4 Disciplines of Execution
What is this Document for?
This is a personal guide on how to practice the 4 Disciplines of Execution. By reading this
document I should understand how to define a WIG and its Lead Measures. Create a
scoreboard for tracking and how to establish accountability.
This is important as it helps individuals and companies grow more disciplined in their thinking,
communication, and purposeful in action.
Organize Your Activities
The Strategy Map Starting from the top-down in the Strategy Map, most organizations
define a Mission:
Mission – the organization’s or team’s predefined purpose or reason for being
Vision – what success will look like at some point, usually five or more years into the future
As the mission and vision are aspirational, the leadership creates the strategy to determine how
that vision will become a reality. Next, the leadership team should fill in the Stroke-of-the-Pen
(left) and Whirlwind (right) parts of your strategy.
Ask yourself:
1. Stroke-of-the-Pen Strategy – What are activities that we will execute just by ordering or
authorizing it to be done and that generally does not require a lot of people to do things
differently?
2. Whirlwind – What are the activities that I spend an enormous amount of time and energy
on to keep the organization at its current level of performance?
3. Where will you spend your disproportionate energy?
‘’
Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important Goals
WIG: A WIG is an acronym for a “Wildly Important Goal”. It's a goal so important that not
achieving it makes other achievements inconsequential.
WIGs are a vaccine against fuzzy thinking and planning execution, giving you the starting point
of WHAT you want to accomplish. Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.
Ask yourself:
1. If every other area of our operation remained at its current level of performance, in which
one area would we most want to achieve significant results?
2. If every other aspect of our team’s performance remained at its current level, what is the
one area where significant improvement would have the greatest impact?
3. If every other area in my life remained the same, which one area of change could have
the greatest impact?
4. What OKRs do you plan to focus on to drive the greatest value for your role, your team,
and/or the company?
WIG Rules:
1. No individual focuses on more than one WIG at a time. Don’t choose a WIG that
encompasses your entire workload.
2. The battles you choose must win the war.
3. Leaders of Leaders can veto, but not dictate.
4. All WIGs must be formatted: From X to Y by When.
Steps to creating a WIG:
1. Brainstorm: Make a list of possible WIG’s.
a. Ask, “which area of my life would I want to improve most assuming everything
else holds?”
b. What are my greatest strengths?
c. What would be impactful?
2. Rank: Rank ideas.
3. Acid test the top ideas:
a. Is it measurable? If you’re not keeping score you're just practicing.
b. Who owns the results? You must own 80% and not be dependent on anyone
else for more than 20% of the results.
4. Define the WIG.
a. Must begin with a verb. Increase, improve, contact, etc.
b. Define lag measures in terms of X to Y by When.
c. Keep it simple.
d. Focus on what, not how.
e. Make sure it is achievable.
Make sure you got it right:
1. Have you gathered rich input and given this careful consideration?
2. Do you clearly have the power to achieve the WIG without heavy dependence on
others?
3. Can the WIG be simplified any further? Does it start with a simple verb and end with a
clear lag measure?
Deliverable: When you have successfully finished this step you will have a WIG & lag measure.
Examples: Lose 15 lbs by March 31st. Improve GPA from 3.2 to 4.0 by March 31
Discipline 2: Act on Lead Measures
Lead Measure: The measure of an action planned and taken as a means to achieving a WIG.
Successful individuals invest their best efforts in those few activities that have the most impact
on the WIG. Achieving your WIG is like trying to move a giant rock. It's not a question of effort.
Effort isn't enough. Lead measures act like a lever making it possible to move that huge rock.
Ultimately the lead measure that you choose is your strategic bet that moving them will move
the WIG.
Example: you can’t control what the scale says you weigh (lag measure) but you can control
your diet and exercise regime (lead measure). Your diet and exercise is predictive of what the
scale says. It's where all the leverage is!
Lag measures tell the result where lead measures foretell the result.
Lead measure tests:
1. Must be predictive of achieving the WIG.
2. You must be able to influence them directly.
Watch out! Lead measures are the most difficult aspect of 4DX
1. They can be counterintuitive. Most of us are used to looking at lag measures e.g. the
scale.
2. They can be hard to keep track of. They tend to require discipline.
3. They can look simple with a precise focus on a single behavior.
Steps to creating the lead measures
1. Consider the possibilities
a. Stay focused on ideas that will drive the WIG.
b. Ask yourself:
i. Which one area of our team’s performance would represent our greatest
contribution to the primary WIG of the organization?
ii. What are the greatest strengths of the team that can be leveraged to
ensure the primary WIG is achieved?
iii. What are the areas where the team’s poor performance most needs to be
improved to ensure the primary WIG is achieved?
2. Rank by impact
a. Key here is to narrow the focus to a few lead measures. Too many lead
measures and you dissipate the pressure. A lever must move a lot to move the
rock.
b. What is the smallest number of battles necessary to win the war?
c. Where are we spending disproportionate energy?
3. Acid test the top ideas
a. Is it predictive? Does it move the lag measure?
b. Is it influenceable. 80% or more control.
c. Is it an ongoing process or a once and done?
d. Is it worth measuring? Remember getting this data may not be easy. Is the
outcome worth the effort?
4. Define the lead measures
a. Are you tracking lead measures daily or weekly?
b. Define both qualitative (how well) and quantitative standards (how often)
Deliverable: A small set of lead measures that will move the lag measure on the WIG.
Did you get it right?
1. Have you gathered rich input and given this careful consideration?
2. Are the lead measures predictive that is, the most impactful things you can do to drive
the WIG.
3. Are the lead measures influenceable that is, do you clearly have the power to move the
lead measure?
4. Are the lead measures truly measurable? Can you track performance from day one?
5. Are the lead measures worth pursuing? Any unintended consequences?
6. Does each lead measure start with a simple verb?
7. Is every measure quantified including quality measures?
Discipline 3: Keep a compelling scoreboard.
Discipline #3 is the discipline of engagement. Even though you have defined a clear and
effective game in disciplines 1 and 2, you won’t play at your best unless you are emotionally
engaged and that happens when you can tell if you are winning or losing. Keeping score with
family, friends or co-workers will help to drive engagement. For example you and your family
update your scoreboards together. Engagement drives results.
3 Principles
1. People play differently when they are keeping score. If you're not keeping score you're
just practicing.
2. A coach’s scorecard is not a player's scorecard. A coach’s scorecard is complex. A
player's scorecard is simple. Think of a basketball game. The coach is keeping track of
all sorts of data on things like field goal %, steals, blocks, 3 pointers, etc. The players'
scoreboard is simple. It shows a handful of measures that indicate to the players at a
glance if they are winning or losing the game.
3. The purpose of the scorecard is to motivate the players to win.
Steps to creating a compelling scoreboard
1. Choose a theme.
a. Trend lines are the most useful for displaying lag measures. They can quickly
communicate from x to y by when.
b. Speedometer Is useful for measuring times such as process times, time to
market, etc
c. Bar chart is useful for comparing the performance of teams or groups within
teams.
d. Andon chart consists of colored signals or lights that show a process is on track
(green) in danger of going off track (yellow) or off track (red). Useful for showing
the status of lead measures.
2. Design the scoreboard
a. Is it simple? Does it show where you're at compared to where you should be and
over what time.
b. Does it contain both lead and lag measures?
c. Can you tell at a glance if you’re winning. Follow the 5 second rule. Can you tell
in 5 seconds or less if you're winning or losing? If not, it's too complicated.
d. What you measure can be scaled and improved?
e. Do you know where and whom to direct your energy and expertise too?
3. Build the scoreboard
a. Signs, poster board, whiteboard, chalkboard, etc. Keep it simple.
4. Keep it updated
a. Where will you post it?
b. How often will it be updated?
Did you get it right?
1. Does the scoreboard track the WIG, lag measures, and lead measures?
2. Is there a full explanation of the WIG and measures along with the graphs?
3. Does every graph display both actual results and the target results (Where are we now?
Where should we be?)
4. Can you tell at a glance on every measure if you’re winning or losing?
5. Is the scoreboard posted in a highly visible location where you can see it easily and
often?
6. Is the scoreboard easy to update?
7. Is the scoreboard personalized a unique expression of you?
Discipline 4: Create a cadence of accountability.
This is the discipline of accountability. Even though you’ve designed a game that’s clear and
effective, without consistent accountability you will never give your best efforts to the game. This
is done with WIG sessions. A WIG Session has a singular purpose: To refocus you and your
team on the WIG despite the daily whirlwind. It takes place regularly, at least weekly and
sometimes more often. It has a fixed agenda as follows:
WIG Session Agenda
1. Review. Review the scoreboard.
a. Learn from successes and failures.
2. Report. Report on last week’s commitments.
a. State the commitment
b. State its outcome
3. Plan: Make high impact commitments for the coming week. Clear the path by removing
obstacles and make new commitments that will raise the lead measures to the required
level of performance the coming week. Focus on making commitments that have the
highest impact using the following guidelines. The following is a guideline:
a. One or two high impact commitments at most. Key is keeping them!
b. Specific. Exactly what will you do and what is the outcome?
c. Should start with “I”. Commit personally.
d. Timely. Must be able to complete in the coming day / week.
e. Must be directed at moving the lead measures on the scoreboard.
Watch Out! Common pitfalls
1. Competing whirlwind responsibilities. Don’t let the whirlwind in the WIG Session.
2. Ask how completing this will affect the scoreboard? Stick to specific outcomes.
3. Avoid repeating the same commitment for more than two weeks.
Keys to successful WIG Sessions
1. Keep a schedule. Same day and time every day / week.
2. Keep sessions brief. 20-30 Min
3. Post the scoreboard
4. Celebrate success of kept commitments
5. Share what’s working and what's not.
6. Clear the path for one another. Remove obstacles
7. Execute in spite of the whirlwind.
The Five Stages of Change
It is inherently difficult to change human behavior in the midst of a raging whirlwind.
1. Getting Clear
a. Be a model of focus on the WIG
b. Identify high-leverage lead measures
c. Create a players’ scoreboard
d. Schedule WIG sessions weekly and hold them
2. Launch
a. Recognize that a launch phase requires focus and energy - especially from the
leader
b. Remain focused and implement the 4DX process diligently. You can trust the
process
c. Identify your Models, Not Yets, and Nevers
3. Adoption
a. Focus first on adherence to the process, then on results.
b. Track results each week on a visible scoreboard.
c. Make adjustments as needed.
d. Invest in the Not Yets through additional training and mentoring.
4. Optimization
a. Encourage and recognize abundant creative ideas for moving the lead measures
b. Recognize when the Not Yets start performing like the Models
5. Habits
