their commitments themselves, so they are engaged in the process. As team leader, your role is simply to make sure that commitments are specific and directly connected to the WIG.

Valet parking services company, Town Park, offers a great example of how this works in action. When they adopted the Four Disciplines method, team leaders decided on the WIG of increasing customer satisfaction. To this end, they identified “reducing retrieval time” (i.e. the amount of time between a customer’s call for a car and the valet’s delivery of it) as an important lead measure. By focusing on this metric, the valets came up with an innovative solution: They would rotate cars from the back of the parking lot to the front whenever they knew a customer would soon be calling for it.

So much for the four disciplines! But it’s not quite so simple: It takes real effort and commitment to implement them in your own workplace. Read on to learn how!

Follow a step-by-step process to implement wildly important goals and identify useful predictive measures.

Introducing the four disciplines to your own workplace might be tricky at first, but it will be well worth the effort! To install the first discipline (identifying a WIG), just follow these four easy steps:

Start by gathering many ideas. Have conversations with both leaders and staffers to make sure you’re getting as much information as possible.

Then, for the second step, rank these ideas based on the impact they would have on the overall WIG.

For example, one big hotel chain’s WIG was to increase total profit from $54 to $62 million by the end of the year. So as their secondary WIG, the hotel decided to strengthen the alliance between its restaurant and local sports and culture venues. They figured this would drive more customers to the restaurant and hotel, ultimately helping them meet their profit goals.

Next, test your ideas to ensure they’re aligned with your overall WIG. The restaurant in the example above could have mistakenly decided to broaden their restaurant menu as their secondary WIG – but that wouldn’t have necessarily boosted profit. That’s why testing your WIGs is so important.

And then comes the final step, which is to identify a simple and clear definition of your goal. Ideally, you’d begin with a verb and follow by identifying the lag measure, a deliverable and a deadline. For instance: Reduce (verb) production costs (lag measure) from 20 to 15 million (deliverable) by December 31st (deadline).

You can follow these exact same steps to select your lead measures, thus implementing the second discipline. It’s especially useful to constantly re-evaluate and test your lead measures, thus making sure that they are predictive, precise and measurable.

Follow through on introducing a scoreboard and creating a cycle of accountability.

As we saw in the previous book summary, you can follow a few simple steps to install the first and second disciplines. You can’t introduce the third and fourth disciplines with such methodic neatness – but some kind of plan is required.

Let’s start with the third discipline. Setting a scoreboard requires less involvement from you than any other step. All you have to do is come up with the preliminary theme – a speedometer, a bar chart or something else entirely.

Then step back and ask your team to design and build the board. That way, they’ll be even more engaged with the process. (Remember to tell them that a good scoreboard should only include essential information: the goal and the lead and lag measures.) And once the board is up, appoint someone to update the score on a regular basis.

Then comes the fourth discipline.

Installing a culture of accountability requires you to set an example for your team. This is a critical step – the fourth discipline is the heart of execution – but it’s also a difficult one, because it requires true commitment and dedication. Remember: Once you decide on a weekly meeting, you have to attend each time.

Start the meeting by reporting on your own commitments, to show that it’s not a scary or painful thing to do. Then, make sure to review the updated scoreboard and celebrate every success.

Keep in mind that the whirlwind has nothing to do with the WIG meeting, and make sure you’re only discussing WIGs. All team members who don’t meet their WIG commitment because of the whirlwind should be held accountable.

If they don’t meet a commitment, make sure you handle it respectfully. Let the staffer know you value their work, but explain that it’s crucial, for the sake of the whole team, that everyone follow through on their WIG commitments. And then, make sure to give them a chance to catch up on their commitment.

Follow a six-step process to involve all departments in the Four Disciplines model.

If you want to implement the Four Disciplines at a large organization with more than ten different departments, make sure you plan it out carefully. This process involves six steps:

First, clearly define your overall primary WIG.

Next, involve the team leaders: Each department head should define one individual WIG (and appropriate lead measures) that aligns with the overall WIG. As the institution leader, you can veto certain goals that seem incompatible with the organization’s broader goals, but make sure each manager has the freedom to choose her own WIG. Otherwise, you won’t get the level of engagement that you’re looking for.

Third, sit down with the team leaders to teach them about the Four Disciplines model. After all, they’ll need to execute this process within their own departments!

After that, each team leader goes ahead and launches the process with her own team. They should also ask for feedback and get their department’s approval for moving forward on the WIGs and lead measures.

In the fifth step, individual teams work on perfecting the method. Ideally, department heads should get additional coaching on the process for a period of at least three months.

And, finally, wrap it all up by setting up quarterly meetings with all the team leaders to discuss the progress you’re making together as an organization.

And there you have it! You’ve implemented a process that allows you to execute your vision and achieve your goals.

Summary

Strategy Blockers

Executives implement some strategies easily with a single order. They initiate such changes as designating investments, revising compensation or hiring additional staff simply by asking the appropriate managers to make it happen. However, more ambitious strategies require people to change their behavior, which is seldom easy. For example, if you ask your sales team to use new software when they already like what they’re using, you’ll hit resistance even if the new program is compatible. As Jim Stuart, an originator of the “4 Disciplines of Execution” (4DX), stated, “To achieve a goal you have never achieved before, you must start doing things you have never done before.” Resistance to change is a major hurdle in implementing a new strategy.

“When you execute a strategy that requires a lasting change in the behavior of other people, you are facing one of the greatest leadership challenges you will ever meet.”

What else causes poor execution? Employees fail to implement strategy, first, because they often do not understand their organization’s goals. In one survey, most frontline people could not reiterate what their firm’s executives identified as its top three goals. In addition, employees said they rarely felt committed to a goal even when they knew what it was. Or, if they knew about the goal, they didn’t know how to contribute toward its fruition. And in most cases, managers didn’t hold workers accountable for making progress toward company objectives.

Discipline 1: “Focus on the Wildly Important”

Another obstacle to implementing strategy is the “whirlwind” – that is, “the massive amount of energy that’s necessary just to keep your operation going on a day-to-day basis.” Simply keeping up with daily demands takes most people’s time and energy. Achieving big goals in addition to staying on top of business is difficult. The four disciplines of execution will enable you and the teams in your company to execute important goals even as the work world swirls around you. Select one or two exceptionally crucial goals. Examine the abundance of good ideas. Then take on the challenge of saying no to some so you can concentrate your company’s time and energy on one or two “Wildly Important Goals” (WIGs) that really matter. This enables your staff to focus on the firm’s top priorities without the whirlwind blowing them off course.

“The greatest challenge is not in developing the plan: It’s in changing the behavior of the frontline teams that must execute it while managing the never-ceasing demands of the whirlwind.”

To identify your WIG, ask: “If every other area of our operation remained at its current level of performance, what is the one area where change would have the greatest impact?” Some corporate WIGs emerge from the whirlwind, such as an existing activity that is underperforming or broken, like poor customer service or escalating costs. WIGs that derive from outside the whirlwind are strategic matters, like new product launches, competitive threats or fresh opportunities. Many WIGs originate from “finance, operations or customer satisfaction.” Once you’ve chosen your firm’s WIG, the challenge is to implement it throughout your organization so that each team pursues one or two WIGs that support the company’s WIG. Follow four rules:

1. “No team focuses on more than two WIGs at the same time” – Achieving a WIG requires a keen, undivided focus. Do not let other demands dilute your attention.
2. “The battles you choose must win the war” – All activities must work toward accomplishing the WIG.
3. “Senior leaders can veto, but not dictate” – Middle managers must determine how their teams will support the WIG. If they set up a top-down process, their teams won’t feel high levels of commitment to the WIG.
4. “All WIGs must have a finish line” – State the finish line by using the WIG formula “from X to Y by when.” This declares that the organization will progress from this point to that point by a set time. WIGs must have a clearly defined, measurable and targeted achievement completed in a specific time frame. For example, “Increase…annual revenue from new products from 15% to 21% by December 31st.”

“When a team moves from having a dozen we-really-hope goals to one or two no-matter-what goals, the effect on morale is dramatic.”

To implement Discipline 1, determine the best WIG for your business. Seek input at every level of your organization. Encourage ideas from each team by asking which facet of its work needs most to be improved and what the team’s “greatest strengths” are in terms of putting them to use in attaining the WIG. Rank the resulting suggestions by importance. Test the top-ranking concepts by asking if each proposed goal is measurable, achievable and specific to its team. Make sure it supports the companywide WIG. Choose ideas that test well and meet every condition. Then put them into the WIG formula (from X to Y by when) in the simplest terms beginning with a verb, such as, “Raise annual inventory turn rate from eight to ten by fiscal year end.”

Discipline 2: “Act on the Lead Measures”

This discipline identifies the actions that will give your firm the most leverage toward achieving its WIG. In this step, each team delineates specific activities with measurable targets that will move it forward in reaching its WIG as part of reaching the firm’s WIG.

“The principle of focusing on the vital few goals is common sense; it’s just not common practice.”

Apply two kinds of measures to gauge your progress: “Lag measures” report whether you’ve completed a goal by computing your success after you act, for example, consumer satisfaction reports and revenue calculations. Unfortunately, by the time you receive the results of lag measurements, you have already completed the activities they cover. “Lead measures” are more within your control. While a lag measure might report your car’s repair record, a lead measure might note how much routine maintenance you’ve done to prevent repairs. Thus, lead measures can be predictive and can influence lag measures.

“Like a compass, the WIG provides clear, consistent direction toward a result that’s wildly important.”

Younger Brothers Construction identified reducing accidents and injuries as its WIG. Management ascertained that enforcing strict compliance to safety standards in six areas would provide the best lead measures for reducing accidents. Managers required shift supervisors to check their crews’ adherence to specific standards daily, in spite of constant whirlwind distractions like shipping delays, vendor issues or foul weather. Within months of focusing on lead measures, the firm’s safety record, according to its lag measurements, improved radically.

“What you ultimately want is for each member of your team to take personal ownership of the commitments they make.”

To implement Discipline 2, determine which lead measures have the highest impact on the WIG. Consider what new actions you can take, how to leverage your team’s strengths and where you can improve its weaknesses. Rank ideas by importance and ask these questions about each one:

• “Is it predictive” and “influenceable?” – Both these traits are essential.
• “Is it an ongoing process” or a one-time event? – Work toward a continuing effort with a goal.
• “Is it a leader’s game or a team game?” – Give the game to the team.
• Is it measurable and “worth measuring?” – Measurements create motivation.

“People will work hard to avoid disappointing their boss, but they will do almost anything to avoid disappointing their teammates.”

Once you determine the top activities, commit the list to paper in specific, measurable terms. Make each person accountable for taking a planned action by a set time.

Discipline 3: “Keep a Compelling Scoreboard”

Telling staffers exactly how they are performing creates engagement and dedication. Scoreboards drive action, promote problem solving, and boost energy and intensity. When you show progress visually, people feel excited. Seeing that they are winning is very motivational. An effective scoreboard meets these criteria:

• “It has to be simple” – The scoreboard must indicate clearly where the team is and where it needs to be.
• “It has to be visible to the team” – Computer data may help managers but lots of information alone won’t motivate the team. Put the scoreboard where everyone sees it.
• “It has to show lead and lag measures” – Viewers must be able to see quickly the result they want to reach (lag measure) and what they can do to attain it (lead measure).
• “It has to tell you immediately if you are winning or losing” – The scoreboard must communicate at a glance how participants are performing.

“The whirlwind is urgent, and it acts on you and everyone working for you every minute of every day.”

To put Discipline 3 into action, work with your team members to design a large, visible players’ scoreboard. Participants will be more invested if they participate in creating the scoreboard. First, choose what type of graph you want to display, whether it’s a bar chart, a pie chart or an X/Y axis diagram. Keep it simple, clear and easy to read, so you can display lead and lag measures. Update the scoreboard weekly. You will see that “people play differently when they are keeping score.”

Discipline 4: “Create a Cadence of Accountability”

The discipline of accountability keeps WIGs from blowing away in the whirlwind. Create a sense of personal responsibility through weekly WIG meetings that follow a set agenda and that concentrate only on the status of the execution of the big goal.

“Basically, the more you try to do, the less you actually accomplish.”

WIG meetings have three components: First, participants report on the status of their commitments. Next, they “review the scoreboard” and discuss what is working and what they should adjust. Then they define what they need to achieve by the next session. These meetings are great motivators because, in addition to being accountable to their boss, employees are accountable to each other, which is more inspiring. “WIG sessions” promote creativity and innovation because teams collaborate to overcome obstacles. As they work on advancing the lead measure, they share experiences and ideas and bring out the best in each other. In action, “the WIG session is like an ongoing science experiment.”

“The challenge is executing your most important goals in the midst of the urgent!”

For the purposes of implementation, these sessions should not cover anything but the status of your WIG. The meetings work best when you hold them at the same time and place, on the same day of each week. Keep them to a half hour. Leaders should set an example by reporting on their WIG commitments each time. Together, teams commemorate successes, share what they’ve learned and help each other overcome obstacles. Keep the whirlwind out of your WIG sessions.

4DX Installation

To ensure that 4DX is successful within your organization, you should put it into operation as an ongoing process, not a one-time occurrence. Involve all of your firm’s leaders and their teams, rather than working with just a few leaders at a time. Train your managers to head this effort. To roll out 4DX in your company, follow this tested, results-oriented six-step process:

1. “Clarify the overall WIG” – Follow the 4DX procedure for identifying your company’s wildly important goal.
2. “Design the team WIGs and lead measures” – Commit two days to training leaders in the concepts of 4DX. Once leaders have absorbed these ideas, they can work with their teams to identify WIGs that support the organization’s WIG. These managers should define the lead measurements they’ll need to put in place.
3. Run a “leader certification” workshop – Teach leaders how to create a scoreboard, manage a WIG session and prepare for launching 4DX within their teams.
4. Conduct a “team launch” – Kick-off 4DX in two-hour team meetings. The agenda is to teach the 4DX principles, review the organization’s WIG and describe the lead measures. Conclude the meeting with a practice WIG session.
5. Execute “with coaching” – Once you’ve launched 4DX, stay on track and work through problems with the help of a coach who has expertise in the four disciplines.
6. Organize “quarterly summits” – Leaders report to upper management in quarterly meetings. This gives them the opportunity to practice accountability and receive recognition for their successes.

4DX in Your Life

The four disciplines are not only an effective tool for accomplishing goals in the workplace. You can apply the same principles in your personal life. One man used 4DX to lose weight. His WIG was to lose 80 pounds by his son’s high school graduation six months away. He identified his lead measures as walking several miles daily, limiting calories and not eating in the evenings. He kept a tracking chart on the kitchen wall, and he reached his goal in time for his son’s graduation.

Conclusion

The key message:

Executing strategic goals requires changing people’s behavior in the midst of a whirlwind of urgent daily tasks. But to execute their vision across the organization, company leaders should focus on just one or two strategic goals and useful key measures.

Actionable advice:

Choose a goal that will impact your performance.

When you are choosing a wildly important goal, consider two sources: things within the whirlwind and things outside it. A wildly important goal from the whirlwind could be something that needs fixing as soon as possible or something your team already excels at and needs to use as leverage. Outside the whirlwind, you can usually choose among things that offer you the chance to gain strategic advantage, like including new product features.

About the author

Chris McChesney, a developer of the 4DX program, and Jim Huling, who has more than 30 years of experience in corporate leadership, are both consultants with FranklinCovey, where Sean Covey is an executive vice president and runs global operations.

Chris Mcchesney is the Global Practice Leader of Execution for FranklinCovey and has led the ongoing development of the 4 Dis­ciplines for more than fifteen years, impacting thousands of organizations. Chris presents at the world’s largest leadership conferences.

Chris McChesney is the Global Practice Leader of Execution for FranklinCovey and one of the primary developers of The 4 Disciplines of Execution. For more than a decade, he has led FranklinCovey’s ongoing design and development of these principles, as well as the consulting organization that has achieved extraordinary growth in many countries around the globe and impacted hundreds of organizations.

Sean Covey is Executive Vice President of Global Solutions and Partnerships for FranklinCovey and a New York Times bestselling author. His books include The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make, The 7 Habits of Happy Kids, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.

Sean Covey is the President of FranklinCovey Education and the original architect of the 4 Disciplines methodology. A Harvard MBA and former Brigham Young University quarterback, Sean is also a New York Times bestselling author and has written numerous books, including The Leader in Me and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.

Sean Covey is the President of FranklinCovey Education and the original architect of the 4 Disciplines methodology. A Harvard MBA and former Brigham Young University quarterback, Sean is also a New York Times bestselling author and has written numerous books, including The Leader in Me and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.

Jim Huling is the Global Managing Con­sultant for FranklinCovey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution. In this role, Jim is responsible for the 4 Disciplines methodology, teaching methods, and the quality of delivery worldwide. Jim also regularly serves as an executive coach to a number of senior executives.

Jim Hulingis the Global Managing Con­sultant for FranklinCovey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution. In this role, Jim is responsible for the 4 Disciplines methodology, teaching methods, and the quality of delivery worldwide. Jim also regularly serves as an executive coach to a number of senior executives.

Scott Thele is currently the National Practice Leader for FranklinCovey’s Business Outcomes Practice, primarily applying the 4 Disciplines of Execution. Scott focuses his time as a keynote speaker, business consultant, and a content thought leader helping organizations execute their most critical strategies.

Beverly Walker, as a Commissioner of the State of Georgia and Director in the State of Illinois, has applied the 4 Disciplines to driving results in large-scale and seemingly insurmountable challenges from infant death to mental health to child literacy.

Table of Contents

Foreword xix
Strategy and Execution xxiii
A Letter xxv
The Real Problem with Execution 1
Section 1 The 4 Disciplines of Execution
Discipline 1 Focus on the Wildly Important 23
Discipline 2 Act on the Lead Measures 44
Discipline 3 Keep a Compelling Scoreboard 65
Discipline 4 Create a Cadence of Accountability 77
Section 2 Installing 4DX with Your Team
What to Expect 105
Installing Discipline 1 Focus on the Wildly Important 118
Installing Discipline 2 Act on the Lead Measures 136
Installing Discipline 3 Keep a Compelling Scoreboard 155
Installing Discipline 4 Create a Cadence of Accountability 171
Automating 4DX 194
Section 3 Installing 4DX in Your Organization
Best Practices from the Best 209
Focusing the Organization on the Wildly important 235
Rolling Out 4DX Across the Organization 251
4DX Frequently Asked Questions 286
Bringing it Home 286
So, Now What? 294
Glossary 297
Notes 303
Acknowledgments 307
Index 311