1. 4DX: Succeeding with your Wildly Important Goals
May 2014
Art Visual Theme: Liquidity/Process/Synchrony

2. Agenda
4DX Overview Discipline 1: Focus Discipline 2: Leverage Discipline 3: Engagement Discipline 4: Accountability

3. The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) Overview
Discipline 1: Focus on your Wildly Important Goals (WIGs)
The daily whirlwind of Urgent matters will overwhelm your team Goals
Set only one or two WIGs for your team
Each subteam sets its own WIGs, but each goal MUST directly lead to winning the top level WIG(s)
Discipline 2: Gain leverage by acting on Lead Measures
Get more done by focusing on LESS
Lag Measures define the success of your WIGs, but are hard for the team to influence
Lead Measures are predictive of the success of the lag measure and are easier to influence
Discipline 3: Engage your team with a Compelling Scoreboard
Make it simple, visible to all, show lead & lag measures. It must show if are we winning!
Discipline 4: Drive progress with a Cadence of Accountability
Each team meets for 20 minutes each week
Focus on what will move the indicators on your scoreboard
Answer 3 questions: be supportive, no blame, and celebrate success!
What I committed to last week, has it moved our scoreboard, and what I can do in the next week

4. The 4 Disciplines

5. Discipline 1: Focus on your Wildly Important Goals (WIGs)
Do not ask the question: “What are our most important goals?”
Ask: “If every other area of our operation remained at its current performance, what is the one area where change would have the most impact?”
A WIG is a tactical goal, with a limited timeframe – it is not a strategy
WIGs are set at the top of the organization – these define the War
Sub-organizations set their own WIGs – these define the Battles
Each WIG battle must lead to winning the war
Ask the question: “What are the fewest battles we need to win the war?”
Pick your WIGs from inside the whirlwind or outside
WIGs that are from outside the current whirlwind of priorities are harder to achieve
4 Rules
Rule #1: No team may focus on more than 2 WIGs at a time
Rule #2: The battles you choose must win the war
Rule #3: Senior leaders can veto your WIGs, but not dictate them
Rule #4: All WIGs must have a finish line (from x to y by when)

6. Discipline 1: Wildly Important Goals
Are these good WIGs?
Note:
This is NOT a good WIG!

7. Discipline 1: Can you spot a problem with these goals?

8. Discipline 2: Gain leverage by acting on Lead Measures
Measure the activities that are most predictive of achieving the goal
Lag measures tell you if the goal has been achieved
Lag measures are hard for your team to influence – they define success but are hard to directly impact ex.: “I want to lose 20 pounds by June” the lag measure is your weight change
Lead measures tell you if you are likely to achieve your target goal
Lead measures are those that can be directly achieved and are expected to affect the lag measure ex.: “I want to consume only 2000 calories per day” the lead measure is your target calorie intake
Lead measures can be very hard to define…
As a group, define up to 10 actions that you think will ‘move the needle’, then choose the 2 that are most likely to have an impact
Once the goals are defined let each person track their own progress
But watch the numbers – make sure everyone sees the team’s progress against their goals
Capturing the data may be your biggest challenge – it may cause more work, but everyone must be dedicated to collecting the data you are tracking

9. Discipline 2: Lead Measures
What changes can we influence?... Weight loss: Server down-time:
Lead
Lag
WIG
I must lose weight
I want to reach 160 lbs by December 1st
Daily caloric intake
Target = 2000
Number of meals + snacks per day
Target = 3 +1
I want to fit into my favorite pants for Christmas
Waist measure
Target = 30”
Lead
Lag
WIG
Our servers must be up at all times
All Servers - downtime less than 2% by April
Server Maintenance
Target = 1 hour only Weekends
Server upgrades
Target = between 12 and 18 months
The majority of FTE’s on any shift will be Certified Server Engineers by Q3
No. of Certified Server Engineers per Shift
Target = 3
Commit to:
Look for better food alternatives near work; have dinner by 7 PM every day; Walk 5 miles per week
Commit to:
Confirm current age of all servers; Combine patches into fewer updates per month; Take Linux certification classes

10. Discipline 3: Engage your team with a Compelling Scoreboard
When your team can see at a glance whether or not they are ‘winning’, they become profoundly engaged
Everyone needs to know what they need to do to ‘win the game’
What makes a Scoreboard compelling?
It has to be simple
It has to be visible to everyone on the team
It has to show both lead and lag measures
You must be able to tell at a glance if we are winning
The 5 second rule: Anyone must be able to tell if we are winning within 5 seconds of looking at the Scoreboard
!! Engagement drives Results Results drive Engagement !!

11. Discipline 3: Compelling Scoreboards
What makes a scoreboard compelling?... Can you tell who is winning?
PLUS, it must be easily visible by all (at any time)

12. Discipline 4: Drive progress with a Cadence of Accountability
Disciplines 1, 2, and 3 set up the game, but until you have a Cadence of Accountability, your team is not even IN the game
Accountability: “Making a personal commitment to the entire team to move the scores forward, then following through in a disciplined way”
The Weekly WIG Session:
The entire team attends – each member participates
Answer: What did I commit to last week? What affect did it have on the Scoreboard? What am I committing to do next week?
The environment is supportive and focused on winning
Help to ‘clear the path’ for others to make their commitments
The Scorecard is easily visible and shows what has changed since last session
The whirlwind can prevent you from getting things done, so, commit only to what you know you can finish in the next week –
…and then finish it!

13. Discipline 4: Cadence of Accountability
No blaming…
We all focus on the same goals…
Support each other… We are all in this together!

14. Taking account is not the same as taking on accountability…

15. Ready to start?

16. So, what’s going to go Wrong?
Now that you know how to achieve your Wildly Important Goals, what’s to stop you?
Getting Clear
The leader and all team members commit to a new level of performance on 1 or 2 WIGs
Develop crystal-clear lead measures aligned to specific lag measures
Create a compelling scoreboard and set up regular WIG sessions
Launch
New metrics may cause more confusion than clarity – how do you measure/track them?
The team needs “intense involvement” to get started – especially from the team leader
“What’s in it for me?” resistance; “I don’t understand what we are doing” struggles
Adoption
Stick to your cadence – do not let attendance drop; keep the WIG session focused and brief
How is the Scoreboard going to get updated? Focus on your lead measures and be willing to change
Make commitment a positive thing; create a supportive environment for change
Optimization
Listen for corrections and improvements after the cadence begins to take hold (not too early, though)
Create new lead measures and new team WIGs easily – but continue to avoid too many goals
Stay focused on the same lag measures over time to see your continued impact
The team should propose these optimizations, not the manager – they need to own the improvements
Habits
Celebrate success!
Move immediately to new WIGs when you reach your deadline or accomplish your target
Help all individuals become high performers on your WIGs – do not rest on the shoulders of your high performers

17. Which are you?
As we roll out this approach, some will resist, some will hop on, and others will just need time and support to get on board…
Like the innovation curve, 4DX finds there will be:
Resisters: To reach our full potential, we need to ‘convert’ the resisters, but it will take time
Models: These people ‘get it’ instantly and make an early impact
Potentials: Here is where the most opportunity is – get these folks performing and you get your greatest value!
Normal adoption curve
Models
Potentials
Resisters
Break the curve - let’s all be ‘Models’

18. It Begins with You