A practical approach to solving every leader's #1 challenge - executing for results
Warning: This is a LONG one. But stick with me. This has the potential to have the greatest impact (although personally I think the most important post is the one on TRUST so don’t skip that one).
Introduction
Why is it so hard to implement a new idea - a new organization model, a new merger, a new anything - even if it is important and everyone agrees with implementing it?
You only undertake something new if you want a result that is different from the result you are currently getting.
Getting a different result means doing things differently.
Doing things differently requires a change in human behavior of some sort.
There is no easy way to change human behavior. No short cut.
And, everybody is already busy with their day to day obligations, which will always take priority over any new initiative.
There is a structure you can deploy that is practical and allows for your daily chaos, or crises, or whirlwind to be taken care of - that is the business-as-usual stuff, like your day job, that will always exist and cannot be sidelined – while still accomplishing a major initiative.
The daily stuff is urgent. What we are going to address is the stuff that is important.
It is the important stuff that will keep your competitors from getting ahead of you. These 2, the urgent and the important, will still clash but you will have the tools you need to pursue the important despite the urgent.
This structure includes just 4 steps, called disciplines (the word discipline here is important – a discipline is a practice, something you commit to and obey).
The purpose of the structure is to help organizations execute on their goals in the midst of the whirlwind.
The 4 Disciplines (4dx) of execution
Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important
Discipline 2: Act on the Lead Measures
Discipline 3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability
No longer does the inability to get people to change have to stand between you and the results you want.
Remember, if you want a different result, you must do things differently. So, try this!
This is taken largely from the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution by McChesney, Covey, and Huling. I’ve included the fundamentals of change management (see the Musings post Why you can't outsource change to consultants like me) and some of the non-negotiables (see the Insights post on Program Management Office - don't be afraid to deploy non-negotiables).
Discipline 1: Focus on the wildly important
Research shows there is no such thing as a good multi-tasker. The more things you and your team try to focus on, the less you all accomplish.
80% of your teams’ time should be spent on the whirlwind/urgent and 20% on the important.
Wildly Important Goals, or WIGs, state where you are, where you will end up, and by when, written in the following form: ‘We will go from X to Y by date”
No employee should be working on more than 2 WIGs at the same time.
Each WIG, defined by leadership, must have enabling WIGs, defined by the employees required to execute them.
To determine the right WIG, ask the following question of your team: “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?” The answer may come from within your whirlwind or outside.
“There will always be more good ideas than there is capacity to execute”
Discipline 1 Example
Discipline 2: Act on lead, not lag, measures
Lead measures are predictive; they tell you what you can achieve and they are influenceable - you have control over them.
Lag measures are historical; they tell you what you have achieved and you can’t influence them once you have them.
Picture the WIG as a rock on the ground that you need to move to reach your results or lag measure; the lead measures are your levers to move that rock; if you hit your lead measures, the rock moves and you ultimately hit your lag measure.
Note: This does not mean you ignore the lag measures – most leaders’ performance depends on hitting these (revenue, sales, profit…). It does mean you focus on the lead measures because those will get you your lag measures.
Coming up with the lead measures is about helping everyone see themselves as strategic business partners and engaging in dialogue about what can be done better or differently to achieve the WIG. Engagement improves commitment.
“Great teams invest their best efforts in those few activities that have the most impact on the WIGs: lead measures.”
Discipline 2 Example
WIG: Increase revenue from corporate events from $22M to $31M by December 31.
Discipline 3: Keep a compelling and visual scorecard
Make sure everyone knows the score at all times - the scores on the lead measures and the overall score on the ultimate WIG or lag measure. And make the scoreboard visible. If teams are dispersed, this may need to be digital.
Update the scoreboard weekly. This is a bit like running an agile project. Short bursts of committed activity are measured and tracked and plotted so all can see progress.
Include simple graphs showing here is where we are and here is where we need to be.
If you don’t do this, teams will go back to business as usual, focusing only on the urgent in the whirlwind. This is a powerful tool for changing human behavior.
4 characteristics of a compelling scoreboard (non-negotiables):
Is it simple?
Can I see it easily?
Does it show both lead and lag measures?
Can I tell quickly if I’m winning?
“85% of working adults cannot state their organization’s most important goals”
Discipline 3 Example
Using the example above, the scoreboard will track 1 lag measure (the WIG) and 2 lead measures (the enabling WIGs). The progress of each against the target is easy to see.
Discipline 4: Create a cadence of accountability
If you do not do this, Discipline 1 will get sucked into the whirlwind and the WIG will disintegrate altogether.
Accountability is shared across the team; not owned at the top. It is personal, not organizational.
Establish a weekly rhythm of accountability (meetings) for driving progress toward the WIG. Attendance is non-negotiable.
Weekly meetings are short, intense, and agenda driven:
report on last week’s commitments
review the scoreboard and learn from successes and failures
make commitments for the next week
These meetings keep the team focused despite the whirlwind.
These meetings allow the team members to influence the lead measures, which are predictive of success on the lag measure.
In these meetings, you answer the question, “Did we do what we committed to each other we would do?”
“The effectiveness of the WIG meeting depends on the consistency of the cadence, but the results on the scoreboard depend on the impact of the commitments”
Discipline 4 Example
Everyone must come prepared to the weekly meeting to keep it short and focused. The scoreboard must be visible during the meeting. In addition to updating the metrics, each person must be ready to answer the same question: “What are the 1 or 2 most important things I can do this week to impact the lead measures?”
Summary
If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me!
Stephen R. Covey says it best:
“The 4DX structure offers a results-oriented, knowledge-worker-age approach to executing goals and strategies - an approach that engages people’s hearts and minds toward a common goal unlike anything I’ve seen.”
The book offers many compelling case studies to help you quickly implement this approach on your next initiative. There are many YouTube videos that cover the 4DX basics that are worth your time, too.
