Favorite Quote:

“A bad system will beat a good person every time.”

—W. Edwards Deming

Summary: ​The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) framework

is not a silver bullet. It is a treatment to get a lot of people to
do a certain thing, differently. It providers rules for creating
a winnable game around a strategic bottleneck.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution

1. Focus on the Wildly Important
2. Act on the Lead Measures
3. Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
4. Create a Cadence of Accountability

How to do it: ​4DX is managed via a weekly meeting in

which 3 things happen:
1. Report on last week’s commitments
2. Review and update scoreboard
3. Make commitments for next week

“Anytime the majority of the people behave a certain way the

majority of time, the problem is not the people. It is the system,
and the leader needs to own that.”
—W. Edwards Deming
Top Takeaways from the book:

1) There are 4 disciplines:

a. Discipline 1​: ​Focus on the Wildly Important
■ This is further defined as the Wildly Important Goal, or WIG.
b. Discipline 2​: ​Act on the Lead Measures
■ Also known as leading indicators or input metrics. They must be predictive and
influenceable.
c. Discipline 3​: ​Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
■ Make it simple, make it visible, help everyone know if they’re winning.
d. Discipline 4​: ​Create a Cadence of Accountability
■ Arguable to hardest part and where most companies break down. There needs to be a
recurring meeting to assess performance where over- and under-performance is
recognized.

2) All urgent day-job work is referred to as “The Whirlwind” which consumes most (if not all) strategic
energy. Therefore, they encourage a ​“Whirlwind +1”​ framework which includes one Wildly Important
Goal (WIG) per team.

3) Avoid the temptation to dictate the leading measure goals—let the team decide.

4) 4DX is managed via a weekly WIG meeting in which 3 things happen:

1) Report on last week’s commitments
2) Review and update scoreboard
3) Make commitments for next week

Leadership Strategy & Execution

● What do leaders struggle with more: coming up with a strategic plan or ​executing ​on that plan?
○ Executing!
● If you take MBA / business classes, do you study more strategy or execution?
○ Strategy, mostly. Two types.
■ Stroke of the pen: what you can do with money and authority.
■ Behavior change: different, better, more consistent

“Anytime the majority of the people behave a certain way the majority
of time, the problem is NOT the people. It is the system, and the
leader needs to own that.”
—W. Edwards Deming
What gets in the way of behavior change?
● The day-to-day urgent stuff‚ aka the whirlwind
● Constant battle: Goals (new activities)/Important vs. Whirlwind (day job)/Urgent
○ Goals: you act on it
○ Whirlwind: it acts on you

Social proof: there are over 200,000 teams using the 4DX today
● Complexity is the enemy of execution.
○ 4DX creates a framework for ​simplifying strategy​.
● Execution has two best friends: ​simplicity​ and ​transparency
● 4DX is more about ​acute​ treatment, not an overarching operating framework for the company
● They’ve completed 3,000 org implementations over 15 years to write this book
Stephen Covey:
● “Best practices are a dime a dozen, but principles are GOLD.”
● “Say easy, do hard.”

Discipline 1:​ ​Focus on the Wildly Important. ​It is counter-intuitive because you will have to say no to a
LOT of good ideas.
[above slide is titled wrong]

Case study: ​reference to Comcast

● Challenge: internal system failures resulting in customer delays.
● The idea of reducing impact minutes (29,000) was translated into a compelling goal + scoreboard
● Where it otherwise, it super hard to execute on a concept.
● Target: “WIG” - Wildly important goal
○ Starting line, finish line, deadline.
○ “X to y by when”
● Goal: reduce impact minutes from 29,000 to 12,000 by year end
● Rule: each team at the front line needs to have one WIG
○ Whirlwind +1. . . ​That dog can hunt.
● Marriott is another case study and has repeatedly crushed it.
● Broke the operational goal down into ​Duration + Magnitude

Case study: ​NASA

● “What are the fewest battles necessary to win the war?” e.g. go to the moon
● Before Kennedy, NASA had 15 metrics and a conceptual goal
● What changed? Accountability + morale/engagement went WAY up
○ Switch in people’s mind: GAME ON

LEAD vs. LAG measures:​ lead is the ​lever​, the lag is the ​rock​.
● If you feel like luck is playing a big role in your life, you’re lookin at lag data.
● Humans inherently focus on LAG measures. They are also easier to measure. Just step on the
scale.
● Same with grades: report card?
○ But ow many parents know what the kids ​homework a ​ verage is?
● Hard part: Let the individual contributors decide the goals/LEADS
● Let the working teams decide the lead measures
● The whirlwind is SO intense. They’ll forget it in 3 days. It needs to go from a conceptual idea to a
targeted scoreboard.
● “People play differently when ​they​ are keeping score.” GAME ON.
Two requirements:​ 1) Getting the result, and 2) getting the ​talent/capability/skill​ to get the result.
In sales, sure you’re measuring calls and contracts, but are you measuring the TYPE of calls?

Example of Garmin’s Scoreboard

On the importance of employee engagement
● The #1 driver of employee engagement is ​whether they know they’re winning​. Engagement is
about the WORK. It’s not about what you can give them. Work and winning are inherently
gratifying.
● Q12 is good for understanding ​turnover​. Engagement is different. People quit for X reasons.
● Engagement is about PROGRESS. Small wins.
● When played correct, 4DX should feel like a high-stakes winnable game. It’s the playoffs.
● Frederick Herzberg

The ever present headwind:

● There is no strategy work that feels more urgent than the day job.
● The whirlwind will consume all.
● The 4th discipline is ​how you play the game.
● It is a commitment to doing non-urgent WIG-related work.
○ It’s a promise to your team. When they fail, it feels almost like an integrity thing.

Example at Comcast—all 46 teams to report out.

8-month check in and report out.
Story of leader who saw the fantastic results, but resisted the temptation to pat himself on the back but
instead admitted he couldn’t defend or explain the results. I really liked this. Absence of ego. He was
seeking the truth and questioned the results even though they reflected extremely well on him.

“4DX tends to work best above the team level, e.g. Director, VP”
● Is this right for us?
○ Goal deconstruction = 1 day of work
● Is the timing right?

References I didn’t know

● Rockefeller Habits​ (also: ​this​)
○ Clear Vision (Goals) + Discipline (Routine) = Success
● Frederick Herzberg​: Motivation-hygiene theory
○ The Power of Small Wins, ​Harvard Business Review​ (May 2011)
● Herzberg (1987) describes the:
○ Growth factors​ (or motivators) as "achievement, recognition for achievement, the work
itself, responsibility, and growth or advancement," which are intrinsic.​[4]​:13
■ Intrinsic​ factors include "orientations toward money, recognition, competition, and
the dictates of other people, and the latter includes challenge, enjoyment, personal
enrichment, interest, and self-determination."​[7]
○ Hygiene factors​ (or dissatisfaction-avoidance), which are extrinsic to the job, are
"company policy and administration, supervision, interpersonal relationships, working
conditions, salary, status, and security".​[4]
■ This ​extrinsic​ factor "refers to doing something because it leads to a distinct
outcome, something external you expect to receive, and the latter refers to doing
something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable, an internal reward."