Title: The 4 Disciplines of Execution. Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals
Author: Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling
Year: 2012
In a nutshell
Business is heavily focused on strategy but little on execution
Execution excellence comes from applying 4 disciplines:
Focus on the Wildly Important (1 WIG (20%), outside the whirlwind (80%))
Acting on the lead measures (influencable and predictive of WIG)
Keeping a compelling scorecard (player’s, not coaches, i.e. keep it simple/visual)
Creating a cadence of acountability (fast-paced weekly meeting on WIG commitments)
Summary
Most attention in business goes to ‚what‘ and strategy rather than ‚how‘ and execution.
Two types of change initiatives: stroke of the pen (requires resources/authority) and breakthrough (requires behaviour change). The latter is the real challenge.
Four disciplines of execution:
Focus on the Wildly Important
Act on the Lead Measures
Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
Create a Cadence of Accountability
Four disciplines of execution work as a system. Each discipline is a principle that remains true whereas concrete practices can vary.
Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important
Three areas of activity:
Stroke of the pen initiatives
Breakthrough: key initiatives to get you to a new level; the important
Set one Wildly Important Goal (WIG) at a time
If accomplished, this becomes a part of the Whirlwind
Whirlwind: your day-to-day that you need to take care of; the urgent/necessary
Realise that most of your time is spent here, maybe 80% (leaving 20% for WIG which highlights the need of focusing on one WIG)
„There will always be more good ideas than there is capacity to execute.“ (36)
WIG can come from within the whirlwind (elevating sth already done to a new level) or from outside (which may be even more difficult to implement as it is new).
This is another way to focus: separate 80% whirlwind from 20% breakthrough - only for the latter focus on ONE wildly important goal. How to focus on what matters most
Make WIG measurable with the format: From X to Y by When
How to come up with WIGs:
Brainstorm. Give top-down direction and use bottom-up input. Get to a long list.
What one significant outcome would present a breakthrough for us?
… would bring us to the next level?
Rank by impact
Test top ideas
Is it measureable?
Who owns the result? (Your team should own at least 80%)
Who owns the game, ie whose performance is relevant - leader or team?
Define the WIG:
Begin with verb
Format: from x to y by ..
Keep it simple
Focus on what, not how
Discipline 2: Act on the Lead Measures
Lag measures set outcomes but are not directly influenceable. WIG is a lag measure. To achieve the WIG, set lead measures: these are directly influenceable measures that are predictive of and lead to the achievement of lag measures.
Most leaders focus on lag measures but that’s equivalent of driving a car by looking in the rear mirror. Lag measures measure the past. Lead measures are predictive and thus better at steering goal-oriented action.
Example:
Lag measure: increase production from x to y by date
Lead measures:
Increase staffing from 60-80%
Reduce machine breakdown from 20 to 0%
Lead measures are not revolutionary but we do not typically set them and measure them.
Most people go about their day in the whirlwind or worrying about lag measures. Lead measures work because they have you focus on the key things you can influence - they’re about leverage.
Lead measures are the lever with which to move the rock ie your lag measure. The lever (not the rock) is influenceable and predictive.
Discipline 3: Keep a Compelling Scorebord
Teams play differently when they are keeping the score.
This is a players scoreboard, not a coach/managers scoreboard: it should
Be Simple
Be Easily visible
Show lead and lag measures
Tell at a glance if I’m winning (visually)
Sense of achievement, progress and feeling that you’re winning is incredibly engaging. A scoreboard does that.
Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability
Disciplines 1-3 set up the game. Discipline 4 ist where execution actually takes place.
At the heart of it: a WIG Session
At the same time, at least every week
Keep the whirlwind issues out (no success in the whirlwind can compensate for lack of progress on WIG)
Keep it short, 20-30 min
Standard agenda of WIG session:
Account. Last week‘s commitments
Review the scoreboard. Learn from successes and failures
Plan. Clear the path and make new commitments
What are 1-2 actions I can do that will have the biggest impact on the lead measures? (not: what’s the most important thing this week-> that pulls you into whirlwind)
The accountability has to be to each other, not to the leader. And the commitment needs to be their own ideas, not given by the leader.
3 steps to accountability (when someone failed at their commitment):
Demonstrate respect for the person and the whirlwind (which is often used as excuse for failing on commitment)
Reinforce accountability (your contribution matters and without you we can’t do this)
Encourage performance
When lead measures are defined, visible and regularly committed to by the team, Innovation is bound to happen: ‚how can we breakthrough and win this week?‘ is a great question to have in the minds of your people.
Traps of defining WIGs (for leaders of leaders):
Too many primary WIGs
A primary WIG that is too broad
A primary WIG that is aspirational but not measurable
WIGs that are not aligned to mission and vision
XPS is a metric for how excellent your team/org is at executing - linked to the 4 disciplines:
Establish a cadence
Fulfilling high-impact commitments
Optimising lead-measures performance
Achieving lag-measure (WIG) results