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The Four Disciplines of Execution Summary Notes

the four disciplines of execution by Chris mzn Sean cvy and Jim Hing forward the four disciplines of execution offers more than theories for making strategic organizational change the authors explain not only the what but also how effective execution is achieved they share numerous examples of companies that have done just that not once but over and over again this is a book that every leader should read Clayton Christensen Professor Harvard Business School and author of The innovators dilemma Andy Grove who helped found Intel and then led the Enterprise for years as its CEO and chairman has taught me some extraordinary things one of them occurred in a meeting where he and several of his direct reports were plotting the launch of their seller and microprocessor I was there as a consultant the theory of disruption had identified a threat to Intel two companies AMD and cyx had attacked the low end of the microprocessor Market selling much lower cost chips to companies that were making entrylevel computers they had gained a significant market share and then had begun moving up Market Intel needed to respond during a break in the meeting Grove asked me how do I do this I readily responded that he needed to set up a different autonomous business unit that had a different overhead structure in its own sales force Andy said in his typical Gruff voice you are such a naive academic I asked you how to do it and you told me what I should do he swore and said I know what I need to do I just don't know how to do it I felt like I was standing in front of a deity with no place to hide Grove was right I was indeed a naive academic I had just shown him that I didn't know the difference between what and how as I flew back to Boston I wondered whether I should change the focus of my research as an academic trying to develop a theory of how I dismissed the idea however because I really couldn't conceive how I might develop a theory of how my research has continued to focus consequently on the what of business which we call strategy and it has been quite productive most strategy researchers consultants and writers have given us static views of strategic issues snapshots of Technologies companies and markets the snapshots describe at a specific point in time the characteristics and practices of successful companies versus struggling ones or of Executives who perform better than others at the time of the snapshot explicitly or implicitly they then assert that if you want to perform as well as the best performing ones you should follow what the best companies and the best Executives do my colleagues and I have issued the profession of Photography instead we have been making movies of strategy these are not however typical movies that you might see at a theater where you see fiction conceived in the minds of the producers and screenwriters the unusual movies that we're making at Harvard are theories they describe what causes things to happen and why these theories comprise the plots in these movies in contrast to the movies in a theater that are filled with suspense and surprise the plots of our movies are perfectly predictable you can replace the actors in our movies different people companies and industries and watch the movie again you can choose the actions that these actors take in the movie because the plots in these movies are grounded in theories of causality however the results of these actions are perfectly predictable boring you ask probably to those who seek ENT mment but managers who must know whether their strategy the what of their work is the right one or the wrong one need as much certainty as possible because the theory is the plot you can rewind the movie and watch the past repeatedly if you want to understand what causes what and why to a certain point another feature of movies of this sort is that you can watch the future to before it actually occurs you can change your plans based upon different situations in which you might find yourself and watching the movie what will happen as a result without boasting I think it is fair to say that our research on strategy Innovation and growth has helped managers who have taken the time to read and understand the theories or movies of strategy to become and sustain success more frequently than was historically the case what remains is the how of managing a company during times of change this how has been studied minimally until this book The reason why good research on how has taken so long to emerge is that it requires a different scale of research causal theories of strategy the what typically come from a deep study of one company as was the case with my dis Drive study the how of strategic change in contrast arises incessantly in every company developing a theory of how means that you can't study this phenomenon once in one company you can't take snapshots of how rather you need to study it in deep detail over and over again over years in many companies the scale of this endeavor is why I and other academics have ignored the how of strategic change we simply could not do it it requires the perspective insight and the scale of a company like Franklin cvy to do it this is the reason why I'm so excited about the book it isn't a book filled with an does about companies that succeeded once rather the book truly contains a theory of causality of how effective execution is achieved the authors have given us not snapshots of execution but movies movies that we can rewind and study over and over into which you as a leader can insert your company and your people as actors and you can watch your future before it emerges this book is derived from Deep study of many companies over time as they deploy new ways of doing how store by store hotel by Hotel division by division I hope you will enjoy this book as much as I have Clayton Christensen Harvard Business School strategy and execution there are two principal things a leader can influence when it comes to producing results your strategy or plan and your ability to execute that strategy stop for a moment and ask yourself this question which of these do leaders struggle with more is it creating a strategy or executing the strategy every time we pose this question to leaders anywhere in the world their answer is immediate execution now ask yourself a second question if you have an MBA or have taken business classes what did you study more execution or strategy when we ask leaders this question the response once again is immediate strategy if it's perhaps not surprising that the area with which leaders struggle most is also the one in which they have the least education after working with thousands of leaders and teams in every kind of industry and in schools and government agencies worldwide this is what we have learned once you've decided what to do your biggest challenge is in getting people to execute it at the level of Excellence you need why is execution so difficult after all if the strategy is clear and you as the leader are driving it won't the team naturally engage to achieve it the answer is no and it's likely that your own experience has proven this more than once the book you are reading represents the most actionable and impactful insights from all that we've learned in it you will discover a set of disciplines that have been embraced by thousands of leaders and hundreds of thousands of Frontline workers enabling them to produce extraordinary results a letter when I saw a 3-hour meeting on my calendar that day I was skeptical as a new VP of Eli Lily and Company's us affiliate I was swamped but since one of my leaders was running the meeting I decided to attend it was a decision I will always be glad I made because within the first few minutes of the meeting I realized I was seeing something special I watched a team reporting on the remarkable results they had achieved by piloting a new set of practices known as the four disciplines of execution these were individuals who had not only achieved their goals but who walked and talked like winners their chests were out and their heads held high as a leader I wanted those results but more important I wanted that mindset throughout my entire organization we launched the four disciplines throughout our managed healthc care business aiming at two critical goals to dramatically increase customer access to our medicines while simultaneously improving bottomline profitability during this same period there was a larger initiative throughout Lily to reorganize for more effective operations we could not have chosen a more difficult context for creating engagement in the end we exceeded both of our goals by a significant margin but these results were not really our greatest outcome our greatest outcome was strengthening our culture by raising the engagement of our teams during a time of high demand with a reorganization that brought significant change our Employee Engagement scores actually went up I often look back on the decision to attend that initial meeting and more important on the journey we've made to create not only great business results but also a highy performing culture it was a pivotal decision for me one that changed the way I lead forever Alex AAR president Lily USA LLC the real problem with ex execution BJ Walker was facing the greatest challenge of her career as the newly appointed commissioner of the Department of Human Services for the US state of Georgia in 2004 she could see that her 20,000 employees were completely demoralized the department had burned through six Commissioners in 5 years and was under constant media scrutiny due to the number of deaths and accidents involving children in the state's care for months her employees had operated under constant fear of making a mistake which only made their poor productivity worse and led to some of the largest backlogs in the country BJ Walker needed a way to bring focus and direction to her team and she knew that the Clock Was ticking less than 18 months later BJ and her team had reduced repeat cases of Child maltreatment by a stunning 60% one of the hotels near Marriott International's headquarters the Bethesda marot wanted to improve performance measures an effort magnified by being so close to the company's leadership general manager Brian hgar his team and the hotel's owners worked together on a $2 million renovation that included remodeled rooms an impressive Lobby in a new restaurant improvements critical to higher guest scores and the results were amazing the hotel looked fantastic but the guest scores were still not at desired levels yet the second part of the equation would involve how Associates interacted with guests and executed at the hotel a strategy dependent on new behaviors link httpwww deo.com qras studies after oneye Brian and his team proudly celebrated earning the highest guest satisfaction scores in the 30-year history of the hotel as Brian said I used to dress the arrival of our new guest satisfaction scores every Friday now I'm excited to get up on Friday mornings these stories from Eli Lily the state of Georgia and Marriott sound very different from each other but they aren't for each of these Leaders The Challenge was essentially the same so was the solution their common challenge executing a strategy that required a significant change in human behavior the behavior of many or even all of the people in the team or organization their common solution deeply implanting the four disciplines of execution for DX all leaders struggle with this challenge even if they don't realize it if you're leading people right now you are probably trying to get them to do something different whether you lead a small work team or a whole company a family or a factory no significant result is achievable unless people change their behavior yet to be successful you will need more than just their compliance you will need their commitment as every leader knows getting the commitment of hearts and Minds the kind of commitment that will endure in the midst of The Daily Grind is not easy we completed more than 1,500 implementations of the four disciplines before we were ready to write this book why because we wanted to test and refine the four disciplines against hundreds of real world challenges like like the ones faced by alexar BJ Walker and Brian hiler when you execute a strategy that requires a lasting change in the behavior of other people you are facing one of the greatest leadership challenges you will ever meet with the four disciplines of execution you are not experimenting with an interesting Theory you are implementing a set of proven practices that meet that challenge successfully every time the real challenge whether you call call it a strategy a goal or simply an improvement effort any initiative you as a leader Drive in order to significantly move your team or organization forward will fall into one of two categories the first requires mainly a stroke of the pen the second requires behavioral change stroke of the pen strategies are those that you execute just by ordering or authorizing them to be done simply put if you have the money and the authority you can make them happen it might be a major capital investment a change in the compensation system or realignment of roles and responsibilities adding staff or new advertising campaign while executing these strategies may require planning consensus guts brains and money you know that in the end it is going to happen behavioral change strategies are very different from stroke of the pen strategies you can't just order them to happen because executing them requires getting people often a lot of people to do something different and if you've ever tried to get other people to change their ways you know how tough it is changing yourself is hard enough for example you may have to get all of your store employees to greet every customer that enters the store within 30 seconds or get your entire sales forced to begin using the new CRM system or get your product development team to collaborate with the marketing team if you're Alex's r or b j w ER you may be changing routines that have been entrenched for decades this stuff is hard capital investment improved customer experience expansion of Staff higher quality process change faster responsiveness strategic acquisition operational consistency media by consultative sales approach change in product mix reduced cost overruns examples of strategic moves that require people to change their behavior contrasted with those that can be exit executed by The Stroke of a pen it's also not uncommon to find many stroke of the pen strategies that once approved evolve into those that require significant behavioral change our colleague Jim Stewart summarized this challenge as follows to achieve a goal you have never achieved before you must start doing things you have never done before it could be a new sales approach an effort to improve patient satisfaction better project management discipline or adherence to a new manufacturing process if it requires people to do something different you are driving a behavioral change strategy and it's not going to be easy have you ever found yourself on the way to work muttering something like for the love of Heaven can't we just do this one thing if so then you remember how it felt when the inability to get people to change was the one thing standing between you and the results you wanted and you're not alone in a key study on organizational change the global management consulting firm Bane and Company reports these findings about 65% of initiatives required significant behavioral change I'm a part of Frontline employees something that managers often fail to consider or plan for in advance one despite the significance of this problem leaders seldom recognize it you don't hear leaders saying I wish I were better at driving strategies that require people to do things differently what you are more likely to here is a leader saying I wish I didn't have Tom Paul and Sue to deal with it's natural for a leader to assume the people are the problem after all they are the ones not doing what we need to have done but you would be wrong the people are not the problem W Edward steming the father of the quality movement taught that anytime the majority of the people behave a particular way the majority of the time the people are not the problem the problem is inherent in the system point2 as a leader you own responsibility for the system although a particular person can be a big problem if you find yourself blaming the people you should look again when we began to study this challenge several years ago we first wanted to understand the root causes of weak execution we commissioned an international survey of working people and examined hundreds of businesses and government agencies during the early stages of our research we found problems everywhere we looked One Prime Suspect behind execution breakdown was Clarity of the objective people simply didn't understand the goal they were supposed to execute in fact in our initial surveys we learned that only one employee in seven could name even one of their organization's most important goals that's right 15% could not name even one of the top three goals their leaders had identified the other 85% named what they thought was the goal but it often didn't remotely resemble what their leaders had said the further from the top of the organization the lower the clarity and that was just the beginning of the problems we uncovered lack of commitment to the goal was another problem even those people who knew the goal lacked commitment to achieving it only 51% could say that they were passionate about the team's goal leaving almost half the team simply going through the motions accountability was also an issue a staggering 81% of the people surveyed said they were not held accountable for regular progress on the organization's goals and the goals were not translated into specific actions 87% had no clear idea what they should be doing to achieve the goal no underere execution is so inconsistent in short people weren't sure what the goal was weren't committed to it didn't know what to do about it specifically and weren't being held accountable for it these were only the most obvious explanations as to why execution breaks down on a more subtle level there were problems with lack of trust misalign compensation systems poor development processes and poor decisionmaking our first instinct was to say fix everything fix it all and then you'll be able to execute your strategy it was like advising them to boil the ocean as we dug in further we began to put our finger on a far more fundamental cause of execution breakdown certainly all of the problems we just cited the lack of clarity commitment collaboration and accountability exacerbate the difficulty of strategy execution but in reality they initially distracted us from seeing the deeper problem you may have heard the expression fish Discover Water last that expression sums up our Discovery very well like a fish discovering the water it's been swimming in the whole time we finally realized that the fundamental problem with execution had always been right in front of us we hadn't seen it because it was everywhere hiding in plain sight the Whirlwind the real enemy of execution is your day job we call it the Whirlwind it's the massive amount of energy that's necessary just to keep your operation going on a day-to-day basis and ironically it's also the thing that makes it so hard to execute anything new the Whirlwind robs from you the focus required to move your team forward leaders seldom differentiate between the Whirlwind and strategic goals because both are necessary to the survival of the organization however they are clearly different and more important they compete relentlessly for time resources energy and attention we don't have to tell you which will usually win this fight the Whirlwind iser urgent and it acts on you and everyone working for you every minute of every day the goals you've set for moving forward are important but when urgency and importance Clash urgency will win every time once you become aware of this struggle you will see it playing out everywhere in any team that is trying to execute anything new important goals that require you to do new and different things often conflict with the Whirlwind of the day job made up of urgencies that consume your time and energy consider your own experience can you remember an important initiative that launched well and then died how did the End come was it with a loud crash and a tremendous explosion or did it go down quietly over time suffocated by the Whirlwind we've asked thousands of leaders this question and we always get the same answer slow Suffocation it's like finding that faded t-shirt in the bottom of your drawer and saying oh yeah operation Summit I wonder what ever happened to that it died and you didn't even have a funeral executing in spite of the Whirlwind means overcoming not only its powerful distraction but also the inertia of the way it's always been done we're not saying that the Whirlwind is bad it isn't it keeps your organization alive and you can't ignore it if you ignore the Urgent it can kill you today it's also true however that if you ignore the important it can kill you tomorrow in other words if you and your team operate solely from within the Whirlwind you won't progress all your energy is spent just trying to stay upright in the wind the challenge is executing your most important goals in the midst of the Urgent different leaders experience the Whirlwind in different ways a senior executive with one of the world's largest Home Improvement retailers describes it this way we don't have dragons swooping down and knocking us off our priorities what we have are gnats every day we have gats getting in our eyes and when we look back over the last six months we haven't accomplished any of the things we said we were going to you've almost certainly found yourself facing the Whirlwind when you were trying to explain a new goal or strategy to someone who works for you can you remember the conversation your mind is centered clearly on the goal and you are explaining it in easy to understand terms but while you're talking the person you are talking to is backing slowly out of the room all the while nodding and reassuring you but trying to get back to what they would call the real work another name for the Whirlwind is that employee fully engaged in achieving that goal not a chance is he trying to sabotage your goal or undercut your Authority no he's just trying to survive in his Whirlwind to illustrate one of our colleagues shares this story I I was chair of the community council for my local high school and we as a council developed a serious goal of improving test scores my job was to orient the teachers to the new goal so I made an appointment with key teachers to explain what we were doing and get things started at first I was baffled they didn't seem to be listening to me slowly I learned why on one teacher's little desk was a stack that looked like a thousand papers it was just one day's collection of essays she would have to evaluate and grade plus she had a parent conference to go to in the next day's lessons to plan she looked kind of helpless while I jabbered on and on but she wasn't really listening there wasn't room in her brain for this and I didn't blame her let's summarize what we've said so far first if you are going to create significant results you will eventually have to execute a behavioral change strategy stroke of the pen moves will only take you so far second when you undertake a behavioral change strategy you will be battling the Whirlwind and it is a very worthy adversary undefeated in many organizations the four disciplines of execution aren't designed for managing your worldwind the four disciplines are rules for executing your most critical strategy in the midst of your Whirlwind the four disciplines of execution Tim Harford author of the undercover Economist said you show me a successful complex system and I will show you a system that has evolved through trial and error three in the case of the Ford disciplines of execution he is absolutely right it benefited from well researched ideas but it evolved through trial and error in our initial research with Harris interactive we surveyed nearly 13,000 people internationally across 17 different industry groups and completed internal assessments with 500 different companies over the years we've added to this Foundation by surveying almost 300,000 leaders and team members This research has been valuable as a foundation for the principles and in guiding our early conclusions but the real insights did not come from research they came from working with people like you in over 1,500 implementations this effort is what enabled us to develop principles and methods that we know will work regardless of the industry or the nation in which they are implemented there is good news and bad news here the good news is that there are rules rules for executing in the face of the Whirlwind the bad news the bad news is that there are rules the kinds of rules that have immediate consequences if you violate them although the disciplines may seem simple at first glance they are not simplistic they will profoundly change the way you approach your goals once you adopt them you will never lead in the the same way again whether you are a project coordinator lead a small sales team or run a Fortune 500 company we believe they represent a major breakthrough in how to move teams and organizations forward here's a quick overview of the four disciplines discipline one focus on the wildly important basically the more you try to do the less you actually accomplish this is a stark inescapable principle that we all live with somewhere along the way most leaders forget this why because smart ambitious leaders don't want to do less they want to do more even when they know better isn't it really difficult for you to say no to a good idea much less a great one and yet there will always be more good ideas than you and your teams have the capacity to execute that's why your first challenge is focusing on the wildly important focus is a natural PR principle the sun's scattered rays are too weak to St a fire but once you focus them with a magnifying glass they will bring paper to flame in seconds the same is true of human beings once their Collective energy is focused on a challenge there is little they can accomplish discipline one focus on the wildly important requires you to go against your basic wiring as a leader and focus on less so that your team can achieve more when you implement discipline one you start start by selecting one or at the most two extremely important goals instead of trying to significantly improve everything all at once we call this a wildly important goal wig to make it clear to the team that this is the goal that matters most failure to achieve it will make every other accomplishment seem secondary or possibly even inconsequential take Champion cyclist Lance Armstrong at one point in his career he completely dedicated himself to winning the tour to France his wig was to win the big one again and again achieving that goal meant that even when he competed in other races they were always in service to his Wiig of winning the tour no matter how important or prestigious they may have been it also meant constant specialized training and going over every ceneter of the route and planning precisely how to execute every stage of the tour the result of this powerful Focus Lance Armstrong 17 tours to France more than anyone in history point4 if you're currently trying to execute five 10 or even 20 important goals the truth is that your team can't focus this lack of focus magnifies the intensity of the Whirlwind dilutes your efforts and makes success almost impossible this is especially problematic when there are too many goals at the highest levels of of the organization all of which eventually Cascade into dozens and ultimately hundreds of goals as they work their way down throughout the organization creating a web of complexity however when you narrow the focus of your team to one or two wildly important goals the team can easily distinguish between what is truly top priority and what is the Whirlwind they move from a Loosely defined and difficult to communicate collection of objectives to a small focused set of achievable targets discipline one is the discipline of focus without it you will never get the results you want it's also only the beginning discipline two act on the lead measures this is the discipline of Leverage it's based on the simple principle that all actions are not created equal some actions have more impact than others when reaching for a goal and it is those that you want to identify and act on if you want to reach your goal whatever strategy you're pursuing your progress and your success will be based on two kinds of measures lag and Lead lag measures are the tracking measurements of the wildly important goal and they are usually the ones you spend most of your time praying over Revenue profit market share and customer satisfaction are all lag measures meaning that when you receive them the performance that drove them is already in the past that's why you're praying by the time you get a lag measure you can't fix it it's history lead measures are quite different in that they are the measures of the most high impact things your team must do to reach the goal in essence they measure the new behaviors that will drive success on malag measures whether those behaviors are as simple as offering a sample to every customer in the bakery or as complex as adhering to standards in jet engine design a good lead measure has two basic characteristics it's predictive of achieving the goal and it can be influenced by the team members to understand these two characteristics consider the simple goal of losing weight while the lag measure is pounds lost two lead measures might be a specific limit on calories per day and a specific number of hours of exercise per week these lead measures are predictive because by performing to them you can predict what the scale the lag measure will tell you next week they are influenceable because both of these new Behavior are within your control acting on the lead measures is one of the little known secrets of execution most leaders even some of the most experienced are so focused on lag measures that the discipline to focus on Mal measures feels counterintuitive don't misunderstand lag measures are ultimately the most important things you are trying to accomplish but lead measures true to their name are what will get you to the lag measures once you you've identified your lead measures they become the key leverage points for achieving your goal discipline three keep a compelling scoreboard people play differently when they're keeping score if you doubt this watch any group of teenagers playing basketball and see how the game changes the minute scorekeeping begins however the truth of this statement is more clearly revealed by a change in emphasis people play differently when they are keeping score it's not about you keeping score for them discipline three is the discipline of Engagement in principle the highest level of performance always comes from people who are emotionally engaged and the highest level of Engagement comes from knowing the score that is if people know whether they are winning or losing it's that simple bowling through a curtain might be fun in the beginning but if you can't see the penss fall it will soon become boring even if you really love bowling if you've bared your focus in discipline one your wig with a lag measure and determined the critical lead measures that will keep you on course toward that goal and discipline too you have the elements of a winnable game the next step is to capture that game on a simple but compelling scoreboard the kind of scoreboard that will drive the highest levels of Engagement with your team will be one that is designed solely for and often by the players this player's scoreboard is quite different from the complex coaches scoreboard that leaders love to create it must be simple so simple that members of the team can determine instantly if they are winning or losing why does this matter if the scoreboard isn't clear the game you want people to play will be abandoned in the Whirlwind of other activities and if your team doesn't know whether or not they are winning the game they are probably on their way to losing discipline four create a Cadence of accountability discipline 4 is where X execution really happens the first three disciplines set up the game but until you apply discipline 4 your team isn't in the game it is based on the principle of accountability that unless we consistently hold each other accountable the goal naturally disintegrates in the Whirlwind the Cadence of accountability is a rhythm of regular and frequent meetings of any team that owns a wildly important goal these meetings happen at least weekly and ideally last no more than 20 to 30 minutes in that brief time team members hold each other accountable for producing results despite the Whirlwind why is the Cadence of accountability so important consider the experience of someone with whom we've worked he and his teenage daughter made an agreement that she would be allowed the use of the family car if she washed it every Saturday morning he would meet with her each Saturday to make sure the car was clean they met on Saturday for several weeks and everything went well but then he had to go out of town for two Saturdays in a row when he returned he found that the car had not been cleaned he asked his daughter why she hadn't taken care of her job oh she replied are we still doing that it took only 2 weeks for the accountability system to break down if this was the case in a one-on-one situation think how much more it applies to a work team or a whole organization the magic is in the Cadence team members must be able to hold each other accountable regularly and rhythmically each week one by one team members answer a simple question what are the one or two most important things I can do in the next week outside the Whirlwind that will have the biggest impact on the scoreboard then members report on whether they met the previous week's commitments how well they are moving the lead and lag measures on the scoreboard and their commitments for the coming week all in only a few minutes the secret to discipline for in addition to the repeated Cadence is that team members create their own commitments it's common to find teams where the members expect even want simply to be told what to do however because they make their own commitments their ownership of them increases team members will always be more committed to their own ideas than they will to orders from above even more important making commitments to their team team members rather than solely to the boss shifts the emphasis from professional to personal simply put the commitments go beyond their job performance to become Promises to the team because the team commits to a new set of objectives each week this discipline creates a just in time weekly execution plan that adapts to challenges and opportunities that can never be foreseen in an annual strategic plan in this way the plan is adapting as fast as the business is changing the result the team can direct enormous energy to the wildly important goal without getting blocked by the shifting worldwind of change all around them when your team begins to see the lag measure of a big goal moving as a direct result of their efforts they will know they are winning and we have found nothing that drives the morale and engagement of a team more than winning a remarkable example is a worldclass luxury hotel chain that set a wig with a lag measure of 97% Gast renion if you stay here once we want you back was their Mantra and they executed that goal with Excellence link HTTP www.4 deo.com qr/ 17 overview they chose to achieve their goal through lead measures of individualized personal service so what did they do differently every staff member had a role in achieving that goal housekeepers for example carefully recorded on computers the individual preferences of each guest so they could provide the same Services each time the customer came back one guest asked the maid to leave his partially smoke cigar in the ashtray because he would be returning to the room when he returned there was a new cigar of the same brand in the ash tray he thought that was nice but what he never expected was to find a new cigar of that brand waiting for him in his room in another hotel in the chain months later he says now I have to go back just to see if the cigar will be there they own me in addition to their Whirlwind the housekeepers had quite a few new things to do not guest preferences enter and retrieve guest preferences from a computer and fulfill guest preferences clearly the housekeepers would not have done all those new things if they hadn't known without question that the goal of customer retention was top priority that a few new activities were vital to achieving that goal that they would track those activities carefully that they would account for their commitments daily in other words they knew the goal discipline one they knew what to do to achieve the goal discipline two they knew the score at all times discipline three they held themselves accountable regularly and frequently for the results discipline for these are the characteristics of organizations that practice the four disciplines of execution people want to win they want to make a contribution that matters however too many organizations lack this kind of discipline the conscious consistent regimen needed to execute key goals with Excellence the financial impact of a failure to execute can be huge but it is only one of the impacts another is the human cost to people who want to give their best and be part of a winning team by contrast nothing is more motivating than belonging to a team of people who know the goal and are determined to get there the four disciplines work because they are based on principles not practices practices are situational subjective and always evolving principles are Timeless and self-evident and they apply everywhere they are natural laws like gravity whether you understand or even agree with them doesn't matter they still apply one of the bestselling business books of all time is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People written by Steven or cvy in his book Steven identified some of the core principles that govern human behavior and Effectiveness such as responsibility Vision Integrity understanding collaboration and renewal just as there are principles that govern human behavior there are principles that govern how teams get things done or how they execute we believe the principles of execution have always been Focus leverage engagement and accountability are there other principles at play when it comes to execution yes but is there something special about these four in their sequencing absolutely we didn't invent them and we freely acknowledge that understanding them has never been the problem the challenge for leaders has been finding a way to implement them especially when the Whirlwind is Raging how this book is organized the four disciplines of execution is organized into three parts to provide you with a progressively deeper understanding of the disciplines and their application to any team section one the four disciplines of execution presents a thorough understanding of the four disciplines this section also explains why these apparently simple concepts are actually so difficult to practice practice and why they are the key to successfully meeting any Leader's greatest challenge section two installing 4dx with your team is designed like a field guide it gives very detailed step-by-step instructions for implementing the disciplines within your team a separate chapter is devoted to each discipline the final chapter of this section introduces you to an online system for managing the four disciplines with your team section three in installing 4dx in your organization provides you with some rules of the road that have evolved from the hundreds of implementations we've guided over the past decade you will gain insights from the leaders of top companies who are successfully using 4dx to drive strategy and create breakthrough results in their organizations this section also answers from our direct experience many of the questions that arise in executing strategies in a wide range of Industries throughout all three of these sections you will find links to Franklin CV's execution website where you can watch video case studies of many of the examples cited in this book at the end of the book we've included a chapter of frequently asked questions and a short chapter which shows how the four disciplines can help you accomplish personal or family oriented goals this book is a little different from most other business books you've read most business books share a lot of very helpful ideas and theories but are shallow on application in this book we are heavy on application and we'll tell you exactly what you can do to implement these disciplines the specifics the tips the watch outs the must do we'll share everything we know section one will teach you the four disciplines of execution sections two and three will show you how to apply them in Vivid detail we hope you'll find this approach refreshing before you begin we've learned that there are three things to watch out for when you begin studying the four disciplines more deeply for DX says easy does hard first the disciplines will sound deceptively simple but they take sustained work to implement as one of our clients put it says easy does hard don't be misled by this Simplicity the four disciplines are powerful in part because they are easy to understand but successful implementation takes significant effort over an extended period it requires sustained Commitment if the goal you're seeking isn't one you just have to achieve you might not make the sustained commitment necessary the payoff however is that you will not only achieve this goal but also build the organizational muscle and capability to achieve the next goal and the next for DX is counterintuitive second each of the four disciplines are Paradigm shifting and might even fly in the face of your intuition while it might seem instinctive to you to have a lot of goals the more you have the fewer you will achieve with Excellence if you want to achieve a certain goal don't focus on the goal itself but on the lead measures that drive the goal as you implement each discipline at least initially you'll be doing things that at first glance might not seem to make sense and that run counter to your instincts let us emphasize though that the four disciplines are the result of serious intens experimentation and hypothesis testing over many years everything you learn here has been thoroughly vetted the good news is that once you gain some experience with the four disciplines what seemed awkward in the beginning will become more comfortable and more effective for DX is an operating system third the four disciplines are a matched set not a menu of choices while every one of the disciplines has value their real power is in how they work together in secet quence each discipline sets the stage for the next discipline leave one out and you'll have a far less effective result think of the four disciplines as the operating system of a computer once it's installed you can use it to run almost any strategy you choose but you need the whole system for it to work as we move through the next chapters the reasons for this will become clear section one the four disciplines of execution the four disci iines of execution are all about producing great results the disciplines point from right to left because great teams execute from right to left they hold themselves consistently accountable for performance on lead measures which in turn drives achievement of wildly important goals the compelling scoreboard discipline 3 is Central because it displays the success measures on the goals for all to see the Cadence of accountability discipline for surrounds the other disciplines because it holds everything together the circling Arrow symbolizes the practice of regular frequent accountability for the success measures on the scoreboard discipline one focus on the wildly important the first discipline is to focus your finest effort on the one or two goals that will make all the difference instead of giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals execution starts with focus without it the other three disciplines won't be able to help you why do almost all leaders struggle to narrow their focus it's not because they don't think focus is needed every week we work with dozens of leadership teams across the world and almost without exception they acknowledge that they need greater Focus despite this desire they continue to find themselves with too many competing priorities pulling their teams in too many different directions one of the first things we want you to know is that You Are Not Alone the inability of leaders to focus is a problem of epidemic proportions we also want you to know that when we talk about narrowing your focus in discipline one we are not talking about narrowing the size and complexity of your Whirlwind although over time attention to wigs might have that effect your Whirlwind includes all of the Urgent activities that are necessary to sustain your business dayto day focusing on the wildly important means narrowing the number of goals you are attempting to accomplish beyond the day-to-day demands of your Whirlwind simply put discipline one is about applying more energy against fewer goals because when it comes to setting goals the law of diminishing returns is as real as the law of gravity if a team focuses on two or even three goals beyond the demands of their Whirlwind they can often accomplish them however if they set four to 10 goals our experience has been that they will achieve only one or two do they'll be going backward if they go after 11 to 20 goals in addition to the Whirlwind they'll lose all Focus confronted with so many goals the team members will stop listening let alone executing why is this so the fundamental principle at work in discipline one is that human beings are genetically hardwired to do one thing at a time with Excellence you're probably thinking proudly that you're great at multitasking and can get lot of things done at the same time but to the wildly important goal you want to devote your best effort Steve Jobs of Apple had a big company to run and he could have proudly brought many more products to Market than he did but he chose to focus on a handful of wildly important products his Focus was legendary and so were his results science tells us the human brain can give full Focus to only a single object at any given moment you can't even give your best effort to driving a car while talking on a mobile phone and eating a burger let alone juggle multiple important business goals at once MIT neuroscientist Earl Miller says trying to concentrate on two tasks causes an overload of the brain's processing capacity particularly when people try to perform similar tasks at the same time such as writing an email and talking on the phone they compete to use the same part of the brain trying to carry too much much the brain simply slows down five if this is true of simple tasks like processing emails and phone calls think of the impact of losing focus on the goals that could transform your business the prefrontal cortex the brain's Gateway just can't handle the daily flood that comes at us because it is designed to deal with teaspoons rather than tidal waves of information in our culture of multitasking according to Professor Clifford nass of Stanford University the neural circuits devoted to scanning skimming and multitasking are expanding and strengthening while those used for reading and thinking deeply with sustained concentration are weakening or eroding what's the consequence habitual multitaskers may be sacrificing performance on the primary task they are suckers for relevancy another term for the primary task is the wig improving our ability to multitask actually hampers our ability to think deeply and creatively the more you multitask the less deliberative you become the less you're able to think and reason out a problem says Jordan graph man of the National Institute of neurological disorders and stroke in the US .6 of course you don't have to overload the brain you can leverage the brain's capacity to concentrate superbly on one wildly important goal at a time while still being aware of the other priorities there's no better illustration of this principle than an airport control tower right now more than 100 airplanes might be approaching taking off or taxiing around and all of them are very important especially if you happen to be on one of them but for the air traffic controller only one airplane is wildly important right now the one that's landing at this moment the controller is aware of all the other planes on the radar she's keeping track of them but right now all her talent and expertise is solely focused on one flight if she doesn't get that flight on the ground safely and with total Excellence then nothing else she might achieve is really going to matter much she lands one airplane at a time wigs are like that they are the goals you must achieve with total Excellence beyond the circling priorities of your day-to-day to succeed you must be willing to make the hard choices that separate what is wildly important from all the many other merely important goals on your radar then you must approach that wig with focus and diligence until it is delivered as promised with Excellence that doesn't mean you abandon all your other important goals they're still on your radar but they don't require your finest diligence and effort right now still some of those goals might never be worthy of your finest diligence and effort some of them never should have taken off in the first place people who try to push many goals at once usually wind up doing a mediocre job on all of them you can ignore the principle of focus but it won't ignore you or you can leverage this principle to achieve your top goals one at a time again and again conventional thinking all of our goals are priority one we can successfully multitask and succeed at five 10 or 15 important goals all we need to do is work harder and longer for DX principle many of our goals are important but only one or two are wildly important we call them wigs they are the goals we must achieve our finest effort can only be given to one or two wildly important goals at a time the leader's challenge so here's the big question why is there so much pressure toward expanding rather than narrowing the goals if you understand the need to focus why is it so difficult to actually do it you might say that as a leader it's because you can always see more than a dozen existing things that need Improvement and another dozen New Opportunities you'd like to be chasing on any given day on top of that there are other people and other people's agendas that can be adding to your goals especially if they are from higher up in the organization however more often than any of these external forces there's one real culprit that creates most of the problem you in the words of the old cartoon Pogo we have met the enemy and he is us although the tendencies that drive you to the higher side of the scale are well intentioned in a very real sense you are often Your Own Worst Enemy being aware of the Tendencies is a good place to start let's examine a few of them candidly one reason you may drive your team to take on too much is that as a leader you tend to be ambitious and creative you are exactly the kind of individual organizations like to promote the problem is that creative ambitious people always want to do more not less if this describes you you're almost hardwired to violate the first discipline of execution another reason you might lead your team to go after too many goals is to hedge your bets in other words if your team pursues everything then it seems likely that something might work it also ensures that if you fail no one can question the level of effort your team gave even though you know that more is not better it looks better especially to the person above you so you may resist the increased accountability for results that would come with fewer goals and instead rely on the sheer volume of effort to drive your success however the greatest challenge you face in narrowing your goals is simply that it requires you to say no to a lot of good ideas for DX may even mean saying no to some great ideas at least for now nothing is more counterintuitive for a leader than saying no to a good idea and nothing is a bigger destroyer of focus than always saying yes what makes it even harder is that these good ideas aren't presented all at once wrapped in a nice little bundle so that choosing among them would be simple instead they filter in one at a time alone each idea seems to make so much sense that it's almost impossible for you to say no so you fall into a trap of your own making we believe all leaders facing this challenge should have this quote prominently displayed in their offices we can't overemphasize the importance of focusing on only one or two wigs at once it's counterintuitive but it must happen before Apple was named company of the decade in the United States by multiple sources 7 n Co Tim Cook now CEO said this to the company shareholders we are the most focused company that I know of or have read of or have any knowledge of we say no to good ideas every day we say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in numbers so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose the table each of you is sitting at today you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes yet Apple's Revenue last year was $40 billion eight Apple's determination to say no to good ideas has had devastating consequences for their competitors we once worked with a manufacturer that competed directly with Apple's iPhone when we met with the leader responsible for creating a new interface to compete with the iPhone how would you like that assignment he was more more than a little discouraged it's really not fair he said shaking his head between our domestic and international operations we make over 40 different phones they only make one we couldn't have said it better ourselves as Steven Arvy says you have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage pleasantly smilingly unapologetically to say no to other things and the way you do that is by having a bigger yes burning inside once you understand the importance of saying no to good ideas in order to keep your team's Focus narrow you can avoid the first of two Focus traps however the second trap trying to turn everything in the Whirlwind into a wi is even more common once caught in it you try to turn everything in the Whirlwind into a goal within the Whirlwind are all of your existing measurements for running the organization today Illustrated below as dials it's perfectly appropriate for your team to spend 80% of their time and energy sustaining or incrementally improving the Whirlwind keeping the ship afloat should be job one but if they are spending 100% of their energy trying to significantly improve all of those dials at once you will have lost your focus applying even pressure to all these dials is like trying to make holes in a piece of paper by applying even pressure with all your fingers you can't press on any one dial with enough Force to drive a change in human behavior many of the dials require dozens of changes in human behavior in order to move them focusing on one Wiig is like punching one finger through the paper all your strength goes into making that hole unless you can achieve your goal with a stroke of the pen success is going to require your team to change their behavior and they simply cannot change that many behaviors at once no matter how badly you want them to tr trying to significantly improve every measure in the Whirlwind will consume all of your time and leave you with very little to show for it so beyond avoiding these two Focus traps refusing to say no to all the good ideas and trying to make everything in the world in a goal what should you do narrow your focus to one or two wildly important goals and consistently invest the team's time and energy into them in other words if you want High Focus high performance team members they must have some wildly important to focus on identifying your wildly important goals a wildly important goal wig is a goal that can make all the difference because it's your strategic Tipping Point you're going to commit to apply a disproportionate amount of energy to it the 20% that is not used up in the Whirlwind but how do you decide which of many possible goals should be your wig sometimes the choice of a wig is is obvious but at other times it can be confusing if you try to select your wig by asking yourself what's most important you may find your mind running in circles why because the Urgent priorities in your Whirlwind are always competing to be the most important and a very good argument can usually be made for choosing any one of them to illustrate this problem imagine the leadership team in a manufacturing plant having this conversation I'm telling you quality is the the most important thing and it should be our wig says one person well don't forget it's our production that pays the bills around here says another I'm sorry but I disagree with both of you says a third safety has to be the most important have you ever had one of your people seriously hurt in an accident if you had you'd agree the result is frustration and confusion along with an inevitable and paradoxical loss of focus the problem in this conversation is that the leaders are asking the wrong question in determining your wildly important goal don't ask what's most important instead Begin by asking if every other area of our operation remain at its current level of performance what is the one area where change would have the greatest impact this question changes the way you think and lets you clearly identify the focus that would make all the difference remember 80% of your team's energy will still be directed at sustaining the Whirlwind so ignore the temptation to worry that by making one or two goals most important your team will ignore everything else and once you stop worrying about everything else going backward you can start moving forward on your wig in the words of discipline one you can focus on a wildly important your wildly important goal will come from one of two categories either from within the Whirlwind or from outside it within the Whirlwind it could be something so badly broken that it must be fixed or it could be a key element of your value proposition that isn't being delivered poor project completion time outof control costs or unsatisfactory customer service are all good examples however it could also be an area in which your team is already performing well and we leveraging this strength could result in significant impact for example increasing patience satisfaction in a hospital from the 85th percentile to the 95th percentile could increase your Revenue dramatically outside the Whirlwind the choices tend to be about repositioning yourself strategically launching a new product or service either to counter a competitive threat or seize a huge opportunity could be a wig that would make all the difference remember that this type of Wiig will require an even greater change in Behavior since it will be completely new to your team whether your wig comes from within the Whirlwind or outside it your real aim is not only to achieve it but also to then make the new level of performance a natural part of your team's operation in essence once a wig is achieved it goes back into the Whirlwind every time this happens the Whirlwind changes it isn't as chaotic chronic problems are resolved and new performance levels are sustained in essence it's a much higher performing Whirlwind ultimately this is what enables your team to pursue the next wig from a stronger Foundation sometimes choosing your wig is about more than selecting the aspect of your business where the greatest results are desired it's about a wig so fundamental to the heart of your mission that achieving it defines Your Existence as an organization we got to work with the new president of a large thrift store chain just as he was asking himself these question questions his predecessor had put the company on a firm financial and operational footing updating marketing and advertising the look and feel of the stores and the accounting procedures when we got into the wig discussion some of his reports thought this emphasis needed to continue others wanted more emphasis on hiring more disabled workers still others argued that their top wig should be growth the range of choices was bad Ling to help the team find Common Ground the new leader asked everyone to ponder the mission of the organization to promote self-reliance among the disabled and displaced with the company in a solid financial and operational position could it be that the area where they now wanted the greatest results might be more directly related to their mission gradually a wig emerged from this experience one they had not even considered before helped disabled workers find jobs out outside our organization that can sustain them while they couldn't hire every disabled person in their region they had the operational capacity to train thousands in the retail business and find better jobs for them so that they could escape from dependency the organization's new measure of success increasing the number of disabled people placed in sustainable jobs this wig transformed the organization they helped thousands become self-reliant and find a new sense of self-worth while sustaining the day-to-day financial and operational results that made their mission possible focusing the organization up to this point we've talked a lot about narrowing the focus as it relates to you and your team this in itself is a huge challenge narrowing the focus for an entire organization or even a large portion of an organization however is a much bigger challenge although we'll cover this in more detail on page 235 we want you to gain a high level understanding of the rules for applying discipline one organizationally before we move into discipline too rule number one no team focuses on more than two wigs at the same time this rule acts like a governor on an engine when you are deeply into the four disciplines of execution there may be dozens or even hundreds of wigs across the entire organization but the key is not to overload any single leader team team or individual performer remember they are all dealing with the incessant demands of the Whirlwind keep this rule in mind as you consider the remaining three rules if you violate this one you will have lost your focus as an organization rule number two the battles you choose must win the war whether it's a military conflict or the war on Hunger cancer or poverty there's a relationship between battles and Wars the only reason you fight a battle is to win the war the sole purpose of wigs at lower levels in the organization is to help achieve the wigs at higher levels it isn't enough that the lower level wigs support or align with the higher wigs the lower level wigs must ensure the success of the higher wigs for example a provider of Internet Financial Services we worked with knew they had to increase revenues from $160 million to $200 million by fiscal year end in order to fulfill the expectations of their investors a new outside sales team committed to provide $8 million of new Revenue in the major account division committed to the other $32 million what about the other major division the technology team what role did they play in this Revenue wig did they have any role at all at first they felt left out of the wig after some careful research they they determined that the most impactful lower level wig they could set for themselves would be to improve their record for continuous uninterrupted service this was a major Criterion new customers would use to choose a provider perhaps the most important criterian as it turned out this group had to fight the key battle in achieving the wig which in turn cleared the path for the other divisions as well once the top level wi is chosen the next quite question is critical instead of asking what are all the things we could do to win this war a common mistake that results in a long to-do list ask what are the fewest number of battles necessary to win this war the answer to that question determines which and how many lower level wigs will be needed to achieve the top level wig as you begin to choose the battles to win the war you have begun to both clarify and simplify your strategy this process will be be covered in detail on page 94 rule number three senior leaders can veto but not dictate the highest levels of execution are never reached when the strategy is devised solely by the top leaders of the organization and simply handed down to the leaders and teams below without involvement you cannot create the high levels of commitment that execution requires while the senior leaders will undoubtedly determine the top level wig they must allow the leaders at each level below to define the wigs for their teams this not only leverages the knowledge of these leaders but also creates a greater sense of ownership and involvement simply put they become more engaged in a goal that they choose themselves and that supports a worthy organizational goal senior leaders then exercise their right to veto if the battles chosen are not going to win the war implementing discipline one enables an organization to quickly turn a broad strategy into clearly defined wigs at every level it is not solely a top-down process but neither is it exclusively bottomup through this process the senior Leader's choice of the overall wig brings Clarity top down and allowing the leaders and teams below to choose their wigs bottom up brings engagement in the process the entire organization mobilizes around the focus that matters most and takes ownership for driving the result rule number four all wigs must have a Finish Line in the form of from X to Y by when every Wiig at every level must contain a clearly measurable result as well as the date by which that result must be achieved for example a revenue Focus wig might be increased percent of annual revenue from new products from 15% to 21% by December 31st this from X to Y buy when form format recognizes where you are today where you want to go in the deadline for reaching that goal as deceptively simple as this formula may seem many leaders often struggle to translate their strategic Concepts into a single from X to Y by One Finish Line but once they've done it both they and the teams they lead have gained tremendous Clarity typically however goals lack this kind of clarity we constantly see goals like these that no one can achieve because there's no Finish Line no way of telling whether you completed the goal or not and where you stand at any given point from a major Global retail company improve inventory processing from a British publisher develop and strengthen new and existing client relationships from an Australian tourist Authority influence effective tourism Workforce Development in Queensland from a European investment firm successfully convert our portfolio to a life cycle strategy from a multinational Agra business company identify recruit and retain the best employees these goals lack the measurement that can tell the team when they've won the game improve inventory processing how much strengthen new client relationships how do we measure stronger successfully convert a portfolio to a life cycle strategy how will we know if we've done that effective lag measures look like this improve inventory processing by increasing perear inventory turns from 8 to 10 by December 31st raise our client relationship score from 40 to 70 on the Loyalty scale within 2 years move 40% of our customers from fixed categories to life cycle categories of Investments within 5 years launch the new CRM solution at an 85% quality beta rating by the end of our f school year if a goal is wildly important surely you should be able to tell if you've achieved it or not the formula from X to Y by when makes that possible in setting a Finish Line we often hear the question over what period of time should the achievement of a wi be spread our answer is it depends since teens and organizations often think and measure themselves in terms of a calendar or a fiscal year a one year time frame makes a good starting point for a wig that said remember that a wig is not a strategy a wig is a tactical goal with a limited time frame we've seen some wigs that take 2 years and some that takes 6 months the length of a project-based wig such as complete the new website within budget by July first will usually correspond with the time frame of the project itself use your own judgment just remember that a wig should be within a time frame that balances the need to create a compelling Vision with the need to create an achievable goal shooting for the moon in 1958 the fledgling National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA had many very important goals like this one the expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space it sounded like many of the goals you hear in business today because world class or lead the industry although the leaders at Nasa had ways to measure various aspects of this goal they lacked the clarity of a defined Finish Line they also lacked the results that the Soviet Union was producing but in 1961 President John F Kennedy shook NASA to its foundations when he made the pronouncement land a man on the moon and return him safely to the Earth before this decade is out suddenly NASA had a formidable new challenge the war would fight for the next 10 years and it was stated in exactly the way wigs should be stated X is Earthbound Y is to the moon and back and when is by December 31st 1969 just a glance at this table 9 shows the difference between conventional organizational goals and a true wig NASA's goals in 1958 one the expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space two the impr Improvement of the usefulness performance speed safety and efficiency of aeronautical and space Vehicles three the development and operation of vehicles capable of carrying instruments equipment supplies and living organisms through space four the establishment of long- range studies of the potential benefits to be gained from the opportunities for and the problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical and space activities for peaceful and scientific purposes five the preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space science and technology and in the application thereof to the conduct of peaceful activities within and outside the atmosphere six the making available to agencies directly concerned with national defensive discoveries that have military value or significance and the Furnishing by such agencies to the civilian agency established to direct and control non-military aeronautical and base activities of information as to discoveries which have value or significance to that agency seven cooperation by the United States with other nations and groups of nations in work done pursuant to this act and in the peaceful application of the results thereof eight the most effective utilization of the scientific and engineering resources of the United States with close cooperation among all interested agencies of the United States with close cooperation among all interested agencies of the United States in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort facilities and Equipment NASA's goals as of 1961 I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of Landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth John F Kennedy consider the 1958 goals are they clear and measurable how many are there is there a Finish Line for any of them so what kind of results were these objectives driving for NASA Russia went into space first with satellites and cosmonauts while the United States was still blowing up rockets on launchpads contrast the 1958 goals with the 1961 goal one clear measurable wig now with its reputation at stake on the world stage NASA had to determine the few key battles that would win that war in the end three critical battles were chosen navigation propulsion and life support navigation posed the formidable challenge of moving a spacecraft through space at 18 M pers second to a precise location on the moon which was also moving rapidly in its elliptical orbit around Earth propulsion was no less of a challenge because a rocket heavy enough to carry a lunar module had never yet achieved a velocity sufficient to break free of Earth's gravitational pole life support was the most critical of all because it required developing a capsule and Landing module that would keep astronauts alive both for the journey to and from the Moon and while they explored the moon's surface President Kennedy's speech also included another key aspect of discipline 1 saying no to good ideas when he acknowledged that were many other worthy objectives that the country would not pursue in order to achieve this goal but as he asked why some say the moon why choose this as our goal that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept one we are unwilling to postpone and one which we intend to win 10 in this way he narrowed the focus of NASA to a Finish Line whose achievement became one of the most important ventures in human history what do you think happened to accountability within NASA when the challenge of putting a man on the moon was publicly announced it went through the roof this is particularly clear when you remember that the spacecraft they would use had only a tiny fraction of the computing power of the smartphone in your pocket even worse the engineers and scientists still had no operational technology for winning the three necessary battles looking back you might say human beings had no business being on the moon in 1969 now consider a different question when accountability soared what happened to morale and engagement it too went through the roof most leaders find this surprising we tend to think that when accountability is at its highest the pressure makes morale go down the reality is the opposite narrowing your focus increases both accountability and the engagement of your team when a team moves from having a dozen we really hope goals to one or two no matter what goals the effect on morale is dramatic I it's as though a switch exists in every team member's head called game on if you can throw that switch you have laid the foundation for Extraordinary execution when President Kennedy said to the moon and back by the end of the decade he threw that switch can you remember what it's like to be part of a team when the game on switch is activated it's a remarkable experience even though you still have to deal with the Whirlwind and its Myriad demands you also have a Finish Line something clear and important at which you can win even more meaningful it's something whereby every member of the team can see that their contribution makes a difference everyone wants to feel that they are winning and that they are contributing to something meaningful and when times are tough they want it even more when we started on this journey years ago we did not intend to focus on defining or even refining strategy however we quickly learned that the line separating strategy and execution is blurry applying this first discipline will sharpen your strategy more than you think it will but what it will really do is make your strategy executable think of it this way above your head is a thought bubble and inside that bubble are all the various aspects of your strategy including opportunities you wish you were pursuing new ideas and Concepts problems you know you need to fix and a lot of what's in house to get it all done your bubble is complicated and chaotic it's also completely different from the bubbles above every other leader this is why discipline one requires you to translate your strategy from Concepts to targets from a vague strategic intent to a set of specific Finish Lines the four rules for implementing discipline one outlined above give an entire organization a framework for doing this successfully for more examples and process steps see sections 2 and and three finally remember that the four rules of focus are on forgiving at some point you will want to cheat on them even just a little we know we often want to do the same inside our organization however what we've learned is that the rules governing Focus are like the rules governing gravity they aren't concerned with what you think or with the details of your particular situation they simply yield predictable consequences when you think about it the principle of focusing on the vital few goals is common sense it's just not common practice in one of isup's fables a young boy put his hand into a pot full of hazelnuts he grasped as many as he could possibly hold but when he tried to pull out his hand he found the neck of the pot was too narrow unwilling to lose his catch and yet unable to withdraw his hand he burst into tears and bitterly lamented his disappointment like the boy you might find it hard to let go of a lot of good goals until you start serving a greater goal as Steve Jobs often said I'm as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do 11 discipline one is about defining that greater goal and it is a discipline in section two of this book we'll give you more guidance about the exact process of defining an organizational wig discipline two act on the lead measures the second discipline is to apply disproportionate energy to the activities that drive your lead measures this provides the leverage for achieving the lag measures discipline two is the discipline of Leverage lead measures are the measures of the activities most connected to achieving the goal discipline one takes the wildly important goal for an organization and breaks it down into a set of specific measurable targets until every team has a wildly important goal that it can own discipline two then defines the leveraged actions that will enable the team to achieve that goal the illustration below shows the relationship between lag measures and Lead measures at the team level while a lag measure tells you if you've achieved the goal a lead measure tells you if you are likely to achieve the goal while a lag measure is hard to do anything about a lead measure is virtually within your control for example while you can't control how often your car breaks down on the road a lag measure you can certainly control how often your car receives routine maintenance a lead measure and the more you act on a lead measure the more likely you are to avoid that roadside breakdown once you have defined your wildly important goal it would seem natural even intuitive to then create a detailed plan listing all of the specific tasks and subtasks required for achieving the goal in the coming months but with discipline too that's not what you are going to do long-term plans created by most organizations are often too rigid they lack the ability to adapt to the constantly changing needs and environment of the business not surprisingly they also end up on your shelf collecting dust after only a few months with discipline 2 you do something quite different from that discipline 2 requires you to define the daily or weekly measures the achievement of which will lead to the goal then each day or week your team identif identifies the most important actions that will drive those lead measures in this way your team is creating a just in time plan that enables them to quickly adapt while remaining focused on the wig conventional thinking keep your eye on the lag measures the quarterly results the sales numbers pounds lost stress out bite your nails while you wait for DX principle focus on moving the lead measures these are the high leverage actions you take to get the lag measures to move lag versus lead measures let's drill down into the distinction between lag and Lead measures a lag measure is the measurement of a result you are trying to achieve we call them lag measures Because by the time you get the data the result has already happened they are always lagging the formula from X to Y by one in a Wiig gives us a lag measure but wigs are not the only lag measures in your world the Whirlwind is full of lag measures such as Revenue accounts payable inventory numbers hospitalization rates asset utilization and so forth lead measures are different they foretell the result they have two primary characteristics first a lead measure is predictive meaning that if the lead measure changes you can predict that the lag measure also will change second a lead measure is influenceable it can be directly influenced by the team that is the team can make a lead measure happen without a significant dependence on another team in discipline to you create lead measures the movement of which will become the driving force for achieving the wig in the months ahead your team will invest consistent energy toward moving these lead measures and as we have seen with hundreds of teams this investment will be the key to their success we strongly believe that understanding lead measures will be one of the most important insights you take from this book Let's explore the two characteristics of a good lead measure further by first assuming you have a wig to increase corn production from 200 tons to 300 tons by September 1st the X to Y of corn tonage is your lag measure you know that rainfall is an important factor in corn production so rainfall can be predictive of the Corn Harvest but is it a good lead measure no because you can't influence the weather to produce the right amount of rain rainfall is predictive but it isn't influenceable rainfall fails the test because both characteristics are equally important other measures such as soil quality or fertilization rates however easily meet the test now take another illustration with which many people are intimately familiar a wig of achieving weight loss obviously the lag measure will be your weight as reflected by the bathroom scale if you format this wig correctly you might Define it as decreased total body weight from 190 lb to 175 lbs by May 30th from X to Y by when this is a good start but what are the lead measures that will be predictive of achieving the goal and equally important that you can influence you would likely choose both both diet and exercise and of course you'd be right these two measures fulfill the first characteristic of being predictive reducing calories consumed and increasing calories burn strongly indicates that you'll lose weight just as important however these two lead measures are also directly influenceable by you achieve these two lead measures at the level specified outside your daily Whirlwind and you will see your lag measure moving when you step on the bathroom scale lead measures can be counterintuitive there's a problem with lead measures where do leaders normally fixate on lead measures or on lag measures that's right as a leader you've likely spent your entire career focusing on lag measures even though you can't directly affect them and you're not alone think about your last meeting with the other leaders in your organization what were you discussing analyzing planning and agonizing about lag measures and usually your inability to move them for example it's easy for school teachers to measure the reading levels of students with a standardized test often they obsess over these lag measures however it's harder to come up with lead measures that predict how students will do on the test the school might hire Tutors or Reserve more time for uninterrupted reading in any case the school is likely to do better if it tracks data on time spent reading or in tutoring lead measures rather than hope and pray that the reading scores lag measures will rise of their own accord we see this syndrome every day all over the world and in every area of Life the sales leader fixates on total sales the service leader fixates on customer satisfaction parents fixate on their children's grades and dieters fixate on the scale and in virtually every case fixating solely on the lag measures fails to drive results there are two reasons almost all leaders do this first lag measures are the measures of success they are the results you have to achieve second data on lag measures is almost always much easier to obtain and more visible than data on lead measures it's easy to step on a scale and know exactly how much you weigh but how easy is it to find out how many calories you've eaten today or how many you've burned that data is often hard to get and it can take real discipline to keep getting it here's a warning right about now you might be tempted to oversimplify what we're saying if you're thinking something like so all you're saying is that if you want to lose weight you should diet and exercise what's revolutionary about that then you've missed the point of discipline too there's a huge difference between merely understanding the importance of diet and exercise and measuring how many calories you've eaten and how many you've burned everyone knows you should diet and exercise but the people who actually measure how many calories they've eaten and how many they've burned each day are the ones actually losing weight in the end it's the data on lead measures that makes the difference that enables you to close the gap between what you know your team should do and what they are actually doing without lead measures you are left to try to manage to the lag measures and an approach that seldom produces significant results W Edwards Deming the management and quality Guru said it best when he told Executives that managing a company by looking at financial data lag measures is the equivalent of driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror 12 lead measures also eliminate the element of surprise that a sole focus on lag measures can bring imagine this scenario you and your team have been working hard on a goal to improve customer satisfaction it's your most important measure and the one on which your bonus is based and the new customer satisfaction scores have just arrived in your inbox as one of our clients expressed it you are about to have one of two reactions oh cool or oh no but either way there is nothing you can do to change the results they are in the past that same client also pointed out if luck is playing a significant role in your career then you're fixing ating on lag measures we couldn't agree more now imagine instead that you are tracking the two most predictive lead measures of customer satisfaction and for the past 3 weeks your team has performed well above the standard on those measures do you think your experience will change when the new customer satisfaction results arrive absolutely it will be like stepping on the scale knowing that you have met your diet and exercise measures every day you already know that the lag measure will change defining lead measures increase annual Water Production from 175 million L to 185 million L by December 31st that was the wi for the water bottling plan of a large beverage company when we began working with the senior executive in charge of the supply chain to implement Ford DX the plan had been struggling to meet its targeted Water Production levels for several years and the leaders were anxious to identify the lead measures that would drive Water Production to new levels we began by asking them to discuss what they thought a good lead measure for increasing annual Water Production would be monthly Water Production they quickly answered sorry we said that won't work they seemed confused why not asked the plant manager if we hit our monthly Water Production targets then we'll hit our annual produ uction right you're absolutely right that monthly Water Production is predictive of annual Water Production we replied but monthly production isn't any more influenceable by your teams than annual production all you're doing is identifying a different lag measure that you can get more frequently than annual production it is still a lag this dialogue is very common when teams first determine lead measures and unfortunately the leaders at the water plant still weren't quite getting it to help we asked them what their lead measure would be for monthly Water Production daily Water Production they responded we knew that we weren't getting through the discussion grew more animated until the production manager finally demanded everyone's attention I've got it he said with real excitement I know what our lead measures should be he walked to the front of the room and began to explain we're constantly running Shi without full cruise and we have way too much machine downtime those are the two main things that keep us from producing more water now we were getting somewhere everyone in the room agreed with his diagnosis they still didn't have usable lead measures they needed to translate full cruise and preventive maintenance into actual measures but they had captured the idea quickly they identified their first lead measure increased percentage of shifts with full cruise from 80% to 95% the second lead measure was even easier increased percentage of compliance to preventive maintenance schedules from 72% to 100% their strategic bet was that if the Plan ensured full cruise and a reduction in machine downtime it would achieve a significant increase in Water Production over the next few months the teams put a disproportionate amount of effort into those two lead measures above their day-to-day whirlwind not only did their Water Production increase it grew at a rate far greater than expected this is a good illustration of the process for defining lead measures but it also helps to make an important Point our consultant on the project lauded the plants results but then asked an important question why weren't you already doing those two things his point was that their lead measures didn't come from Franklin cvy the leaders at the plant already knew the importance of running shift with full cruise and compliance to preventive maintenance standards but despite knowing it they weren't doing it why as with most teams their problem was not that they didn't know it was a matter of focus they didn't do there were dozens of things that needed Improvement and focus not just crew Staffing and preventive maintenance and by trying to improve everything they remain trapped in their Whirlwind they spent every day spreading their energy across so many of priorities and trying to move all the dials at once that in the end nothing moved as in the illustration we offered earlier it was like trying to make holes in a piece of paper by applying even pressure on all your fingers obviously this problem is not unique to the leaders in this plant if we followed you around for a few days we would likely observe two predominant activities one you would spend most of your time battling your Whirlwind and two a lot of your remaining time time would be spent worrying over your lag measures the problem with these two activities is that they consume enormous energy and produce little if any leverage Beyond sustaining your Whirlwind and it's leverage that you need most the key principle behind lead measures is simply this leverage think of it this way achieving your wildly important goal is like trying to move a giant rock but despite all the energy your team exerts it doesn't move it's not not a question of effort if it were you and your team would already have moved it the problem is that effort alone isn't enough lead measures act like a lever making it possible to move that rock now consider the two primary characteristics of a lever first unlike the rock the lever is something we can move it's influenceable second when the lever moves the rock moves it's predictive how do you choose the right levers to achieve a goal you've never achieved before you must do things you've never done before look around you who else has achieved this goal or something like it what did they do differently analyze carefully any barriers you foresee and decide together how to overcome them use your imagination What haven't you thought of that might make all the difference then select the activities you believe will have the greatest impact on achieving the wig the 8020 activities what 20% of what you do has as much or more leverage on the wig than 80% of what you do in the words of consultant and entrepreneur Richard KO in business the massive activity will always be pointless poorly conceived badly directed wastefully executed and largely beside the point a small portion of activity will always be terrifically effective it is probably not what you think it is it is opaque and buried within a basket of less effective activity 13 finding the right lever among many possibilities is perhaps the toughest and most intriguing challenge for leaders trying to execute a wig a distinguished high-end department store at the prestigious fips Plaza mall near Atlanta was under heavy pressure from new competitors Discounters as well as two major national chain stores that had recently moved into the area revenues were down 8% from the previous year what to do to stop the bleeding adopting Ford DX the store managers announced only one wig for the year which was to match Revenue numbers from the year before through increasing average transaction rates the amount purchased in any given transaction all 11 departments came up with supporting wigs but they hadn't yet found lead measures with sufficient leverage to drive achievement of their overall wig it just wasn't Happ happening the pressure to achieve the year-over-year lag measure was so strong managers were screaming at everyone sell more sell more all of their energy was poured into raising transaction averages a lag measure with no specific idea of what to do differently we worked late one night with the manager of the shoe department which seemed to be doing better than the other departments we drilled down looking for the right levers tell us about your people how do they sell Ben he told us about his best salesperson a woman who sold three times more shoes than the average we asked what does she do differently the manager knew immediately what she did differently she would get lost in the customers's world notice what they were wearing ask about their families and understand their needs then she would bring out six pairs of shoes instead of one pair to show the customer she would say oh it's spring how about this open toad pair I noticed your Gucci bag will go really well with those sandals you like those red shoes how about these also instead of asking customers if they wanted to set up a charge account and getting a refusal she would simply ring up the sale and say and you're getting 10% off that purchase by setting up a charge account with us today all you need to do is sign here the lights went on for us how many of your people do these things How many pairs of shoes do your people show in a day I have no idea how would our systems monitor that well they can't but that doesn't mean it can't be measured so they set an experimental standard in the shoe department each associate would do three things consistently one show at least four pairs of shoes to every customer two write thank you notes and three invite every customer to set up a charge account so how can I tell if they're doing these things the manager asked you won't your people will track themselves behind the cashier's desk they set up a simple spreadsheet with three columns each time A salesperson did these three things with a customer he or she would check off a column how do I know it's accurate the manager asked what if they lie we bet he could trust them besides a fraud would surface eventually transaction averages were tracked for every employee when the lead measures started moving the lag measure they would be able to see the correlation the result the sales team became maniacally focused on the three lead measures and these levers worked it was exciting when the lag measures started to move up it turned out there was a direct correlation between the leads and the achievement of the lag measure they installed these measures across all the departments in the store and by year end they had not only achieved their wig of matching the previous year's revenues they surpassed it by 2% that was a 10-point Improvement in 3 months for the store managers the doorway of understanding opened none of the lead measures were news to them suggestive selling is just Retail 101 but they didn't know if their team members were actually doing it we knew they could measure that behavior we have learned that the lead measures are usually already there in the business but no one is tracking them management was swimming in data but not focusing on the data that would really make a difference the key is to isolate and consistently track the right levers finally instead of hounding the staff to do better managers could manage to the data they could see if Jane was showing 100 or 300 pairs of shoes per day they could track the number of charge accounts each salesperson set up they became teachers watching people demonstrating how to do suggestive selling and sharing best practices their energy went up and their results followed they will never manage the same way again of course at times it may take some intense effort to identify the lead measures with the most leverage an intriguing example comes from the amazing turnaround of the Oakland Athletic in the 1990s one of the poorest teams in Major League Baseball the team played in a dilapidated Stadium attendance was low and signing great players seemed more and more Out Of Reach no way could they bid successfully for players against wealthy teams like the New York Yankees who could dip into a budget five times that of Oakland caught between Financial pressure from the owners and the fans outcry for better more expensive baseball players general manager Sandy alderson's wig was to save the team and to achieve that he had to fill the stadium but how he knew that people come to watch baseball for many reasons some want to see Star players some enjoy the atmosphere of the ballpark and some just want a night out but people always come to see a winning team it's winning that matters most so he began to ask himself what really produces wins in baseball no one had asked this question seriously before most people assumed that great players were essential to a winning team if you had Stars you'd win but Alderson thought Suppose there were more to it he and his assistant manager Billy Bean brought together the best thinkers they could find on the subject what produces WIS the answer of course is the highest number of runs but what exactly contributes to runs what are the lead measures that create a r that's how statisticians and computer scientists got into the picture their hard research began to serve up factors that had always been there but that no one had ever noticed before they discovered that the mighty Sluggers who hit home runs were often not all that productive the most productive players were the ones who could just get on base if they could get to one base and then another and then another they could score runs much more reliably than the power hitters everyone Valu valued so much and who commanded astronomical salaries as in the old Fable the tortoises turned out to provide much more leverage than the hairs after Alderson left Billy Bean became the new manager he did the unthinkable going on a binge of recruiting nobodies the players he hired were some of the most awkward and unvalued Prospects and he paid relatively little for them Oakland became a laughing stock what was Bean thinking then a sort of magic developed on the field unaccountably Oakland started winning games again the poorest team in the league at least financially won the division title the next year they did it again soon they were locked in battle with the mighty wealthy Yankees for the pennant although they didn't quite make it Oakland astonished everyone in baseball by regularly beating teams much more gifted in terms of money and talent stirred by Victory the fans returned and little Oakland with its dingy Stadium consistently finished near the top of the standings year after year for a decade the Oakland A maintained the fifth best record in Major League Baseball while ranking 24th of the 30 major league teams in player salaries instead of falling to the bottom where they belonged they rarely stood lower than first or second in their division what Billy Bean did was to track the onbase record of players across the league and then recruit from those who were very good at getting on base these players were usually not flashy not the bigname athletes and didn't pull down big money but they were Dependable workhorses who could be relied on to get on base getting on base was the best predictor of producing runs and in baseball runs are the name of the game the Oakland management team reframed the game by acting on the lead measures that produce wins through hard research sifting through endless statistics to get at the key factors that produced runs they discovered High leverage lead measures no one had noticed before 14 this exciting turnaround story was eventually chronicled in a popular film Moneyball in section two we'll give you more guidance on how to arrive at effective lead measures drawn from the lessons our clients have learned over the years we've seen thousands of leaders learn that an important key to EXE ution is putting disproportionate energy against the verage points by focusing on moving lead measures if you have a big rock to move you're going to need a lever that is highly predictive and controllable the bigger the rock the more leverage you will need tracking lead measure data younger brothers construction is a residential construction company in Arizona that had a big problem a rising rate of accidents and injuries not only did each in incident mean that a member of their crew was hurt it also meant a delay in the completion of a tightly scheduled construction project increased insurance rates and potentially the loss of their safety rating reducing safety incidents had become the company's most important Focus so it wasn't difficult for them to arrive at their wildly important goal to reduce safety incidents from 7% to 1% by December 31st once the Wiig was established they had to determine the lead measures that were both predictive of fewer accidents and influenceable by the team the first idea they considered was to conduct more intensive safety training it was highly influenceable as they could simply make everyone go to more training the leaders ultimately rejected that idea however since their people had already undergone significant amounts of training that had allowed them to achieve their current levels of safety they decided that additional hours of training would wouldn't be sufficiently predictive of achieving their new goal the leaders at younger brothers then looked more carefully at the primary causes of accidents plaguing the company and developed a different idea for their lead measure compliance to safety standards they decided to measure compliance via six safety standards wearing hard hats gloves boots and eyewear as well as using scaolds and roof braces to keep workers from sliding off the roof they were certain that infor forcing these six standards at high levels of compliance would be both predictive and influenceable in reducing accidents within one year of focusing on the lead measure of compliance to safety standards younger brothers construction achieved the best safety record in the 30-year history of the company but it wasn't easy one of the most challenging aspects of their lead measure was simply getting the data the lag measure data of accidents and injuries came automatically from the company system system each week the lead measure compliance to safety standards had to be physically observed this meant that construction supervisors had to move among the various Crews to check whether the people were wearing their hard hats gloves and safety glasses and that scaffolds and roof braces were firmly in place moreover they had to do this despite a NeverEnding stream of distractions subcontractor issues late shipments customer concerns and weather delays in the middle of that Whirlwind checking for safety compliance might not seem wildly important to a construction Foreman however because reducing safety incidents was the wildly important goal and because safety compliance was the primary leverage point for achieving it they made it happen week after week the lesson in this story is that lead measure data is almost always more difficult to acquire than lag measure data but you must pay the price to track your lead measures we often see teams struggle with this zeroing in on a high leverage lead measure only to say wow getting that data is going to take real work we're too busy to do that if you're serious about your wig then you must create a way to track your lead measures without data you can't drive performance on the lead measures without lead measures you don't have leverage and when the wig is truly wildly important you've got to have that Leverage the wig for every Airline flight is a safe landing flying today is actually remarkably safe but that wasn't always true in the 1930s many serious airplane crashes were caused by Pilot error in 1935 major Pete Hill a very experienced test pilot with the US Army crashed one of the biggest airplanes ever built because he forgot to make sure the tail elevators were unlocked before taking off as a result Pilots got together and adopted a clear set of lead measures called a pre-flight checklist 15 after that there were far fewer crashes due to Pilot error today the pre-flight checklist is the greatest predictor of arriving safely the pre-flight checklist is a perfect example of what we mean by a high leverage activity going through the checklist takes a few minutes but can have enormous impact 100% compliance with the checklist is also an excellent example of a lead measure it is predictive of a safe landing and influenceable by the pilots once you and your team begin to develop lead measures in discipline 2 you'll gain an even greater appreciation for the work you did in narrowing your focus in discipline 1 driving the lead measures for a single wig is a challenging enough objective in the midst of your Whirlwind leaders who insist on more than two wigs in discipline one despite Our advice always change their minds once they begin to understand lead measures and discipline too lead measures and engagement once a team is clear about its lead measures their view of the goal changes let's take a look at what happened when Beth wood a grocery store manager set out to achieve a very challenging goal of increasing your- over-year sales Beth called and Bob her Bakery manager to get his support and improving their sagging year-over-year sales numbers Bob is a goodn manager and on a typical day he would likely have said sure Beth I'd be glad to help even if he didn't have a clue what he could do to drive more sales on this day however Bob had reached his limit and wasn't in the mood to just go along you want improve sales he said sarcastically knock yourself out Beth startled by Bob's response Beth came back quickly look Bob I can't do this alone you're closer to to the customers than I am and you're closer to your employees than I am now Bob was really frustrated what exactly would you like me to do it's not like I can hit people over the head and drag them into the store I run the bakery if you want a bagel I'm your guy if you didn't know Beth and Bob well you might think that Bob has a chronically bad attitude or doesn't respect Beth Or Worse is just lazy but none of these things are true Bob actually likes Beth and would also like to help the store improve sales but two things are holding him back one he doesn't know how and two he doesn't think he can at this moment what's really going through Bob's mind is were a 30-year-old store that just had a Walmart Super Center moving down the street we're also on the wrong side of the intersection and all the traffic has to make a left again in here if they can even see our sign and Beth wants me to improve store sales Bob continues if I knew how to improve sales don't you think I'd already be doing it I'm not holding out on you when you see Bob's perspective you can better understand his response to this frustrating situation Bob is representative of so many people they can see the rock all too well the problem is that they just don't see the lever now let's replay this same scenario but this time with Beth using a lead measure to drive her goal she calls her managers together and poses this question above sustaining our day-to-day operation what is the one thing your teams could do to improve year-over-year sales the most in effect she is asking them what influenceable outcome or behavior is the most predictive of moving the lag measure of sales but she's limiting it to a very narrow Focus they begin to discuss a lot of possibilities such as raising customer service improving conditions or giving away more free samples after a lot of back and forth they finally come to the agreement that the single biggest thing they can do to improve sales in their store is to reduce the number of outof stock items this lead measure of reducing out of stocks is highly predictive of better store sales this is well known in the retail World equally important out of stocks is a highly influenceable lead measure now Bob sees what he can do in the bakery to drive sales reducing out of stocks is something he and his team can really influence they can perform extra shelf reviews to check for items that are sold out they can organize their back room so that fast moving products are easier to restock or they can change the frequency and volume of reordering in other words it's a game he and his team can win and now he's engaged when a team defines its lead measures they are making a strategic bet in a sense they are saying we're betting that by driving these lead measures we are going to achieve our wildly important goal they believe that the lever is going to move the Rock and because of that belief they engage disciplines three and four are designed to help the team put energy into moving the lead measures however the real impact and beauty of good lead measures and discipline too is that they truly connect your team to the achievement of the wig and ultimately it's the front line of an organization that creates the bottom line result you're after coming up with the right lead measures is really about helping everyone see themselves as strategic business partners and engaging them in dialogue about what can be done better or differently in order to achieve the wigs a good example is the advertising Department of the Savannah Morning News a venerable newspaper in the American South when we met with them their wig was to close a serious Revenue Gap they had fallen into the Trap of trying to focus on everything at once including pushing new products daily insert specials and other add-ons in an attempt to incrementally move the revenue number their focus was spread across so many initiatives that they had taken their eye off of their main product so they began with discipline one setting a wildly important goal to increase advertising Revenue by refocusing on their core product everything changed when they started practicing discipline 2 act on the lead measures everybody on the team was involved in the dialogue after thinking through ways to increase advertising dollars they agreed together on three key actions to increase their number of contacts with new customers potential advertisers who had not done business with the newspaper to reactivate customers who hadn't advertised with the paper for 6 months or more and to upsell to their existing clients finding ways to add value to the message maybe adding color to an ad giving it better placement or increasing the size of an ad in practice the plan broke down into simple lead measures in the weekly wig sessions people committed to hit a certain number of new customer contacts reactivation calls and upsell offers the next week they reported the results individual salespeople were not only managing their own business more effectively but also regularly communicating to each other best practices refinements to approaches and ways of overcoming barriers the advertising director said I've been in this business for 20 years and I've spent my entire career basically praying over lag measures and putting out fires for the first time she felt able to help her people achieve their goals in tangible ways the newspaper closed their revenue Gap and shot past their goals for the year acting consistently on a right lead measures made it all possible based on her success Morris Communications the parent company of the Savannah Morning News went on to implement Ford DX with their 40 other newspapers we'll talk more about selecting the right lead measures in section two discipline three keep a compelling scoreboard the third discipline is to make sure everyone knows the score at all times so that they can tell whether or not they are winning this is the discipline of Engagement remember people play differently when they are keeping score the difference in performance between a team that simply understands their lead and lag measures as a concept and a team that actually knows their score is remarkable if the lead and lag measures are not captured on a visual scoreboard and updated regularly they will disappear into the distraction of the Whirlwind simply put people disengage when they don't know the score when they can see at a glance whether or not they are winning they become profoundly engaged in discipline 3 the Strategic bet for your team their lead and lag measures are translated into a visible compelling scoreboard several years ago we were working with a group of leaders at northr Grumman to apply Ford DX to the design and building of Coast Guard Cutters our project began only a few months after Hurricane Katrina had significantly damaged their facility and as we were introducing discipline 3 they offered an example that perfectly Illustrated the importance of having a compelling Scoreboard on the previous Friday night the local high school team had played an important football game as expected the stands were full and there was the usual excitement leading up to the kickoff but as the game progressed something was missing no one was cheering in fact no one seemed to be paying attention to the game at all the only only sound from the stands was the dull hum of conversation what was happening the scoreboard had blown down during the hurricane and had not yet been repaired the fans couldn't see any numbers no one could tell you what the score was what down it was or even how much time was left there was a game going on but it was like no one even knew this story really caught our attention have you ever wanted to shout in frustration to your team don't you get it there's a game going on here and it really matters if you have it's likely your team is missing the same critical element that affected the fans at the game a clear and compelling scoreboard great teams know at every moment whether or not they are winning they must know otherwise they don't know what they have to do to win the game a compelling scoreboard tells the team where they are and where they should be information essential to team problem solving and decision making that's why a great team can't function without a scoreboard that compels action without it energy dissipates intensity lags and the team goes back to business as usual we need to be very clear here visually displaying data is not new to you or your team in fact you may be thinking that you already have a scoreboard or even lots of scoreboards all captured in complex spreadsheets inside your computer and the data just keeps coming in most of this data is in the form of lag measures accompanied by historical Trends forward projections and detailed financial analysis the data is important and it serves a purpose for you as the leader your spreadsheets are what we would call a coach's scoreboard but what we're after in discipline 3 is something quite different in implementing discipline 3 you and your team need to build a Player scoreboard one that's designed solely to engage the players on your team to win conventional thinking scoreboards are for leaders they are coaches scoreboards that consist of complex spreadsheets with thousands of numbers the big picture is in there somewhere but few if anyone can easily see it for DX principal the scoreboard is for the whole team to drive execution you need a Player scoreboard that has a few simple graphs on it indicating here's where we need to be and here's where we are right now in 5 seconds or less anyone can determine whether we are winning or losing to understand the impact of this kind of scoreboard imagine that you are at a park where a group of teenagers is playing basketball you're not close enough to hear them but you can see them can you tell just by watching if they are keeping score you can and the indicators are obvious first you'll see a level of intensity in their play that you wouldn't see if they weren't keeping score you'll also see teamwork better shot selection aggressive defense and celebration each time they make a basket these are the behaviors of a fully engaged team and they only play at this level when the game matters in other words when it matters enough that they are keeping score if your scoreboard includes complicated data that only you the leader understand it represents a Leader's game but for maximum engagement and performance you need a Player scoreboard that makes it the team's game Jim Stewart one of The Originators of 4dx said at best the fundamental purpose of a player's scoreboard is to motivate the players to win we began this chapter with a critically important statement people play differently when they are keeping score now we need to shift the emphasis to be even clearer people play differently when they are keeping score this creates a very different feeling than when you keep score for them when team members themselves are keeping score they truly understand the connection between their performance and reaching their goal and this changes the level at which they play when everyone on the team can see the score the level of play Rises not only because they can see what's working and what adjustments are needed but also because they now want to win you see here the contrast between a coach's scoreboard and a Player scoreboard a coach's scoreboard is complex and data rich but it requires careful study to figure out if the team is winning in this Player scoreboard the goal represented by the black line is to increase Revenue The Gray Line is actual performance at any moment team members can see if they are winning the Player scoreboard is essential to motivating the players to win characteristics of a compelling Player scoreboard there are four questions we always ask when determining if a SC scoreboard is likely to be compelling to the players one is it simple it has to be simple think about the scoreboard in a football game usually only six distinct pieces of data are displayed score time quarter down and distance and timeouts now think about how many pieces of data the coach is tracking on the sideline yards per carry completion percentage third down conversions past distribution ution and even hang time and yardage for punts the list goes on forever coaches need this data to manage the game but the scoreboard on the field shows only the data needed to play the game two can I see it easily it has to be visible to the team the scoreboard at a football game is huge and the numbers gigantic so everyone can tell at a glance who's winning if your scoreboard sits on your computer or hangs on the back of your office door it's out of sight out of mind for the team remember that you are always competing with the Whirlwind and it's a tough adversary without a visible scoreboard the Wiig and Lead measures could be forgotten in a matter of weeks if not days in the constant urgency of your day-to-day responsibilities visibility also drives accountability the results become personally important to the team when the scoreboard is displayed where it can be seen by everyone we've observed this again and again we've seen a union shift at a giant juice bottling plant in Michigan choose to skip their lunch break in order to increase the number of full truckloads they delivered so they could move the scoreboard why so they can move past other shifts on the scoreboard in another instance we observed The Night Shift come to work at midnight and saw that the first thing they looked at was the scoreboard to see how their team was doing compared to the day shift if your team is geographically dispersed the scoreboard should be visible on your desktop computer or mobile phone for more on electronic scoreboards see automating 4dx three does it show lead and lag measures it should show both the lead and lag measures this really helps a scoreboard come to life the lead measure is what the team can affect the lag measure is the result they want the team needs to see both or they will quickly lose interest when they can see both the lead and lag they can watch the BET play out they can see what they are doing the lead and what they are getting the lag once the team sees that the lag measure is moving because of the efforts they have made on the leads it has a dramatic effect on engagement because they know they are having a direct impact on the results four can I tell at a glance if I'm winning it has to tell you immediately if you are winning or losing if the team can't quickly determine if they are winning or losing by looking at the scoreboard then it's not a game it's just data check your next report graph scorecard or scoreboard before you dismiss this as obvious glance at the spreadsheets that show the weekly financial data can you instantly tell if you are winning or losing could other people tell we call it the 5-second rule if you can't tell within 5 Seconds whether you're winning or losing you haven't passed this test this simple illustration comes from one of our clients an events management company responsible for booking trade shows for outdoor retailers the wig was to book a certain number of exhibitors by a certain date in a scoreboard on the left you can see the status of the team's progress to date but you have no idea if they are winning or losing winning or losing requires you to know two things where you are now and where you should be now the difference in the scoreboard on the right is the addition of where the team should be illustrated by the goat because so many of their customers were mountain climbers they used a mountain goat to represent the performance needed each week to achieve their goal now you can easily see that they are losing and several other important aspects of the team's performance are also immediately apparent you know how long they have been losing 2 weeks you know that achieving the goal is getting harder not not easier you know that the performance of the team is starting to level off instead of climbing and you know that the team is closer to the end of the race than the beginning as basic as this may seem when we ask leaders in our programs to report this sort of data on the spot they will often say I think I can get most of that but I'll need a few minutes to pull it together keep in mind that these are capable leaders their problem is not the absence of data their problem is too much of it and little sense of what data is most important imagine if not only you but every member of your team understood the team's performance this clearly would it change the way they engaged in the game after implementing Ford DX and thousands of teams we can assure you that it will like disciplines 1 and two discipline 3 is not inuitive for most leaders you don't naturally create a player's scoreboard Your Instinct will be to create a coach's scoreboard a complex scoreboard with lots of data analysis and projections designed for the coaches not the players and you're not alone we seldom find even a single scoreboard in most organizations that meets the four criteria listed here link httpwww fordex book.com qr/ scoreboards in the end it isn't actually the scoreboard that's compelling although teams enjoy creating their own scoreboards what ultimately drives engagement is the game the scoreboard represents you'll never hear a sports fan saying did you see that game last night what an amazing scoreboard the scoreboard was absolutely necessary but it was the game that interested them one of the most demoralizing aspects of life in the Whirlwind is that you don't feel you can win if your team is operating exclusively in the Whirlwind they're giving everything they have just to sustain their day-to-day operation and survive they're not playing to win they're playing not to lose and the result is a big difference in performance but with 4 DX not only do you create a game for your team you create a winnable game and the secret to that game being winnable is the relationship between the lead and lag measures that plays out on the scoreboard every day in essence you and your team make a bet that you can move the lead measures and that those lead measures will move the lag measure when it starts to work even people who have shown little interest become very engaged as the entire team starts to see that they are winning often for the first time keep in mind that their engagement is not because the organization is winning or even that you as their leader are winning it's because they are winning some years ago we were invited to help a low performing plant run by a global manufacturing company to come up to the quality standards of the rest of the company the plant was old struggling with outdated technology and in a remote location for us it required all day flights and a long drive to the end of a Forest Road in Canada to reach the plant in 25 years this plant had never hit its targeted production number additionally they had massive quality issues in their work product particularly with the night shifts that employed the least experienced workers the quality score was in the low 7s while the rest of the company was in the high 80s it wasn't until the scoreboards went up at things changed radically they had been playing in the dark and the new scoreboards turned on the lights data is like light the best growth agent known when winners are given data that shows that they are losing they figure out a way to win with the lights on they can see what they need to do to improve a shift would come in at midnight compare their scoreboard with those of the shifts who had been working all day and get energized to go beyond whatever the previous shift had done this was a hockey playing culture for entertainment in this remote local there were two hockey ranks and not much else the workers knew they'd be playing hockey and drinking with the guys from the other shift on the weekends and they wanted to be the shift with bragging rights about higher scores as 4 DX leveraged the natural urge to compete the quality score soared from 74 to 94 from worst in the fleet to best and far above the industry standard and within a year this plant that had never hit its production number exceeded it by 4,000 metric tons adding at least $5 million to the bottom line the Player scoreboard is a powerful device for changing human behavior anywhere even deep in the woods in section two we'll give you guidance on exactly how to create and maintain a compelling score scoreboard the four disciplines and team engagement we'd like to be able to say that we understood the connection between the implementation of 4dx and team engagement all along but we didn't we learned it through experience as we began to implement for DX with teams around the world we saw significant increases in morale and engagement even though their wigs weren't about morale and engagement that outcome might not come as a surprise to you based on how we've described for DX so far but at the time it did to Us Franklin cvy had built a worldwide reputation for helping to increase the personal effectiveness of individuals and teams and with it their morale and engagement for DX was designed to occupy the other end of the Franklin cvy offering Continuum with an exclusive focus on business results however in our early implementations the increase in engagement that we observed as teams began to feel they were winning was not a subtle thing it was palpable in fact we would have to have been blind to miss it our implementations usually involved several days of intensive work with leaders and teams and these teams included their share of naysayers and resistors to our surprise we would return two months later and find that these initial resistors along with everyone else on the team were excited to show us what they were accomplishing many believe that engagement drives results and so do we however we know now and have witnessed consistently over the years that results Drive engagement this is particularly true when a team can see the direct impact their actions have on the results in our experience nothing affects morale and engagement more powerfully than when a person feels he or she is winning in many cases winning is a more powerful driver of Engagement than money benef benefits packages working conditions whether you have a best friend at work or even whether you like your boss all of which are typical measures of Engagement people will work for money and they will quit over money but many teams are filled with people who are both well paid and miserable in their jobs in 1968 author Frederick hurg published an article in the Harvard Business Review aptly titled one more time how do you motivate employees in it he emphas ex izes the powerful connection between results and engagement people are most satisfied with their jobs and therefore most motivated when those jobs give them the opportunity to experience achievement 43 years later in another Harvard Business review article the power of small wins authors Teresa amabel and Steven Kramer emphasize the importance of achievement to team members the power of progress is fundamental to human nature but few managers understand it or know how to Leverage progress to boost motivation 16 we have learned that scoreboards can be a powerful way to engage employees a motivating Player scoreboard not only drives results but uses the visible power of progress to instill the mindset of winning if you still have doubts about the impact of winning on team engagement think of a time in your own career when you were the most excited and engaged in what you were doing a time when you couldn't wait to get out of bed in the morning when you were consumed with what you were doing professionally now ask yourself this question at that time did I feel like I was winning if you were like the vast majority of people your answer will be yes for DX enables you to set up a winnable game discipline one Narrows your focus to a wildly important goal and establishes a clear finish line discipline 2 creates lead measures that give your team leverage to achieve the goal this is what makes it a game the team is making a bet on their lead measures but without discipline three without a compelling Player scoreboard Not only would the game be lost in the Whirlwind no one would care a winning team doesn't need artificial morale boosting all the psyching up and ra exercises companies do to raise morale aren't nearly as effective in engaging people as the satisfaction that comes from executing with Excellence a goal that really matters disciplines 1 2 and three are are powerful drivers of execution and yet they are really only the beginning of the story the first three disciplines set up the game but your team may still not be in the game as you are about to learn discipline four create a Cadence of accountability the fourth discipline is to create a Cadence of accountability a frequently recurring cycle of accounting for past performance and planning to move the score forward discipline 4 is where execution actually happens as we've said disciplines one 2 and three set up the game but until you apply discipline four your team isn't in the game this is the discipline that brings the team members all together and that is why it encompasses the other disciplines many leaders Define execution simply as the ability to set a goal and achieve it after years of teaching these principles we can tell you that this definition is insufficient but as discussed above what's difficult and rare is the ability to achieve a critical goal while living in the midst of a raging Whirlwind and it is even more difficult when achieving the goal requires changing the behaviors of a lot of people great teams operate with a high level of accountability without it team members go off in all directions with each doing what he she thinks is most important under this approach the Whirlwind soon takes over disciplines one two two and three bring Focus Clarity and engagement which are powerful and necessary elements for your success but with discipline 4 you and your team ensure that the goal is achieved no matter what is happening around you in most organizations accountability means the annual performance review hardly an engaging experience whether you are giving or receiving the review it can also mean being called on the carpet for something you failed to accomplish on the other hand in a 4dx organization accountability means making personal commitments to the entire team to move the scores forward and then following through in a disciplined way conventional thinking accountability on our team is always top down we meet with the boss periodically and he lets us no how we're doing and what we should focus on next for DX principle accountability on our team is shared we make commitments and Men we're accountable to our boss but more important to each other for following through the wig session in discipline 4 your team meets at least weekly in a w session this meeting which lasts no longer than 20 to 30 minutes has a set agenda and goes quickly establishing your weekly rhythm of accountability for driving progress toward the wig this discipline literally makes the difference between successful and failed execution in May 1996 noted author John kraar tried climbing Mt Everest with a group of pain climbers as they encountered obstacles such as blizzards 62 mph winds and high altitude sickness the group began to fall apart some of the more headstrong climbers decided to try for the summit themselves and struck out on their own team discipline was abandoned they all had the same goal but the loss of discipline and sense of accountability for each other in an extremely unforgiving environment turned out to be lethal the result eight people died 17 5 years later another group set out to climb in t Everest their goal was to help a blind climber Eric we Mayer reached the summit the team carefully planned the route just as kar's group had done a big difference however was that at the end of each day Wan mayor's group huddled together in what they called the tent meeting to talk over what they had accomplished and what they had learned which would help them to plan and make adjustments for the next day faster Climbers on the team cleared the path fixed ropes and then work their way back to meet Eric along the trail Eric said our team stuck together and took care of each other which gave me just enough courage to finish at one critical point it took 13 hours for their blind leader to cross the aluminum extension ladders that span the bottomless crevasses of the extremely dangerous KOMU icefall the team knew that on Summit day they would have to get across in 2 hours in nightly tent meetings a form of wig session they shared Lessons Learned and committed to the next day strategy it took days and days of practice and night after night of tent meetings the result on Summit day they actually passed s of teams as they worked to get the entire team to the other side of the icefall in record time this Cadence of accountability was the key to successful execution of the goal on May 25th 2001 Eric wein Mayer became the first blind person to stand on the summit of Mt Everest his team's other remarkable first the Great number of people from one team to reach the top of Everest in a single day 18 in All In the End Eric and almost everyone on his team reached the highest peak on the planet and returned safely 18 the focus of the wig session is simple to hold each other accountable for taking the actions that will move the lead measures resulting in the achievement of the Wiig despite the Whirlwind easy to say but hard to do to ensure sure that this focus is achieved every week two rules of wig sessions must absolutely be followed first the wig session should be held on the same day and at the same time every week sometimes even more often daily for instance but never less often than weekly this consistency is critical without it your team will never be able to establish a sustained rhythm of performance missing even a single week causes you to lose valuable momentum and this loss of momentum impacts your results this means that the wig session is sacred it takes place every week even if the leader can't attend and has to delegate the role of leading it it is truly amazing what you can accomplish by the simple discipline of meeting around a goal on a weekly basis over an extended period of time there is nothing quite like it frankly we're dumbfounded that this discipline isn't practiced more frequently we have asked hundreds of thousands of employees in various Industries around the globe to respond to the statement I meet at least monthly with my manager to discuss my progress on goals to our surprise only 34% can respond positively to this statement even when the review is only once each month let alone weekly the best practice of high performing teams it's no wonder that high accountability is absent in so many organizations what is so so special about holding a wig session each week you may ask we have found that for most organizational units the week embodies a perfect Slice of Life it is a short enough period of time to keep people focused and remain highly relevant but long enough to allow for commitments made in these meetings to actually get done in many operating environments weeks represent a natural rhythm of organizational life we think in weeks we talk in weeks they have beginnings and ends they are a staple of The Human Condition and make for a perfect Cadence of accountability second the Whirlwind is never allowed into a wig session no matter how urgent and issue may seem discussion in the wig session is limited solely to actions and results that move the scoreboard if you need to discuss other things hold a staff meeting after the wig session but keep the wig session separate this high level of focus makes the wig session not only fast but extremely effective at producing the results you want it also reaffirms the importance of the wig to every team member it sends a clear message that as it relates to achieving the wig no success in the Whirlwind can compensate for a failure to keep the commitments made in last week's wig session many of our client organizations s do exactly this they hold a wig session for 20 to 30 minutes and then hold a staff meeting right after during which they can discuss Whirlwind issues keeping your wig sessions to 20 to 30 minutes is a standard to strive for when you first start holding wig sessions they may take more time but ultimately as you increasingly Focus your time and attention on moving the scoreboard and nothing more your sessions will be become increasingly effective and efficient we also recognize that depending upon the particular function or nature of your team they may take a bit more time but even then any team in any function can learn to conduct fast efficient sessions centered on the wildly important goal in place of protracted meetings covering everything under the sun often to keep your wig sessions fast and focused you may need to schedule other meetings to resolve issues that grow out of the w uig session for example you might say Bill you bring up an important problem that has to be resolved this week why don't we set up another meeting this Thursday to do a deep dive on this problem to see if we can solve it and then continue with your W IG session wig sessions might vary in content but the agenda is always the same here's the three-part agenda for a Wiig session along with the kind of language you should be hearing in this Session One account report on commitments I committed to make a personal call to three customers who gave us lower scores I did and here's what I learned I committed to book at least three prospects for a site visit and ended up getting four I met with RVP but wasn't able to get the approval we wanted here's why two review the scoreboard learn from successes and failures our FL measures green but we've got a challenge with one of our lead measures that just fell to Yellow here's what happened we're trending upward on our lead measures but our lag measure isn't moving yet we've agreed as a team to double our efforts this week to get the score moving although we're tracking toward achieving our wig we implemented a great suggestion from a customer this week that improved our lead measure score even further three plan clear the pack and make new commitments I can clear your path on that problem I know someone who I'll make sure the inventory issue impacting our lead measure is resolved by next week no matter what I have to do I'll meet with Bob on our numbers and come back next week with at least three ideas for helping us improve staying focused in spite of the Whirlwind in a wig session you and every member of your team are accountable for moving the metrics on the score board you accomplish this by committing each week in the wig session to one or two specific actions that will directly affect your lead measures and then reporting to each other in the next week's wig session on your results to prepare for the meeting every team member thinks about the same question what are the one or two most important things I can do this week to impact the lead measures we need to be very careful here the team members are not asking them elves what is the most important thing I can do this week that question is so broad that it will almost always take their focus back to something in their Whirlwind instead they are asking a much more specific question what can I do this week to impact the lead measures as discussed Above This focus on impacting the lead measures each week is critical because the lead measures are the teams leverage for achieving the wig the commitments represent the things that must happen beyond the dayto day to move the lead measures this is why so much emphasis is placed in discipline to on ensuring that the lead measures are influenceable so that the team can actually move them through their performance each week simply put the keeping of weekly commitments drives the lead measures and the lead measures Drive achievement of the wig let's take the example of Susan a nurse manager whose lead measure is to reduce the time it takes to to administer pain medication to patients Susan can see from her scoreboard that two of her teams 7th Floor day shift and eighth floor intensive care are lagging behind the others she knows that the seventh floor team has a new supervisor who is still learning the pain management procedures she also knows that the eighth floor team is underst staffed so Susan's commitments to move the lead measures for this week might be to review the pain management procedures with the seventh floor team and to fill the open position on the eighth floor team now let's take the example of Tom a member of a sales team whose lead measure is to get out two new proposals each week Tom knows that his list of prospects is running low so for this week his commitment might be to acquire names and contact information for 10 additional prospects ensuring he has enough to successfully move two of them to the proposal stage in these two examples both leaders and team members make weekly commitments more on this and installing discipline for create a Cadence of accountability the nature of the commitments might change every week because the business along with the performance of the team is always changing only the process is constant realize that these weekly commitments are often not urgent or necessarily even new they often are things the team should be doing naturally but the reality is that these are the actions the Whirlwind devours first without the steady rhythm of accountability of discipline for there will always be things the team members know they should do but never actually do with real consistency creating a Cadence micare which produces the coal that fuels many of Mexico's power plants is one of the largest private Enterprises in Mexico for DX permeates everything at micare Monday morning wig sessions take place in every Department of this Fast Company the meetings are connected by video phone to remote locations so that everyone will be on the same page at the same time every manager's results are visible on the screen for all to see each group production delivery Human Resources Finance operations and so forth has scoreboards that are posted around the company and kept constantly updated everyone in the company Engineers miners even maintenance workers can recite their team wigs to you when Turing mare we were reminded of this observation by Jack Welch the legendary leader of GE goals cannot sound Noble but vague targets cannot be so blurry they can't be hit your direction has to be so vivid that if you randomly woke one of your employees in the middle of the night and asked him where are we going he could still answer in a half asleep stoer 19 that is the level of strategic Clarity and commitment evident throughout micare what has the 4dx operating system meant to the achievement of Mare's wigs over a 7-year period lost time accidents dropped from nearly 700 per year to fewer than 60 water consumed in processing coal a major environmental concern dropped by 2/3 annual Rehabilitation of mindout properties Rose from 6 hectares to more than 200 suspended particulates in the air around the mines dropped from 346 units per cubic meter to 84 metric tons of coal produced per worker Grew From 6,000 to 10,000 per year in summary and according to Miker CEO for DX has produced dramatic hard business results for micare and enabled major improvements to safety and the environment as well mare credits concentrated attention to the Cadence of accountability as the major factor in Miker success the regular wig session as simple in concept as it is keeps bringing the whole organizations Focus back to what matters most remember that the wig session should move at a fast pace if each person simply addresses the three Cadence items described earlier it doesn't require a lot of talking as one of our largest clients is fond of saying the more they talk the less they did the wi session also gives the team the chance to process what they've learned about what does and doesn't work if the lead measures aren't moving the lag the team brings creative thinking to the table suggesting new hypotheses to try if people are running into obstacles keeping their commitments team members can commit to clear the path for each other what might be tough for a Frontline worker to achieve might take just a stroke of the pen for the team leader in fact as the leader you should often ask each team member what can I do this week to clear the path for you it's also important to note that unless you are a Frontline person you will likely be in two Wiig sessions every week one led by your boss and one that you lead with your team more on this and installing discipline 4 Create a Cadence of accountability for now let's apply discipline 4 to the example of younger brothers construction that we discussed earlier remember that the wig for younger brothers was to reduce safety incidents from 57 to 12 by December 31st and their lead measure was compliance to the six safety standards they believed would eliminate the vast majority of accidents imagine that you are a project manager at younger brothers responsible for a number of crews in a wig session with your boss you would do three things one report on last week's commitments last week I committed to order new braces for the scaffolding so that conditions for all my Crews were up to code one of the six safety standards and I completed that two review the scoreboard my lag measure for safety incidents is currently averaging five per month slightly above where we should be for this quarter my lead measure for compliance to safety standards is green at 91% but Cru 9 11 and 13 are hurting the score because they aren't consistently wearing their safety glasses three make commitments for the coming week this week I will meet with the supervisors of Crews 9 11 and 13 review their safety records and ensure that they have enough safety glasses for everyone each commitment must meet two standards first the commitment must represent a specific deliverable for example a commitment to focus on or work on cruise 9 11 and 13 is too vague because this type of commitment doesn't make you accountable for a specific result it usually gets lost in the Whirlwind second the commitment must influence the lead measure if the commitment doesn't directly Target the lead measure it won't advance the team toward achieving the wig as you begin to understand the wig session you'll also see more clearly the importance of the two characteristics of lead measures we discussed in discipline to if the lead measures are influenceable they can be moved by the weekly commitments if they are predictive then moving them will lead to achievement of the wig the wig session is like an ongoing science experiment team members bring their best thinking as to how to influence the scoreboard they commit to try new ideas test hypotheses and bring back the results for example at the Minnesota cystic fibrosis Center at the University of Minnesota Medical Center Fairview staff doctors hold a weekly meeting to review lung function among their vulnerable patients most of them infants and small children cystic fibrosis gradually reduces the victim's ability to breathe so the wig for this worldclass treatment center is 100% lung function for all their patients they are not satisfied with 80% of normal or even 90% as a lag measure in these weekly meetings the doctors review what they've observed that week about improving lung function and they made commitments to follow up for example because body weight might be a lead measure in Long Health doctors carefully monitor it and give some infants supplemental feedings they conduct experiments with mist tents and massage vests and other ways to clear lungs then they report back to the team on the outcomes each week they learn more and share their learning few people hold themselves as rigorously accountable for a wig as the Fairview team does does and the results show the value of their Cadence of accountability they haven't lost a patient to cystic fibrosis in many years point2 while the leader of the wi session is responsible for ensuring the quality of commitments it's critical that the commitments come from the participants we cannot emphasize this strongly enough if you simply tell your team what to do they will learn little but when they are able to consistently tell you what's needed to achieve the wig they will have learned a lot about execution and so will you having team members generate their own commitments may seem counterintuitive especially when you can see so clearly what should be done and when your team may even expect or want you to just tell them what to do however what you ultimately want is for each member of your team to take personal ownership of the commitments they make as a leader you may still coach people who are struggling to make high impact commitments but you want to ensure that in the end the ideas are theirs not yours the black and the gray finally the W IG session saves your wildly important goals from being engulfed by the Whirlwind below is the calendar for a typical week the Black Blocks represent your Wiig session commitments and the gray blocks represent your Whirlwind this simple visual is ideal for showing what the balance of time and energy invested in execution looks like when we introduce discipline for in our process some leaders mistakenly picture a week that's mostly black meaning that the commitments are the predominant Focus for the week this seldom represents reality the vast majority of your energy will still be spent managing your day-to-day priorities as it should be but the critical value of the four disciplines is ensuring that the black your investment over and above your day-to-day stays consistently focused on your WI G weekly commitments the gray blocks represent your day-to-day Whirlwind the Black Blocks represent your weekly commitments to move the Wiig scoreboard if you actively schedule them into your week the Whirlwind is less likely to draw your focus away from the wig what would happen if you pulled one of those black blocks out of your week would it remain empty think about the last time you were relieved to learn that a meeting had been cancelled freeing hour in your schedule how long was it before three other meetings and five urg requests were all competing for that one open spot in terms of the diagram how long would it be before the Whirlwind devoured that open time turning it gray when we ask this question in our sessions every leader knows the answer immediately the gray doesn't want the black in your weak in other words the Whirlwind will consume every moment of time and every ounce of energy it can Parkinson's law states work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion and nowhere is this principle of expansion and consumption of time and energy more true than with your Whirlwind execution on your wig is all about driving the black into the gray no matter what it takes now think of the diagram as representing the combined energy of a week from your entire team not just from you in this new context the black represents the energy of every member of your team as they keep their commitments every week this is the kind of focused energy that produces results if you keep the Cadence of accountability week after week your team unleashes this focused energy against the lead measures that have a direct effect on the wig this weekly discipline also has a real effect on morale think about the last time you had an all gry week a week of long hours consumed by the endless crisis of the Whirlwind the worst part of it was the sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach that despite killing yourself all week you didn't really accomplish anything if your all gry weeks become a regular experience you feel the life draining out of you as a leader even worse you will see the same feeling reflected in the engagement and the performance of your team wig sessions are the antidote to all gray weeks when the discipline of holding wig sessions is sustained when you and your team forc to the black into the gray every week not only will you make consistent progress toward your goals you'll also begin to feel that you rather than the Whirlwind are in charge wig sessions and engagement Mark mzn the older brother of one of our authors Wanted only one thing growing up to design cars his parents still have Elementary School homework assignments with beautifully drawn cars in the margins Mark worked very hard to achieve his dream and was eventually hired as a designer for one of the big three automakers in the United States almost all of the designers on Mark's team had the same dream a dream that they are now living by spending every day doing the one thing they wanted to do more than anything in the world designing cars you would think that their level of Engagement would be off the charts however here is the fascinating part of this story this design department has the lowest engagement scores of any team within that giant organization that's right people who are doing the one thing they always wanted to do have the lowest scores how can people who have made a career doing what they love have low engagement in his book the three signs of a miserable job Patrick lenon describes brilliantly three reasons individuals disengage from work one anonymity they feel their leaders don't know or care what they are doing two irrelevance they don't understand how their job makes a difference three a measurement they cannot measure or assess for themselves the contribution they are making 21 all three of lenon signs are present in the automotive design Department first the designer's original work is changed so much by the time it actually becomes a product that the originator is often forgotten anonymity second the product is released years after designers work on it so they may not be able to see their contribution in the final product irrelevance and third evaluations of performance are extremely subjective a measurement Len Chon's three signs not only explain what's happening in the design Department as well as in many other jobs but also describe life in the Whirlwind perfectly what we have called an all gry week the good news is that discipline 4 if Done Right is the cure for all three on a team that keeps the Cadence of wig sessions the individual numbers are not Anonymous on the contrary they are in the spotlight at least once a week they are also not irrelevant because they can see exactly how their commitments are moving the lead measures that drive a wildly important goal and they are definitely not suffering from a measurement they have a clear and public scoreboard that is updated weekly to reflect their performance the full impact of the wig session won't be felt right away it often takes 3 to four weeks before a team establishes an effective rhythm in which they learn to stay focused on the wig and avoid talking about the Whirlwind but soon the meeting begins to feel more productive and after a few more weeks something important starts to happen the lead measures actually begin to move the lag measure and the team starts to feel that they are winning a different kind of accountability our online system used for running wig sessions my Ford DX explain beginning on page 194 has captured millions of commitments from teams all over the world more than 75% of those commitments have been kept despite the Whirlwind this real world data shows that wig sessions create real accountability and follow through however it's the particular kind of accountability created in a Wiig session that we want you to understand often the very word accountability has a strong negative connotation if your boss says come see me in an hour we need to have an accountability session you can be fairly certain it's not a good thing however the accountability created in a wig session is very different it's not organizational it's personal instead of accountability to a broad outcome you can't influence it's accountability to a weekly commitment that you yourself made and that is within your power to keep and one by one you report your results not only to the boss but to each other the question you ultimately answer in a wig session is did we do what we committed to each other we would do when the answer is yes when members of a team see their peers consistently following through on the commitments they make they grow in respect for each other they learn that the people they work with can be trusted to follow through when this happens performance improves dramatically take the experience of NCO a leading company and engineered polymer foam Extrusions in short they make amazing things out of colored foam from high-tech insulation to swimming pool toys as one of three noo manufacturing plants Tarboro and North Carolina was a good plant they were beating Budget on all fronts costs profitability and safety but they did not yet feel that it was a great plant because although they were improving they were not producing break through performance the plant's organizational structure was traditional and despite an open and friendly environment people still dependent on the plant manager to supervise monitor make all the decisions and essentially ensure everyone in the plant was doing what they were supposed to be doing for DX brought the Breakthrough they were looking for in the 18 months after adopting Ford DX tarb plant cut more than $1 million in costs off off the production line came in more than 30% below budget for the fiscal year experienced no lost time accidents and only one recordable accident beat projected budget for the following fiscal year in the first quarter a Ford DX the plant manager concluded it is simply a strong tool to ensure success in any type of initiative and organization chooses to bring on board whether it is Six Sigma lean manufacturing or self-directed work teams for DX will get you the results you are Desiring to achieve the key to this shift was in the wig sessions at tarb burough every team held wig sessions weekly all employees reported on how they were moving the needle changing the score and achieving the wig each week they came up with new ideas to keep the scoreboard green the wig sessions kept them focused on achieving the wildly important goals but more than that the sessions enabled them to think together make decisions together help one another and celebrate their wins as a result the Tarboro plant created a culture of Highly engaged employees who held themselves and each other accountable for results Julian young president of nelo during the Ford DX implementation summarized the impact of wig sessions in this way the wig sessions have a lot more energy than your traditional old-fashioned manufacturing meetings they have improved productivity substantially at each of our locations and have made accountability incredibly simple over the years we've observed thousands of wig sessions like those at the Tarboro plant and this experience has made one thing clear the accountability to their peers that is created in the wig session is an even greater motivator of performance for most individuals than a accountability to their boss in the end people will work hard to avoid disappointing their boss but they will do almost anything to avoid disappointing their teammates however to reach this level you still need to understand one additional Point we've said that the first three disciplines set up the game but until you apply discipline four your team isn't in the game but now we want to say it even more clearly the level of importance you place on the wig session will Direct determine the results your team produces based on your consistency your focus and your own modeling of making commitments and following through you will establish the Wiig session as either a high stakes game or a low stakes game in the minds of your team think of this point apply to a game played in the preseason versus the playoffs in preseason you'd like to win but lose in the playoffs and your team goes home which type of game drives the highest level of play simply put if the game doesn't really matter why should your team care this is why real accountability inspires the team to engage at the highest level of play creating an Innovative culture some people don't like the fact that wig sessions are so structured actually when done right wig sessions are also highly creative structure and creativity together produce engagement as eminent brain scientist Dr Edward Hollowell has discovered the most motivating situations he says are those that are highly structured and full of novelty and stimulation 22 the Cadence of accountability can release the creativity of the team when you think of a team that has a culture of discipline and execution you don't expect to hear that they are also creative and Innovative however we've regularly seen all of these characteristics and teams that apply 4D well the wig session encourages experimentation with fresh ideas it engages everyone in problem solving and promotes shared learning it's a forum for Innovative insights as to how to move the lead measures and because so much is at stake it brings out the best thinking from every team member Town Park is a great example the largest provider of valet parking services for high-end hotels and hospitals town park has always been extremely well-run when Gaylord entertainment one of town Park's largest customers had great success as an early adopter of the Ford DX the leaders at Town Park became interested as well Town Park was already measuring virtually every aspect of its business did attendants open the door for you and your guests when you arrived did they use the proper Hotel greeting did they offer you a bottle of water their exacts could tell you all this as they were literally measuring everything they thought mattered to their customers still they decided to apply 4dx to the wildly important goal of the company increasing customer satisfaction to see if they could improve it even more while developing lead measures in discipline too they realized that one thing they weren't measuring might actually be their point of highest leverage and pleasing the customer how long it takes the customer to get his or her car back so they chose red reducing retrieval time as the most predictive lead measure for further improving customer satisfaction although they had always known this was an important aspect of the business they had never measured it because it isn't an easy measure to get even for a company that believes in measurement they knew that collecting retrieval time data would require them to clock when the customer called for the car and when the valet arrived with the car the elapse time between the two points the retrieval time would then need to be consistently captured for all teams in all locations you can imagine how difficult it would be to gather this data in the Whirlwind of incoming and outgoing cars so difficult that some leaders argued that it couldn't be done however because they were committed to their Wiig of unparalleled customer satisfaction and because they believed retrieval time was the most predictive and influenceable measure for achieving it they committed to tracking it like all great leadership teams once the decision was made they found a way initially they wondered if retrieval time was really influenceable because of all the external factors that impacted such as the location of the parking area and the distance to the car despite these worries they were able to reduce retrieval time dramatically how the teams figured it out because they were highly engaged in the game once the lead measure went up on the scoreboard the valot began finding new ways to win for example they started advising arriving guests to call before checking out so that their car would be waiting for them whenever the guest called in advance the valet knew the retrieval time would be zero the vots also began to ask what day the guest plan on checking out if it was later in the week they would park the car in the back of the lot as the day of departure Drew closer they would move the car forward so that retrieval time would be reduced these and a host of other Innovations not only reduced the lead measure of retrieval time but immediately raised the lag measure of customer satisfaction Town Park was winning but without the team's engagement in the game these ideas might never have surfaced let alone been implemented however a town park team in Miami Florida faced an obstacle that seemed insurmountable a 4ot high concrete wall ran down the middle of the parking garage forcing the valot to drive around it to retrieve every car after several months of trying to compensate for the wall a literal breakthrough came during their wig session James mcneel one of the assistant account managers committed to his team that the wall was coming out he obtained clearance from the hotel's engineer who confirmed that the wall was not loadbearing borrowed a concrete saw and recruited several other supervisors to help starting early the following Saturday morning they cut and hauled out several tons of concrete by the end of the day the wall was gone if you're a leader you should be fascinated by this story if a town park executive had ordered the team to do something as far outside their normal responsibilities as removing a concrete wall what do you think the team's reaction would have been at best resistance and at worst Mutiny even from a good team but because the lead measure had become a high stakes game one the players didn't want to lose the effect was the opposite taking out the wall was their idea and their desire to win was so strong you couldn't have kept them from doing it necessity really is the mother of invention once they made retrieval time a high stakes game the creativity and invention followed what's critical to understand is that this level of Engagement seldom if ever comes from a command and control approach that is one that relies exclusively on the formal authority of the leader Authority alone at best yields only compliance from a team by contrast for DX produces results not from the exercise of authority but from the fundamental desire of each individual team member to feel significant to do work that matters and ultimately to win that kind of Engagement yields true commitment the kind of commitment that led a town park team to tear down a wall and it's only that kind of commitment that produces extraordinary results in section two we'll give you precise guidance on how to achieve that kind of commitment through the Cadence of accountability The Power of 4dx Now that we've examined each of the four disciplines of execution we hope you sense their power to transform your culture and your business results when we introduce leaders to 4dx they often believe they are already doing most of what we teach after all goals measures scoreboards and meeting are familiar topics but once 4dx is implemented these same leaders report in their teams a dramatic paradigm shift that produces predictable results often for the first time if you contrast for DX with the familiar practices of annual planning you can see how different this Paradigm is from the typical mindset about goals link httpwww fordex book.com QR flash best moment the annual goal setting process usually begins with the creation of a master plan for the year focused on a large number of objectives then each objective is broken down into the many projects Milestones tasks and subtasks that must be accomplished over the coming months for the plan to succeed the deeper the planning process goes the more complex the plan becomes despite this growing complexity the leaders may feel symptoms of of what we call the planning high it's that hopeful feeling they get as they say this could really work finally they create a set of colorful PowerPoint slides to explain the plan and then deliver a convincing formal presentation sound familiar so far if so there's only one step left after the plan is presented watching it slowly Fall Into Obscurity as the changing needs of the business none of which were accounted for make the plan less and less relevant now in contrast think back to the experience of younger brothers construction and their wig to reduce accidents no matter how detailed or strategically brilliant their annual plan might have been it could never have foreseen that in week 32 a leader would need to meet with Crews 9 11 and 13 to focus on safety glasses in other words the very information needed to drive the highest level of results that weak would not be in the plan and it never is however in discipline 4 the team plans weakly against their lead measures in essence creating a just in time plan based on commitments that they could not have imagined at the beginning of the month let alone the beginning of the year the constant weekly Energy Applied against the lead measures creates a unique form of accountability that connects the team directly to the goal again and again if younger brothers had attacked their wig without the lead measure of safety compliance they would still have been able to make weekly commitments but against a less specific Target can you imagine each team member making a commitment to reduce accidents this week it would seem so broad as to be overwhelming to them like trying to boil the ocean even worse imagine the perspective of the leaders can you hear them saying in frustration these are all adults who've been working construction for years if they don't care about their own safety what am I supposed to do about it once people give up on a goal that looks unachievable no matter how strategic it might be there is only one place to go back to the Whirlwind after all it's what they know when it feels safe when this happens your team is now officially playing not to lose instead of playing to win and there is a big difference simply put for DX gets an organization playing to win think of 4dx like the operating system on your computer you need a powerful operating system to execute whatever programs you choose to install if the operating system isn't equal to the task it doesn't matter how beautifully designed the program it won't work consistently on your computer likewise without an operating system for executing your goals no matter how beautifully designed your strategy it won't work consistently even if you achieve results you won't be able to sustain them or surpass them year after after year for DX ensures the precise and consistent execution of any goal you choose to install in your team or organization and creates a foundation for greater success in the future one of the key reasons that 4dx works so powerfully is that it's based on Timeless principles and it's proven to work with virtually any organization in any environment we didn't invent the principles of 4dx we simply uncovered and codified them other have used the same principles to effectively change human behavior in the service of a goal in 1961 Jean net of Queens New York was losing patience with dieting she was uncomfortably overweight and found it difficult to stay on a diet she failed to achieve her goal every time she tried so when she decided to try a diet she obtained from the NYC Board of Health she decided to try a new approach she invited a few friends who were also fighting their weight to meet each week and check on each other they set reasonable bite-sized goals to lose a pound or two per week they carefully monitored their intake of calories and gauged the amount of exercise they were getting over a period of about 2 years they achieved their weight loss goals and they did it together Jean's weight loss Club continued to add members and in 1963 incorporated as the Weight Watchers organization since then Weight Watchers has grown into an international network of clubs with a product line of diet drinks sugar substitutes and Publications my little private club has become an industry said Gan netch no other program has matched their record for helping large numbers of people maintain a healthy weight the success of Weight Watchers is due to the same principles that underly the four disciplines discipline one careful Focus focus on a clear lag measure losing a certain amount of weight within a certain time frame from X to Y by when discipline two acting on the high leverage lead measures of calorie intake and output through exercise measures that the participants can control these lead measures are expressed in terms of points that are easily tracked discipline three regular scorekeeping and monitoring of the lead measures and the lag measure a compelling scoreboard engages people and keeps them on track toward the goal discipline four the Cadence of accountability the weekly meeting with others who have the same goal they share stories check the scoreboard the scale celebrate successes and talk about lapses and what to do about them many participants say that the weekly weighin is the most motivating thing about the program 23 the principles underlying 4 DX are Universal and Timeless a conclusion we have confirmed again and again in working with some of the best companies in the world section two installing for DX with your team as you've learned in section one for DX is an operating system for achieving the goals you must achieve in section two you'll learn what to expect when you install Ford DX with your team and the specific steps for doing so you'll benefit from the experience of thousands of work teams who've committed themselves to to the same exhilarating challenge please keep in mind that Ford DX is not a set of guidelines but a set of disciplines installing 4dx will require your finest efforts but the payoff will be a team that performs consistently and with Excellence this section is designed to guide you in installing 4dx think of it as a field guide with all the information to ensure your success if you're a senior executive who will lead the efforts of others in implementing 4dx you'll find it a valuable overview of the journey if you're a leader who will be implementing 4dx with your own team you'll find a detailed road map of that Journey you'll appreciate its value once you begin in either case you'll likely refer to this section many times during implementation and again over the years as your experience with 4dx grows what to expect the famous Greek myth of Copus tells of a man whom the gods punish by requiring him to push a boulder up a mountain each time he reaches the peak the stone rolls back down and he has to push it back up the mountain all over again for eternity it's a little like the feeling of leaving work at the end of an exhausting day without being able to point to a single significant accomplishment and knowing that tomorrow you'll begin pushing that Boulder All Over Again Jim Dixon the general manager of store 334 in a large grocery chain felt felt very much like Copus every day store 334 had the worst financial performance of 250 stores in the division people didn't want to shop there and they didn't want to work there either every day when Jim came to work he would do what he called the head slap over the same old problems shopping carts and trash all over the parking lot broken bottles in the aisles big gaps in products on the shelves nothing in that store happened until Jim told somebody to do it or he did it himself midnight often found him stocking shelves or mopping up spilled milk not only had he hired people to do these things he had hired people to hire people to do these things like Copus Jim felt he was pushing the same boulder up the hill every day just to watch it roll down again he never had time or energy to actually move the store forward in a significant way Jim had been considered a high potential leader when he was put in charge at store 334 now he seemed to be a low potential micromanager when we met him he'd been working 16 days straight and hadn't taken a vacation in over a year sales were way down while employee turnover was up the vice president of Human Resources confided to us Jim's either going to quit or we're going to have to let him go with all he had to do you can imagine how delighted gym would be to go to a four disciplines workshop on top of everything else and in December two which is the busiest time of the year for the grocery business for Jim and his department heads the wildly important goal was no mystery if they didn't meet the year-over-year revenue figure the store itself was in danger of closing nothing else really mattered however the tricky problem was determining their lead measure what could they do differently that they weren't doing already what would have the most impact on driving up store revenues Jim and his team were pretty sure that if store conditions improved Revenue would improve a clean attractive fully stock store should draw more customers so each department individually came up with the two or three most important things to measure for that department and they decided to score themselves daily on a 1 to 10 scale for the meat department Fresh Cuts and a crystal clear display shells in the produce department fully stocked by 5: in the morning for the bakery hot fresh bread on the racks every two hours at the end of this process Jim and his team had a plan they would start executing immediately and the assistant manager and the department heads would update the scoreboard daily the BET was that a store conditions improved so would year-over-year Revenue it felt like it might work that morning they posted the scoreboards and that night the employees tore them down the next day they put the scoreboards back up again but the Whirlwind of day-to-day pressures sucked the department heads right back to where they had been before after 2 weeks the five departments were averaging 13 out of 50 on a scale they'd created themselves Jim was frustrated and the wildly important goal was in trouble later in this section you'll see why and learn the rest of this story story stages of change because changing human behavior is such a big job many leaders face challenges like these when installing 4dx in fact we found that most teams go through five stages of behavior change in this chapter we hope to help you understand and manage your way through these stages stage one getting clear let's follow Marilyn the leader of the surgical nursing unit at a large Inner City Hospital hospital as she installs the 4dx with her team she and her team face a whirlin like no other as lives literally depend on how well they execute dozens of surgeries every day maryn's team had recently seen a sharp rise in peroperative incidents things that go wrong in surgery despite the Raging Whirlwind of an operating room they all shared a passion for reducing these incidents that endangered their patience in a Ford DX work set session they translated this focus into a wildly important goal increase surgeries without peroperative incidents from 89% to 98% by December 31st the team then carefully reviewed the factors that caused the most incidents as well as those that created the greatest risk to patients and isolated two lead measures that would give them the greatest leverage achieve 100% compliance on all pre-surgery audits at least 30 minutes before surgery and double counts surgical items following 100% of surgeries now that Marilyn and her team had a wildly important goal discipline one and two lead measures discipline two they designed a simple scoreboard discipline three for tracking their performance and scheduled a weekly wig session to hold themselves accountable for continuous progress discipline for as they closed the teen meeting Marilyn looked forward to the launch the next week she had never felt clearer about a goal and a plan the rest she thought would be easy of course she was underestimating the task the reason this happens is the inherent difficulty of changing human behavior in the midst of a raging Whirlwind success starts by getting to Crystal Clarity on the wig and the 4dx process remember your key actions in implementing 4dx be a model of focus on a wildly important important goals identify High leverage lead measures create a player scoreboard schedule W sessions at least weekly and hold them stage two launch Marilyn launched the 4dx process beginning with the first surgery of the week Monday morning at 7:00 by noon the team was already struggling the lead measure required the nurses to do equipment audits 20 minutes earlier than normal but the schedule change and a new checklist confused everyone with a full surgical schedule and a nurse home sick Marilyn's hands were full and her team scrambling that first morning taught her about the problems of executing in the midst of the Whirlwind Marilyn also noticed some were more willing to change than others her top performers were succeeding and although it wasn't easy they relished the challenge however two of her most senior nurses still wondered why the change in the audit routine was needed and complained about the added stress furthermore Marilyn saw that the newer nurses who were not yet confident in their roles were actually slowing down the audit that week Marilyn realized that what was simple to plan was very difficult to launch she faced not only a whirlwind but a team with mixed motivations stage two launch now the team is at the starting line whether you hold a form Al kickoff meeting or gather your team in a brief huddle you launch the team into action on the wig but just as a rocket requires tremendous highly focused energy to escape the Earth's gravity the team needs intense involvement from the leader at this point of launch the launch phase of 4 DX is not guaranteed to go smoothly you will have your models those who get on board your potentials those who struggle at first and your resistors those who don't want to get on board here are some keys to a successful launch recognize that a launch phase requires focus and energy especially from the leader remain focused and implement the 4dx process diligently you can trust the process identify your models potentials and resistors more on these groups below stage 3 adoption Marilyn worked hard to maintain focus on the wig her team adjusted schedules and refined methods of scorekeeping she trained and coached her potentials she counseled the resistors about the need for change each week they worked at the lead measures and they slowly improved when they met in their weekly wig sessions they first reviewed their scoreboard and then individually made commitments of their own to move the needle on the scores stage three adoption team members adopt the Ford DX process and new behaviors Drive the achievement of the wig you can expect resistance to fade and enthusiasm to increase as Ford DX begins to work for them they become accountable to each other for the new level of performance despite the demands of the Whirlwind before long Maryland sensed the team finding its Rhythm and the incident rate declined as the team saw that the lead measure was working their excitement grew for the first time in many months they began to feel that they were winning recognized that adoption of the new 4dx process will take time adherence to the process is essential to your success on the wig be respectful but diligent about sticking with the process otherwise the Whirlwind will quickly take over remember these keys to successful adoption of 4dx focus first on adherence to the process then on results make commitments and hold each other accountable in weekly wig sessions track results each week on a visible scoreboard make adjustments as needed invest in the potentials through additional training and mentoring answer straightforwardly any issues with resistors and clear the path for them if needed stage four optimization over the next eight weeks Marilyn was pleased with her team's progress and with the steady though small decline in surgical incidents but the team would have to pick up the pace to reach the wig by the end of the year and she wasn't sure what more they could do in the wig session later that day her nurses surprised her by proposing changes to the lead measures first they wanted to reposition the equipment trays in the operating room so that they could do their audits more quickly and accurately second if they audited the operating rooms for both first first and second surgeries simultaneously at the beginning of the shift they could stay ahead of schedule the rest of the day third they suggested the patient transport team notify them as soon as the patient was on the way to surgery giving them time to cross check the operating room a final time stage four optimization at this stage the team shifts to a 4dx mindset you can expect them to become more purposeful and more engaged in their work as they produce results that make a difference they will start looking for ways to optimize their performance they now know what playing to win feels like Marilyn was pleased and surprised that her team had found these ways to optimize their performance it struck her that if she had proposed these things herself the team probably would have resisted the extra work but because the ideas came from them they were not only willing but excited to carry them out Marilyn had created a game that mattered and now her team was playing to win the nurses took ownership of the process they kept coming up with new ways to move the lead measures and the lag measure continued to rise their weekly commitments were precise and their follow-through excellent the wig sessions were tightly focused on results however what really fascinated Marilyn was a new level of Engagement and energy she had never seen before if you're consistent about 4D X you can expect team members to begin optimizing it on their own here are keys to making the most of this stage encourage and recognize abundant creative ideas for moving the lead measures even if some work better than others recognize excellent follow-through and celebrate successes encourage team members to clear the path for each other and celebrate it when it happens recognize when the potentials start performing like the models stay 5 habits Marilyn proudly walked to the podium amidst enthusiastic Applause at the hospital's annual meeting it was hard to believe that only 11 months before she had been facing a crisis the rising incident rate could have impacted her job and much more important the lives of her patients now she and her team were being recognized for having exceeded their goal and for the lowest incident rate in the hospital's history Marilyn knew that the change in her team went far beyond the achievement of their goal they had fundamentally changed the way they performed and in the process had developed habits of execution that would ensure future success the behavior changes that had been so hard to make were now standard performance for her team in essence the practices that reduced surgical incidents were now a normal component of her Whirlwind but because of them her Whirlwind had become far more manageable stage five habits when 4dx becomes habitual you can expect not only to reach the goal but also to see a permanent rise in the level of your team's performance the ultimate aim of Ford DX is not just to get results but to create a culture of excellent execution as a result she knew the team could sustain a whole new level of focus and commitment and as they turned to a new wig they were on a winning track link http slw WW4 Dex book.com qr/ healthcare for DX's habit forming once the new behaviors become ingrained in the day-to-day operation you can set new goals and still execute with Excellence again and again here are keys to help the team make 4 DX habitual celebrate the accomplishment of the wig move immediately on to new wigs in order to formalize for DX as your operating system EMP emphasize that your new operating standard is sustain Superior performance on lead measures help individual team members become High performers by tracking and moving the middle moving the middle as we've said people generally deal with change in one of three ways models the models are not only the top performers but the most engaged they Embrace 4dx enthusiastically and use it to take their performance to a higher level they are also the ones you'd most like to clone resistors the resistors are the opposite when you introduce 4dx some will immediately tell you why it won't work and how impossible it will be to implement given the demands of their Whirlwind others will withdraw from the effort and hope no one notices but 4dx makes their resistance highly visible to everyone as one of our clients remarked when you implement the four disciplines there's no place to hide most people fall in the middle between the models and the resistors they represent your greatest potential leverage for improving performance potentials the potentials are those with the capacity to be top performers but who haven't arrived some may lack the focus on goals or the specific knowledge they need to improve others may need the added pressure of accountability to motivate them the performance of any group of people generally looks like this there's a big bulge in the middle natural variability in any system produces this bulge called a normal curve you will always have a top 20% the pockets of Excellence the bottom 20% the inevitable weak performers and the middle 60% the majority who could do better if they were motivated to these are the potentials the people who could contribute much more If Only They knew how of course the numbers vary but what if that middle 60% performed more like the top 20% what would it mean to your performance if the graph looked like this instead the curve shifts toward better overall performance as the middle performers consistently rise to the level of the top 20% in other words because more people are doing things better the curve shifts right and tight all the time meanwhile in an ordinary team normal performance remains left and loose a hotel satisfied with normal guest satisfaction scores is left and loose after all nearly everyone is satisfied right a High School faculty happy with normal graduation rates which also means normal Dropout rates is left and loose a hospital whose administration is content with keeping infections within accepted Norms is left and loose and in this case one may well ask if accepted Norms are acceptable since we're talking about preventable suffering and death none of these organizations will make the leap to great performance as long as they are content with the left and loose normal curve however even these organizations have pockets of great performance teams who are consistently right and tight one example of great performance is arasmus Medical Center near roddam in the Netherlands as in the rest of the world European hospitals face a disturbing increase in lethal Hospital acquired infections hais which are estimated to account for 2third of the 25,000 hospital deaths each year on the continent at arasmus Medical Center infections were still within acceptable limits but administrators were determined to wipe them out to achieve their wig they adopted a set of lead measures they called Search and Destroy which eliminated nearly all hais within 5 years to their credit the entire hospital system of the Netherlands followed their lead 24 by definition hospitals are filled with sick people germs abound and most hospitals seem content with infection rates within accepted Norms however for a high performance team like the administrators of arasmus Medical Center the only acceptable infection rate is zero that meant moving the middle in a big way the arasmus team moved the left and loose curve to right and tight within a matter of months vulnerable patients stopped getting sick and dying most hospitals do not lack the know how to get the same results but as famous University of Kentucky basketball coach Adolf rup said whenever you see a man on top of a mountain you can be sure he didn't fall there if you could move the middle toward the summit of performance the impact on results would be significant you do that by consistently motivating new and better Behavior which is the game of 4 DX in our experience whether with hospitals grocery chains engineering firms hotels software companies power plants government contractors or multi-unit retail operations the outcome is almost always the same a new culture of high performance along with consistent results getting there isn't easy and doesn't happen overnight it takes focus and discipline over time to implement 4 DX and to make it stick the pattern to expect usually looks like this initially results improve quickly but we've noticed a plateau period as the team Works to adopt the new mindset once team members become habituated to 4dx it starts to pay real dividends we began this book by pointing out that possibly the single greatest challenge you will face as a leader is driving a strategy that depends on changing human behavior for DX is a proven system for meeting that challenge not just once but again and again in the following chapters we will take you step by step through each discipline so you can apply it with your team installing discipline one focus on the wildly important superb team performance begins with selecting one or two wigs focusing on these vital few goals is the foundational principle of Ford DX without it your team will get lost in the Whirlwind many teams have multiple goals sometimes dozens all of which are priority One Of course that means that nothing is Priority One a client put it best when you work on that many goals you actually work on none of them because the amount of energy you can put into each one is so small it's meaningless selecting the right wig is crucial leaders often hesitate to narrow their focus because they worry about the consequences of choosing the wrong w IG or failing to achieve it still when you choose a Wiig you're starting a game that matters one where the stakes are high and the team can make a real difference discipline one is necessary if you're going to play to win step one consider the possibilities Begin by brainstorming possible wigs although you might feel you already know what the wigs should be you might end this process with entirely different wigs in our EXP experience this happens often you'll do this brainstorming differently depending on the kind of organization you belong to in the place of your team and the organization getting input you have three options brainstorm with peer leaders especially if you are all focusing on the same organizational wig if you're concerned that they might not understand your team's operation their outside perspective will still be valuable particularly if you depend on them or depend on you brainstorm with your team members or with a representative group obviously if they are involved in selecting the wig they will take ownership of it more readily brainstorm alone you will still be able to validate the wig with the team when you develop lead measures top down or bottom up should wigs come from the leader or from the team top down a leader who imposes wigs without input from the team te might have problems getting team ownership if she drives accountability mostly through her Authority she probably won't develop a high performance team and will pay a price in Lost retention creativity and Innovation bottom up wigs that come exclusively from the team might lack relevance to the overall wig without strong Direction the team could lose valuable time and energy in getting consensus on every move top down and bottom up I ideally both the leader and the team participate in defining the wigs only the leader can provide clarity about what matters most the leader is ultimately responsible for the wig but shouldn't engage team members solely through the exercise of authority to reach the goal and to transform the team team members must have active input in defining the wig no involvement no commitment Discovery questions we found these three questions useful in discovering the wig which one area of our team's performance would we want to improve most assuming everything else holds in order to achieve the overall Wiig of the organization this question is more useful than what's the most important thing we can do what are the greatest strengths of the team that can be leveraged to ensure the overall WG is achieved this question will generate ideas and areas in which your team is is already succeeding but where they can also take their performance to an even higher level what are the areas where the team's poor performance most needs to be improved to ensure the overall wig is achieved this question will generate ideas around performance gaps that if not improved actually represent a threat to achieving the overall wig don't settle for just a few ideas for the wig gather as many ideas as you can reasonably capture our experience shows that the longer and more creative the list of possible wigs the higher quality the final Choice think what not how don't make the common mistake at this point of Shifting the focus from the wig itself to how to achieve it the how is the new and better behavior that will lead to the wig that discussion comes later in discipline to a five-star hotel chain had this overall wig increase total profit from $54 million to $62 Million by December 31st various departments in one hotel brainstorm ideas for their teen wigs don't settle for just a few ideas for the WG gather as many ideas as you can reasonably capture our experience shows that the longer and more creative the list of possible wigs the higher quality the final Choice think what not how don't make the common mistake at this point of Shifting the focus from the wig itself to how to achieve it the how is the new and better behavior that will lead to the wig that discussion comes later in discipline too a five-star hotel chain had this overall wig increased total profit from 54 million to $62 Million by December 31st various departments in one hotel brainstormed ideas for their team wigs housekeeping clean guest rooms like they've never been clean before we're already the best let's get better restaurant make alliances with local sports and culture venues valet parking ensure no one waits for their car reception move guests through the system more quickly no more cues at the registration desk let's look at the actual list of ideas from one Department event management since this group can impact profit both by increasing revenue and reducing expenses they brainstormed ideas to do both event management team increased Revenue increased corporate events and annual meetings increase average food and beverage sales per event increase percentage of events selecting the premium bar offering increase weddings held at the hotel increase per percentage of events selecting all-inclusive option reduced expenses reduce overtime costs per event reduce linen and amenities costs reduce overall food costs reduce or eliminate costs for temporary help and outside labor for servers step two Rank by impact when you're satisfied with your list of candidate team wigs you're ready to identify the ideas that promise the greatest potential impact on the overall organizational wig calculating the impact of a teen wig depends on the nature of the overall wig a financial goal perspective revenues profitability investment performance cash flow Andor cost savings equality goal efficiencies gained cycle times productivity improvements and or customer satisfaction a strategic goal service to the mission competitive advantages gained opportunities captured and or threats reduced Susan who runs the event management team is responsible for meetings Banquets and special events in step one they identified teen wigs that would contribute to the overall profit wig to narrow this list they calculated the financial impact of each idea it wasn't hard to identify the ideas that would generate the most profit for or team but that was not the right Focus the real challenge was to rank the ideas in terms of impact on the overall organizational wig in other words to isolate those that would generate the most profit for the entire hotel when they did that ranking corporate events and weddings Rose to the top because they generated Revenue beyond the event itself through rooms booked by outof town guests restaurant meals even spa services avoid the Trap of Select cting wigs that improve the team's performance but might have little to do with achieving the overall wig in the end Susan and her team chose two candidate wigs that would clearly have the greatest impact on the overall wig a major drug company used the same narrowing process to identify their wig shortened time to market for new products from approximately 7 and 1/2 years to 5 years for this company onee sales of a Blockbuster product averages more than $1 billion so the old saying time is money is no joke to them Clive who runs the Regulatory Affairs division oversees the process of getting drugs approved by the medicine control authorities of various Nations every new drug has to go through a complex application process that's different for each country in Step One the team came up with these candidate wigs one write application documents that meet the the criteria for every country instead of a different application for each country two hire some former Regulators as consultants three eliminate mistakes in the application documents four Lobby governments to broaden their criteria for FASTT tracking a new drug so that it can get to Market faster some team members argued forcefully for candidate wig2 because they felt the department lacked expertise others believed govern government agencies were to blame and wanted to spend their efforts on candidate wig four wig one was also important because meeting so many different criteria was so frustrating but when they examined their ideas in light of the overall wig to shorten time to Market they discovered something they hadn't noticed before the authorities kept sending applications back to get mistakes corrected and unclear things explained these delays were actually doubling the amount of time it took to get approval from that point candidate wig3 was the obvious choice for the team's entire focus in a similar example a large Scandinavian Shipping Company announced three goals for the year to improve quality and productivity and reduce costs Stein was responsible for loading and unloading containers at a company facility in Norway he recognized that the corporate goals were hazy but he was eager for his team to contribute measur to all three emphases many reasonable candidate wigs came out of a 4dx work session such as increase maintenance of the onshore cranes to reduce downtime get everyone certified in Six Sigma to improve the loading process rebuild the Depot at the rail head to smooth the flow of containers to the ships each candidate wi impacted one of the three company goals but not all of them at once now Ste had read on the web about a Malayan Port that had recently broken the world record for the number of container moves per hour the team there had offloaded a giant ship in 7 hours half the average time he told the team all about it their competitive Spirit was fired up and their energy led to the choice of a final Wiig double our number of container moose per hour it would require maximum productivity and maximum quality but the cut in hours would automat I Ally mean a cut in costs step three test top ideas once you've identified a couple of high impact wig candidates test them against four specific criteria for a wildly important goal is the team wig aligned to the overall wig is it measurable who owns the results our team or some other team who owns the game the team or the leader is it aligned is there a seamless line of sight between the candidate wig and the overall wig to create meaningful team wigs you should have a clear line of sight between your team in the center and the wigs of the overall organization if they can be identified although this test may seem obvious many teams become so excited about an idea that they forget achievement of the overall wig is the top priority if the idea fails this test eliminate it and choose the next most high impact idea from the list is it measurable as one of our clients put it if you're not keeping score you're just practicing a game without a clearly measurable score will never be a game that matters a wig requires that a credible measurement be in place from the day you begin executing if significant effort is required before you begin measuring as with the performance of a system that hasn't been developed yet it should be cost off for now once the system is running reconsider it but time invested in a game without a score is time lost who owns the result does the team have at least 80% ownership of the result this test is about eliminating significant dependence on other teams the conceptual measure of 80% can help you determine how much your team will have to depend on other teams to achieve the wig if it's less than 80% neither team will take responsibility and accountability will be lost of course if two teams own the same Wiig joint ownership can be a powerful driver of performance so long as both teams and both leaders understand that they win or lose together who owns the game leader or team is it a leader game or a team game this final test is more subtle than the others but equally important the question is whether results are driven by the performance of The Leader or the performance of the team if the wig depends too much on functions that only the leader performs the team will quickly lose interest in the game the team wig should depend primarily on what the team does not just the leader failure to pass any of these tests should lead you to re-evaluate the idea you're considering don't ask the team to play a game that's flawed under the pressure of accountability those flaws will quickly become apparent step four Define the wig once you've selected and tested your ideas for high impact team wigs make them as clear and measurable as possible Define the wigs according to the following rules begin with a verb Define the lag measure in terms of x to Y by when keep it simple focus on what not how begin with a verb simple verbs Focus the mind immediately on action almost all multi- syllable verbs have simple equivalents long over rought introductions are also unnecessary just State the wig this not this cut costs in order to drive increased grow Revenue value to our shareholders raise customer satisfaction enhance the careers of our score employees and remain true add one plant to our fundamental values launch product we will be implementing a wildly important goal this year two Define the lag measure lag measures tell you if you've achieved the goal they Mark a precise finish line for the team write lag measures in the format from X to Y by when as these examples show current result from X desired result to why deadline by when 11% error rate 4% error rate July 31st 8 inventory turns per year 10 inventory turns per your fiscal year end 12% return on investment per year 30% return on investment per year within 3 years the resulting wigs look like this decrease routing error rate from 11% to 4% by July 31st raise annual inventory turn rate from 8 to 10 by fiscal year end increase our average Roi from 12% to 30% within 3 years keep it simple earlier we shared the startling fact that 85% of working adults cannot tell you their organization's most important goals among the many reasons for this most organizational goals are vague complex and pretentious this not this raise our custom loyalty score from 40 to 70 by December 31st we are committed to enhancing and enriching our relationships with our customers increase customer utilization of our investment counseling service by 25% this fiscal year our principal aim for the coming fiscal year is to facilitate investment infrastructure and access growth through effective coordination launch three1 million bioproducts within 5 years we hope to Foster industry Innovation by addressing needs for biobased resources through biotechnology focus on what not how many teams Define a clear goal but then complicate it by adding a lengthy description of how the goal will be achieved this not this increase gastr tension from 63% to 75% over the increased Gast renion from 63% to 75% over the next two years next two years through providing exceptional customer experiences you will identify how you plan to achieve the goal when you develop lead measures and discipline too the wig should focus exclusively on what the team plans to achieve make sure the wig is achievable we often encounter leaders who believe in setting goals that are far beyond anything their team can achieve while privately acknowledging that they'll be satisfied if they get 75% of the goal this type of gamesmanship can significantly undermine your ability to drive engagement and results we want to be very careful here we're not advocating goals that are easy to reach set a goal that challenges the team to rise to their highest level of performance but not Beyond it in other words create a wig that is both worthy and winnable the deliverable the deliverable for discipline one is a team Wiig and lag measure at the hotel Susan's team ultimately selected increased corporate events as the wig because they believed it would generate more revenue and consequently more profit for the hotel Susan then considered carefully the lag measure defining the gap between X and Y is a critical decision the Gap had to be challenging but realistic she needed to create not only a game that mattered but a winnable game the final wig for Susan's team was significant clear and challenging increased revenue from corporate events from $22 million to $31 Million by December 31st having experienced discipline one you now know that the Simplicity of this wig is deceptive however the team now has a clear focus on what matters most a focus that can be sustained beyond the day-to-day requirements of your team's operation like a compass the wig provides clear consistent Direction toward a result that's wildly important what if your wig is a project sometimes your wildly important goal will be the successful completion of a major project if this is the case the principles of discipline one still apply but you'll need to pay particular attention to setting your lag measure finish line so far we've used examples of lag measures that are based on numerical values such as profit customer satisfaction or number of accidents but with a project your first inclination may be to set a lag measure of 100% completion while this may seem obvious it's usually far less precise than a numerical value and because of other factors such as scope expansion 100% completion may turn out to be impossible possible to actually measure with projects it's far better to establish a lag measure that relates to the business outcome the project is designed to meet as legendary Harvard marketing Professor Theodore levit put it people don't want to buy a quarter inch drill they want a quarin hole 25 so instead of defining your lag measure solely as complete and implement the new CRM system by December 31st you might establish a more precise lag measure by adding measures such as the following meeting 100% of the specified marketing functions providing full integration with Microsoft Outlook including full functionality for smartphones and Tablet PCs because they are more focused and more precisely defined than completion these types of measures will provide a clear finish line and an accurate measure of success for a description of Project Lead measures see installing discipline two try it use the Wiig Builder tool to experiment with your ideas for a wildly important goal for the team wig Builder tool one brainstorm ideas for the wig two brainstorm lag measures for each idea from X to Y by when three rank in order of importance to the organization or to the overall wig four test your ideas against the checklist on the facing page five write your final wigs did you get it right check off each item to ensure your team wigs and lag measures meet the standard have you gathered Rich input both top down and bottom up will the team wig have a clear predictable impact on the overall organizational wig or strategy not just on team performance is the team wi the most impactful thing that team can do to drive achievement of the overall wig I does the team clearly have the power to achieve the wig without heavy dependence on other teams does the wig require the focus of the entire team not just of the leader or a subgroup i is the lag measure written in the format from X to Y by when can a Wiig be simplified any further does it start with a simple verb and end with a clear lag measure installing discipline too act on the lead measures great teams invest their best efforts in those few activities that have the most impact amama wigs the lead measures this Insight is so crucial and so distinctive yet so little understood that we call it the secret of excellence and execution unlike lag measures which tell you if you have achieved your goal lead measures tell you if you are likely to achieve your goal you will use lead measures to track those activities that have the highest leverage on the wig lead measures must be both predictive of achieving the wig and influenceable by the team as these examples show two types of lead measures before you and your team begin to develop lead measures we want you to understand more about the types and characteristics of these powerful drivers of execution to begin there are two types of lead measures small outcomes and leveraged behavor behaviors small outcomes are lead measures that Focus the team on achieving a weekly result but give each member of the team latitude to choose their own method for achieving it limit out of stocks to 20 or fewer per week is a small outcome lead measure where a variety of actions could be applied whatever actions they choose with a small outcome lead measure the team is ultimately accountable for producing the result leveraged behaviors are lead measures that track the specific behaviors you want the team to perform throughout the week they enable the entire team to adopt new behaviors at the same level of consistency and quality and provide a clear measurement of how well they are performed with a leveraged Behavior lead measure the team is accountable for performing The behavior rather than for producing the result both types of lead measures are equally valid applications of discipline too and are powerful drivers of results this example is drawn from our implementation at younger brothers construction where the wildly important goal was a lower accident rate they chose the small outcome of compliance to safety which involved driving multiple new behaviors if they had believed that their team would be unsuccessful focusing on this many behaviors they could have chosen to begin with a single leveraged behavior of say wearing safety boots one of the six safety standards and over time Incorporated the additional behaviors as new new habits for the team this example is drawn from our work with a large grocery chain where one of the most powerful drivers of increased sales was ensuring that the highest selling products were always available to customers they chose to focus on a leverag behavior complete two additional shelf reviews in which every member of the team could participate what we want you to see from these examples is that both types of lead measures give your team real leverage for achieving the goal it's not a question of which is a better lead measure it's a question of which is a better lead measure for your team here are the steps for arriving at high leverage lead measures step one consider the possibilities Begin by brainstorming possible lead measures resist the temptation to choose quickly our experience has taught us that the more ideas generated the higher the quality of the lead measures we found these questions useful in discovering the lead measures what could we do that we've never done before that might make all the difference to the wig what strengths of this team can we use as leverage on the wig where are our pockets of Excellence what do our best performers do differently what weaknesses might keep us from achieving the wig what could we do more consistently for example a grocery store has this wig increase year-over-year sales by 5% here are some candidate lead measures identify new and better actions greet people at the door between 5: and 700 p.m. rush hour and offer to help them find what they're looking for take grocery orders by text and email and have them ready for customers to pick up leverage pockets of Excellence build creative new product displays in every Department every month adapt the customer service checklist the bakery uses to all departments in the store fix inconsistencies conduct shelf reviews for outof stock items every two hours minimize cues to two customers at any time stay solely focused on ideas that will drive the wig Don't Drift into a general discussion of good things to do rather than things that will impact the wi or you will end up with a long list of irrelevancies a famous example example of a productive lead measure is the 15% rule at 3M Company for decades this great company has held out the Strategic wig of creating a flow of great new products that never stops to drive this goal they adopted the lead measure of requiring their research teams to devote 15% of their time on projects of their own choice The Author Jim Collins comments no one is told what products to work on just how much to work and that loosening of controls has led to a stream of profitable Innovations from the famous post- at notes to less well-known examples as reflective license plates and machines that replace the functions of the human heart during surgery three Ms sales and earnings have increased more than 40 fold since instituting the 15% rule 26 the ideal lead measure like 3 Ms 15% rule is extremely fruitful in driving the wig and is within the control of the team step two Rank by impact when you're satisfied with your list of candidate lead measures you're ready to identify the ideas that promis the greatest potential impact on the team wig in service of the hotel's wig to increase profitability the event management team has set this wig increase revenue from corporate events from $22 million to $31 Million by December 31st in a Ford DX work session Susan led her team and brainstorming lead measures for this wig now Susan and her team narrowed the focus to three ideas that would have the greatest impact on achieving their team wig one increase the number of site visits Susan's team knew from experience that whenever they could influence a customer to visit the hotel their success at winning the contract for the event was significantly higher two upsell the premium bar package since margins were highest on products in the premium bar package every event that upgraded to this option increased not only Revenue but profitability three generate more highquality proposals The Proposal was the last step in the sales process so the more often prospects advance to this stage the more likely they would buy the idea was to make sure each proposal went through a checklist of winning quality standard ards event management team wig increase revenue from corporate events from $22 million to $31 Million by December 31st lead measure ideas increase the number of site visits we conduct develop contacts at new local corporations explore additional opportunities for events with existing clients attend trade shows for corporate events develop and Implement a new marketing program improve our banquet food options upsell our Premium Bar package upsell our expanded audio visual package generate more highquality proposals join meeting planner associations and attend meetings contact former clients lost to other hotels and win them back watch out after producing the list of candidate lead measures we often hear team members say we need to do all of these things no doubt they are all good things to do but the more you try to do the less energy you have to give to any one thing additionally narrowing the focus to a few lead measures permits stronger leverage as we often say a lever must move a lot to move the rock a little in other words the team must press hard on the lead measure to move the lag measure too many lead measures and you dissipate that pressure step three test top ideas once you've identified a couple of high leverage lead measures test them against these six criteria is it predictive is it influenceable is it an ongoing process or a once andone is it a leader game or a team game can it be measured is it worth measuring is the measure predictive of achieving the wig this is the first and most important test for a cand lead measure if the idea fails this test even if it's a good idea eliminate it and choose the next most impactful idea from the brainstorming list can the team influence the measure by influence we mean to ask if the team has at least 80% control over the measure as in discipline one this test eliminates significant dependencies on other teams these are candidate lead measures that Susan's event management team might have proposed Ed as an alternative to uncontrollable lag measures uninfluenced lag measures influenceable lead measures raise food and drink profitability by 20% upsell Premium Bar package and improve banquet options win back former clients contact former clients loss to other hotels and generate persuasive proposals to resign book more conventions participate actively in the convention Planning Association monthly meetings remember the ideal lead measure is an action that moves the lag measure and that the team can readily take without a significant dependence on another team is it an ongoing process or once andone the ideal lead measure is a behavior change that becomes habitual and brings continuous improvements to the lag measure although an action taken once might bring temporary Improvement it is not a behavior change and has little effect on the culture of the team here are some examples that might have been used by Susan's team and that illustrate the important differences this test reveals ensure that every client is aware of our audiovisual capabilities and receives a customized setup upgrade our entire audiovisual system maintain 100% compliance to the banquet table setting checklist holding a training session on the standards for setting up banquet tables attend all Chamber of Commerce meetings and contact all companies opening new locations in our city joint the Chamber of Commerce although the oneandone ideas can make a temporary difference possibly a big one only the behavioral habits the team develops can drive permanent improvements is it a leader game or a team game the behavior of the team must drive the lead measure if only the leader or one individual can move the lead measure the team will quickly lose interest in the game for example a quality initiative requires the leader to audit the process frequently and an outcome is continuously improving audit results if the proposed lead measures more frequent audits it fails this test because only the leader can do audits but if the proposal is to respond in a timely manner to all audit findings it becomes a team game the actions to drive an audit score involve everyone on the team in the same way candidate measures such as filling open positions reducing overtime hours or improving scheduling are usually examples of a Leader's game in most organizations remember lead measures connect the team to the wig but only if it's the team's game to play can it be measured as we've said lead measure data is hard to get and most teams don't have systems for tracking lead measures but success on lag measures absolutely requires successfully tracking the lead measures if the wig is truly wildly important important you must find ways to measure the new behaviors is the lead measure worth measuring if it takes more effort than its impact is worth or as serious unintended consequences it fails the test of a lead measure for example one large fast food retailer hired inspectors to visit each franchise regularly to measure compliance with the company's standards the inspectors were widely considered to be spies team members felt disrespected to the direct cost of hiring this Army of inspectors company leaders could add the cost of mounting distrust and sinking morale ultimately the lead measures developed by Susan's event management team passed all the tests in the testing process they discovered that nearly every site visit they conducted resulted in a successful proposal so they decided to focus on conducting more site visits and following up with proposals step four Define the lead measures answer these questions as you put the lead measures in final form are we tracking team or individual performance this choice will affect your scorekeeping the design of your scoreboard and ultimately how the team is held accountable tracking results for individual performers creates the highest level of accountability but also the most difficult game to win because it demands the same performance from everyone alternatively tracking team results allows for differences in individual performance while still enabling the team to achieve the outcome are we tracking the lead measure daily or weekly to reach the highest level of Engagement team members need to be able to see the lead measure scores moving at least weekly otherwise they will lose interest fast daily tracking creates the highest level of accountability because it demands the same performance from every associate every day where weekly tracking allows for varying performance each day as long as the overall result for the week is achieved here is an example of the same lead measure with individual and daily scoring as well as daily and weekly tracking individual score team score engage 20 customers per engage 100 customers per day measured daily associate per day as a team with a with a warm War greeting and greet an offer offer assistance assistance engage 100 customers per engage 700 customers per measured weekly associate per week week as a team with a war with a warm greeting and offer greeting and offer assistance assistance these considerations should play a part in your decision- making individual score team score every team member must achieve the lead measure personal accountability is very high as tracking is done by person scorekeeping is very detailed the team can win even when individual members underperform results from high performers can mask those from low performers measured daily individuals can win for the week even if the team can win for the week even measured weekly some daily goals are missed the team wins only when every member performs scorekeeping is detailed when daily goals are missed results from high performers can mask those from low performers the team wins or loses together what is the quantitative standard in other words how much SL how often slash how consistently are we supposed to perform at younger brothers the lead measure was 97% compliance with six safety standards how did they arrive at 97% how would you you decide based on the urgency and importance of the wig remember that the lever has to move a lot to move the rock a little if safety compliance is only 67% going for 97% will move the rock a lot and if lives and limbs are at stake that rock needs to move dramatically choose numbers that challenge the team without making it an unwinable game for example in the Netherlands every patient admitted to a hospital is swabbed for infection a key lead measure for wiping out hais obviously swabbing every patient consumes time and resources but it can be managed other countries with a higher tolerance for hais or perhaps less of a problem might screen some but certainly not all patients for them zero hais is not a wig sometimes you discover the numbers through trial and error a building materials client sent two email blasts out every week before a sale but got little response from the blasts when they experimented with sending out three emails they were flooded with business there was something magical about three emails instead of two who knew if you'll be measuring an activity your team already does it's essential that the level of performance go up significantly Beyond where it is today otherwise you'll be playing out a familiar definition of insanity doing the same things you've always done but expecting different results what is the qualitative standard in other words how well are we supposed to perform not all lead measures have to answer this question still the most impactful lead measures set the standard not only for how often or how many but also how well the team must perform at younger brothers the six safety standards are the qualitative component of the lead measure for a team in a lean manufacturing facility it might be compliance with value stream Maps does it start with a verb simple verbs Focus the mind immediately on action wig lead measure make $2 million in new Revenue by quarter end complete 500 more outbound calls per week raise our win rate on bids from 75% to 85% this fiscal year ensure all proposals achieve 98% compliance with our quality writing standards improve Customer Loyalty score from 40 to 70 within 2 years achieve 99% server availability each week increase inventory turns from 8 to 10 this year send three emails to contacts for every special offer is it simple State your lead measure in as few words as possible eliminate opening explanations such as in order to achieve our wig and to exceed the expectations of our customers we will what comes after the words we will is the lead measure and it's all you need to say a clear Wiig statement captures most of what you would say in a prefacing statement anyway special note about process oriented lead measures another way to identify powerful lead measures is to look at your work in the form of process steps particularly if you already know that you're wig comes out of a process examples would be a sales revenue Wiig from a sales process proc a quality wig from a manufacturing process or a project completion wig from a project management process the example here is a basic 11-step sales process in this chart the team has decided that a significantly better job on needs analysis step four and business cases step seven would have the greatest impact on their results they have made their bet the team now defines lead measures for these leverage points they'll ask how do we measure whether a good needs analysis has taken place how do we know we have a good business case this kind of lead measure is vastly more effective than proposing to improve an entire process all at once in that case the leader would spread their energy pushing change across the whole process and the team would never break the old habits for DX gives a leader the ability to lock down the most critical points of a process and then move on to the next most critical points can project Milestones be good lead measures if your wi is a single project your project Milestones may be effective lead measures but you'll need to evaluate them carefully if the Milestones are both predictive of project success for a description of project lag measures see page 131 and influenceable by the team they can be good candidates however they must also be significant enough for weekly commitments to be made against them the smaller or more granular the Milestones are the less opportunity for weekly commitments a milestone that requires less than 6 weeks to complete is generally not significant enough to serve as a good lead measure alternatively if your wig consists of multiple projects your lead measures are more likely to be procedures that you are using to ensure success in all projects such as the completion of formal scoping functional requirements definition project communication or testing procedures in this case you should choose the most predictive and influenceable components of your project process as lead measures the deliverable the deliverable for discipline 2 is a small set of lead measures that will move the lag measure on the wig the final lead measures for Susan's team were clear and challenging complete two quality site visits per associate per week upsell our Premium Bar package to 90% of all events discipline 2 provides Susan with a clear concise and measurable strategy for improving her team's performance and delivering great results for the hotel discipline 2 is exciting for many teams and with good reason they have not only a clear wig with a defined Finish Line but also some carefully constructed lead measures for achieving the Wiig for many it is the most executable plan they've ever made they're confident they've done everything necessary to make it happen and that from here it's all easy they could not be more wrong despite the beautiful game they've just designed it will disappear into the Whirlwind within days of the launch unless they go onto discipline 3 try it use the lead measure Builder tool on the next page to experiment with creating lead measures for your w IG lead measure Builder tool one insert the wildly important goal and lag measure in the top box two brainstorm ideas for lead measures three brainstorm methods for measuring those ideas four rank in order of impact on the wig five test your ideas against the checklist on the facing page six write your final lead measures did you get it right right check off each item to ensure your team's lead measures will move the lag measure of the wig have you gathered Rich input on the lead measures from the team and others are the lead measures predictive that is the most impactful things the team can do to drive achievement of the team wig are the lead measures influenceable that is does the team clearly have the power to move the lead measure are the lead measures truly measurable can you can you track performance on the lead measures from day one are the lead measures worth pursuing or will the data cost more to gather than its worth Will these measures lead to unintended consequences does each lead measure start with a simple verb is every measure Quantified including quality measures installing discipline three keep a compelling scoreboard discipline three is the discipline of Engagement even though you've defined a clear and effective game in disciplines one and two the team won't play at their best unless they are emotionally engaged and that happens when they can tell if they are winning or losing the key to engagement is a big visible continually updated scoreboard that is compelling to the players why do we put so much emphasis on the scoreboard in a recent Franklin cvy survey of retail stores we found that 73% of the top performers agree with this statement our success measures are visible accessible and continually updated only 33% of the bottom performers agreed with the statement top performers are thus more than twice as likely to see and interact with some form of compelling scoreboard so they can see if they are winning or not why is this so recall three principles people play differently when they are keeping score people give less than their best and finest effort if no one is keeping score it's just human nature and note the emphasis people play differently when they are keeping score there's a remarkable difference between a game where the leader scores the team and a game where the players score each other it means that the team takes ownership of the results it's their game to play a coach's scoreboard is not a Player scoreboard a coach's scoreboard is complex and full of data a player's scoreboard is simple it shows a handful of measures that indicate to the players if they are winning or losing the game they serve different purposes as leader you can guide but you can't build a Player scoreboard without the involvement of the players the purpose of a player's scoreboard is to motivate the players to win if the scoreboard doesn't motivate energetic action it is not compelling enough to the players all team members should be able to see it and watch it change moment Moment by moment day by day or week by week they should be discussing it all the time they should never really take their minds off it in this chapter you'll learn how to involve the team in creating a compelling scoreboard you'll also see how different scoreboard designs Drive different behaviors we found that the more the team is involved in designing the scoreboard Illustrated in this graphic by giving the team more distinct responsibilities the more the scale is tipped to instill their ownership step one choose a theme choose a theme for your scoreboard that displays clearly and instantly the measures you are tracking you have several options trend lines by far the most useful scoreboards for displaying lag measures trend lines easily communicate from X to Y by when the goat shows you where you should be now if you're planning to get y by a certain time and therefore whether you're winning speedometer like an automobile speedometer this scoreboard shows the status of the measures instantly it's ideal for time measures cycle time process speed time to Market retrieval times Etc consider other common gauges such as thermometers pressure meters rulers or scales bar chart this scoreboard is useful for comparing the performance of teams or groups within teams anden an anden chart consists of colored signals or lights that show a processes on track Green in danger of going off track yellow or off track red this kind of scoreboard is useful for showing the status of lead measures personalized when team members can personalize the scoreboard it's often more meaningful to them they can add a team name photographs of team members cartoons or other items that represent the team personalizing the scoreboard is not only fun it serves an important purpose the more they feel it's their scoreboard the more they will take ownership of the results achieving the wig becomes a matter of personal Pride we've seen even the most serious-minded individuals jump into this effort cardiac nurses put surgical instruments on a scoreboard Engineers set up flashing lights motorcycle riding chefs add leather chaps when the scoreboard becomes personal they become engaged step two design the scoreboard once you've determined the theme or type of scoreboard you want the team should design the scoreboard with these questions in mind is it simple resist the temptation to complicate the scoreboard by adding too many variables or supporting data such as historical Trends year-over-year comparisons or future projections don't use the scoreboard as a communication board to post reports status updates and other general information that distracts the team from the results they need to see in the midst of the Whirlwind Simplicity is the key to keeping the team engaged team members can immediately see if they're winning from the scoreboard on the left but they would have to study carefully the scoreboard on the right to understand it there are too many variables to interpret can the team see it easily post the scoreboard where the team will see it often the more visible the scoreboard the more the team will stay connected to the game if you want to motivate the team even more post it where other teams can see it as well if your team is dispersed geographically the scoreboard should be visible remotely more on electronic scoreboards in the chapter automating 4dx does it contain both lead and lag measures include both actual results and Target results the scoreboard must answer not only where are we now but also where should we be if the team can see only the units they produce each month they can't tell if they're winning or losing they need to see the number of units planned it also helps to do the math for them and show if they're up or down on the goal net gain or loss include both the Wiig lag measure and the lead measures include Legends and other minimal labels to explain the measures don't just assume that everyone knows what they are remember 85% of team members we surveyed could not name their most important goals this team's wig was to produce a certain number of bottles of water each week the lead measure was to do maintenance on the bottling units on a strict schedule as long as the bottling units were up and running they could meet the goal when they noted a correlation between a drop in maintenance and a drop in production they became more consistent about the lead measure and shot past the goal can we tell at a glance if we're winning design the scoreboard so that in 5 seconds or less the team can determine whether they are winning or losing this is the true test of a player's scoreboard step three build the scoreboard let the team build the scoreboard the greater their involvement the better they will take more ownership of it if they build it themselves of course the size and nature of your team will make make a difference if they have very little discretionary time the leader needs to take more of a role in producing the actual scoreboard still most teams embrace the opportunity to create their own scoreboard and often volunteer their own time for it finally it doesn't matter much what medium you use for the scoreboard you can put up an electronic sign a poster a whiteboard or even a chalkboard as long as it meets the design standards discussed here step four keep it updated the design of the scoreboard should make it easy to update at least weekly if the scoreboard is hard to update you'll be tempted to put it off when the Whirlwind strikes and your wildly important goal will disappear in the noise and confusion the leader should make very clear who is responsible for the scoreboard when it will be posted how often it will be updated an example let's follow Susan's event management team as they design and build a scoreboard applying discipline 1 they set a team W to increase revenue from corporate events from $22 million to $31 Million by December 31st they then apply discipline 2 to identify two high impact lead measures complete two quality site visits per associate per week upsell our Premium Bar package to 90% of all events with the game clearly defined Susan and her team were now ready to build a scoreboard they began by defining clearly on the scoreboard the Wiig and lag measure next they added lead measure one with a detailed graph for tracking individual performance finally they added lead measure 2 and a bar graph to track up sell attempts with the wig on top and the lead measures clearly charted Susan's scoreboard easily meets the design standards it's simple not overloaded with beta it has only three major components and each component is crystal clear and quantifiable it's visible with large dark fonts and easily grasped visuals it's complete the entire game is shown the team Wiig its lag measure and the lead measures are clearly defined the team's actual performance versus the target is clear the scoreboard is motivating because the team can see their actual results in relation to where they should be for each week the darker Target line makes that possible in this case the lag measure is a straightforward Financial goal based on the organization's wigs with other possible wigs such as increased customer satisfaction or improved quality there might not be a predetermined way to measure progression in such cases draw the target line subject ly based on your expectations and knowledge of the team's performance but whether formally budgeted or subjectively determined a Target line must appear without it the team can't tell day by day whether they're winning or not for lead measures the target line is usually set as a single standard for performance for example the 90% bar in the graph on the left that standard must be not only reached but sustained in some cases you might draw a ramp up Target indicated by a diagonal line followed by the horizontal line indicating sustained performance in the graph above the lead measure to complete two quality site visits per associate per week required that the team's performance be reported individually each team member recorded on the scoreboard his or her own results each week to ensure The credibility of the scoreboard the leader periodically audits the performance of the team to validate that that the scores being recorded match the level of performance observed the rule here is trust but verify we can tell if we're winning or losing at a glance because every graph displays both actual results and the target results team members can instantly tell whether they are winning or losing on each lead measure as well as the wig the colors green and red when used can make it even easier to tell how they're doing note that with lead measure to the team wins only when every member performs the team truly wins when everybody shows green the lighter color in this chart indicating completion of two or more site visits that week the deliverable the deliverable for discipline 3 is a scoreboard that keeps the team engaged there's a huge difference in performance between a team that knows about wigs and measures as a concept and a team that actually knows the score as Jim St said without clear visible measures the same goal will mean a 100 different things to a 100 different people if the measures aren't captured on a highly visible scoreboard and regularly updated the wig will disappear into the distraction of the Whirlwind simply put people disengage when they don't know the score it's the sense of winning that drives engagement and nothing drives results more than a team that is fully engaged you'll see that every time you update the scoreboard by practicing disciplines one two and three you've designed a team game that is clear and winnable but that game is still on the drawing board in discipline 4 you put that game into action as everyone becomes accountable to each other for high performance try it use the scoreboard Builder tool to experiment with scoreboards for your wig scoreboard Builder tool use this template to create a compelling scoreboard test your ideas against the checklist on the facing page did you get it right check off each item to ensure that the team scoreboard is compelling and will drive high performance as the team been closely involved in creating the scoreboard does the scoreboard track the team wig lag measures and Lead measures is there a full explanation of the wig and measures along with the graphs does every graph display both actual results and the target results where are we now where should we be can we tell at a glance on every measure if we're winning or losing is the scoreboard posted in a highly visible location where the team can see it easily and often is the scoreboard easy to update is the scoreboard personalized the unique expression of the team installing discipline 4 Create a Cadence of accountability discipline four is the discipline of accountability even though you've designed a game that's clear and effective without consistent accountability the team will never give their best efforts to the game you might begin well your team may have the best of intentions to execute but before long the Whirlwind will pull you back into a consuming cycle of reacting to the Urgent author John case described this perfectly in an article in Inc magazine managers put up white bars chalkboards and corkboards they crank out data on defects per thousand average time spent on hold and dozens of other performance measures you can't walk into a plant Warehouse or office without seeing a metric or too charted on the wall for a while the numbers on the charts improve people pay attention to the boards and figure out how to improve their performance but then something funny happens a week goes by when no one updates the scoreboard or maybe a whole month somebody finally remembers to enter the new numbers and notices there hasn't been much improvement so nobody's eager to update the board the next time before long the boards fall into disuse eventually they're taken down with hindsight that outcome isn't so surprising what gets measured does get done but only for a while then questions arise why are they always measuring us who really cares if we make those numbers anyway are we still doing that a scoreboard can come to feel like a dreaded reminder of something we should be doing but aren 27 discipline 4 breaks this cycle by constantly reconnecting team members to the game more crucially it reconnects them in a personal way because they are frequently and regularly accountable to each other they become invested in the results and play to win When leaders hear about discipline 4 they are understandably skeptical another meeting every week can you really accomplish that much in such a short meeting after only a few weeks these same leaders often tell us as our biggest client did I thought another meeting was the last thing we needed now it's the one meeting we won't cancel because it's the most important thing we do discipline 4 asks teams to meet frequently and regularly in wig sessions in which each member of the team makes personal commitments to drive the lead measures because a wig session might sound like just another quick meeting you might see nothing much new about it you're about to see that the Cadence of accountability requires real skill and a degree of precision if you want your team to perform at the highest level what is a wig session a wig session is unlike any other meeting you will ever attend it has a singular purpose to refocus the 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 Illustrated in the model below a wig session is a short intense team meeting devoted to these three and only these three activities the purpose of the wig session is to account for prior commitments and make commitments to move the wig scoreboard One account report on last week's commitments each team member reports on the commitments to move the lead measures that he or she made the prior week two review the scoreboard learn from successes and failures the team assesses whether their commitments are moving the lead measure and whether the lead measure is moving the lag measure they discuss what they've learned about what works and what doesn't and how to adapt three plan clear the path and make new commitments based on this assessment each member of the team makes commitments for the coming week that will raise the lead measures to the required level of performance because team members create the commitments themselves and because they are publicly accountable for them to each other they go away determined to follow through it becomes personally important although this Cadence of accountability is simple in concept it it takes focus and discipline to maintain in the midst of the Whirlwind wig huddles some teams such as the emergency room team in an inner city hospital with little to no discretionary time will need to hold an alternative meeting called a wig huddle Wiig huddles take place once each week for 5 to 7 minutes with the entire team in a circle around the scoreboard where they do three things one review the scoreboard reinforcing their accountability for results two report on last week's team commitment making a single team commitment to raise their performs three make commitments for the coming week what happens in a wig session to illustrate how a wig session should work let's look in on Susan's event management team remember that they have defined a team Wiig to increase revenue from corporate events from $22 million to $31 million by December 31st and two high impact lead measures complete two quality site visits per associate per week upsell our Premium Bar package to 90% of all events and they have built a compelling scoreboard as Susan and her team begin their wig session on Monday morning they have just completed their third month of execution and their scoreboard is up to date Susan good morning everyone it's 8:5 15 let's get started by reviewing the scoreboard review the scoreboard we have good news today we've just completed our third month of execution and we are above Target for our team Wiig of increasing revenue from corporate events our lag measure score for last month is $14 million against a target of $10.4 million congratulations everyone as you can see last week we raised our site visits on lead measure one to a total of 14 our highest result in the past 7 weeks congratulations to our top performers Emily and Richard who each completed for site visits in addition we hit our highest percentage of upselling so far on lead measure 2 with 95% of all events having been offered our Premium Bar package but we've missed our percentage goal for out of the last s weeks while I know we're pleased with last week's percentage we have work to do to demonstrate that we can sustain it report on last week's commitments now for my commitments last week I committed to work with Kim and Karen for 20 minutes each on improving their upselling scripts for our bar package as well as practicing their delivery I completed this I also committed to attend the Chamber of Commerce meeting and to capture at least three new corporate contacts that are not currently holding events at our hotel I was very pleased to come back with contacts for five organizations which I'll pass over to several of you this afternoon for next week I'll complete the final review of our new marketing materials for our Premium Bar package also I'll interview three candidates for the open position on our team and make an offer to the one that best meets our requirements Kim last week I committed to a face-to-face meetings with two companies that have just opened new offices downtown and I did it good news one of them is scheduled for a site visit next week on the scoreboard I completed two site visits but had an upsell conversation with only one of them for a score of 50% which I will improve next week for next week I will have a conversation by phone or in person with two of my clients who held their annual meeting with us last year but haven't committed yet for this year I want to schedule site visits for them to see our new banquet room and hopefully convince them to sign up for this year Bob my commitment last week was to create a special upsell experience for a Premium Bar package with the three clients that were scheduled for site visits since they all represent large event opportunities I did this by getting the chef to create a wine tasting display along with light or derves for each client it went over really well and all three of them upgraded to the premium bar package for their events on the scoreboard I had three site visits and had upsell conversations with all of them for a score of 100% for next week I only have one site visit scheduled so far so I will contact at least five new prospective clients by the end of the day Monday and have at least one of them commit to making a site visit before the end of the week Karen my commitment last week was to send a memories packet to 10 of my clients who held events with us last year in each packet I inserted two two or three photos from their event plus the banquet menu they used along with a handwritten note from me saying how much I hope to see them again this year I completed this and I'm really pleased to report that four of them called to thank me for the photos and two have agreed to site visits to see the new banquet room on the scoreboard I had two site visits and discussed our Premium Bar package with both of them for a score of 100% for next week I'm going to create memories packets for five more clients from last year and send them out Susan's wig session continues in this way until each member of the team finishes reporting note that they are accounting not only to Susan but to each other for their follow through and for their results make high impact commitments for the coming week the effectiveness of the Wiig session depends on the consistency of the Cadence but the results on the scoreboard depend on the impact of the commitments you'll need to guide the team in making commitments that have the highest possible impact start with this question what are the one or two most important things I can do this week to impact the team's performance on the scoreboard let's break down this question so you understand its significance to the wig one or two in discipline 4 following through on a few high impact commitments is far more important than making a lot of commitments you want the team to do a few things with excellence not a lot of things with mediocrity the more the commitments the less likely follow-through becomes in this context it's better to make two high impact commitments and fulfill them exactly than to make five commitments and keep them badly most important don't waste time on peripheral activities invest your finest attention and effort in those commitments that will make the biggest difference I all commitments Made In A Wig session are personal resp responsibilities you're not committing other people to do things you're committing to things you will do although you'll be working with others commit to be accountable only for that part of the effort you can be personally responsible for this week discipline 4 requires at least a weekly Cadence of accountability make only those commitments that can be completed within the coming week so that accountability can be maintained if you commit to something four weeks in the future then for for three of those weeks you're not really accountable if it's a multi-week initiative commit only to what you can do this coming week weekly commitments create a sense of urgency that helps you stay focused when your Whirlwind is Raging performance on the scoreboard this is most critical every commitment must be directed at moving the lead and lag measures on your scoreboard without this Focus you'll be tempted to make commitments to the Whirlwind while they might be urgent these commitments will contribute nothing to the wig if everyone answers this question precisely in every wig session the team will establish a regular rhythm of execution that will drive results Susan's wig session produced commitments that will make that kind of difference work with Kim and Karen for 20 minutes each on improving their upselling scripts for our bar package as well as practicing their delivery attend the Chamber of Commerce meeting and capture at least three new corporate contacts that are not currently holding events at our hotel complete the final review of our new marketing materials for our Premium Bar package interview three candidates for the open position on our team and make an offer to the one that best meets our requirements complete face-to-face meetings with two companies that have just opened new Offices Downtown create a special upsell experience for our Premium Bar package with the three clients that were scheduled for s visits send a memories packet to 10 of my clients who held events with us last year along with a handwritten note team members are more likely to take ownership of commitments they come up with themselves still the leader should make sure the commitments meet the following standards specific the more specific the commitment the higher the accountability for it you can't hold people accountable for vade commitments commit to exactly what you will do when you will do it and what you expect the outcome will be align to moving the scoreboard make sure the commitments move the scoreboard otherwise you're just committing more energy to the Whirlwind for instance the week before your annual budget is do you might be tempted to make a commitment to complete the budget because it's both urgent and important however if the budget has little to do with the lead measures it won't affect the wig no matter how urgent it's seems timely high impact commitments must be completed within the coming week but they should also impact the team's performance in the near term if the real impact of your commitment is too far in the future it won't help to build the weekly rhythm of winning this table illustrates the differences between low and high impact commitments low impact commitment high impact commitment I will focus on training this week I will work with Kim and Karen for 20 minutes each on improving there upselling scripts for our bar package as well as practicing their delivery I will attend the Chamber of Commerce meeting I will attend the Chamber of Commerce meeting and capture at least three new corporate contacts not currently holding events at our hotel I will do some interviews I will interview three candidates for the open position on our team and make an offer to the one that best meets our requirements I will reach out to new clients this week I will complete face to face meetings with two companies that have just opened new Offices Downtown I will call on old clients I will send a memories packet to 10 of my clients who held events with us last year along with a handwritten note note the great strength of commitments specifically aligned to moving the lead measures watch out avoid these common pitfalls that undermine the Cadence of accountability competing Whirlwind responsibilities this is the most common challenge and your team will face when you begin applying discipline for don't mistake whirl emergencies for Wig commitments an effective question for testing a commitment is how will fulfilling this commitment impact the scoreboard if you struggle to answer the question directly the commitment you're considering is likely focused on your Whirlwind holding wig sessions with no specific outcomes the Cadence of accountability will collapse without discipline adherence to to the wig session agenda every wig session needs to account specifically for prior commitments and result in clear commitments for the future repeating the same commitment more than two consecutive weeks even a high impact Commitment if repeated week after week becomes routine you should always be looking for new and better ways to move the lead measures accepting unfulfilled commitments the team must fulfill their commitments regardless of their day-to-day Whirlwind when a team member fails to keep a commitment regardless of all the work you've done to install 4 DX you face the moment that matters most if you can instill the discipline of accountability in your team they will beat the Whirlwind every week however if you're casual about accountability for commitments as well as for results the Whirlwind will overwhelm the wildly important goal let's see how Susan handles this important moment in the wig session Susan Jeff you're next Jeff thanks Susan well I had committed to contact several of my clients from last year about a site visit but as you all know I also had a major event taking place in the hotel last week since this was my largest group of the year I wanted to be sure that it was successful so I gave them a lot of personal attention and when the projector in the main Ballroom crashed I had to to scramble to get another one I spent a lot of time making sure the client wasn't upset and that things were back on track before I realized it the week was gone and there just wasn't time in essence Jeff is saying that he couldn't keep his commitment because of his Whirlwind what's more damaging Jeff believes that he shouldn't be held accountable for his commitment if his Whirlwind is significant enough this is where execution breaks down most commitments we make are conditional for example when a team member says I'll have that report to you by 9 Tuesday morning what he really means is unless something urgent comes up but something urgent always comes up it's in the nature of the everpresent Whirlwind if you let the Whirlwind overwhelm your commitments you'll never invest The energy needed to progress the execution discipline starts and ends with keeping your wig session commitments that's why Susan's job as the leader particularly in the first few wig sessions is to set a new standard commitments are unconditional as a client of ours says whenever we make a commitment on our team we know we have to find a way to make it happen no matter what how should Susan respond step one demonstrate respect Susan Jeff I want you to know that the event last week was a huge success and without you it could have been a disaster everyone on this team understands how hard you worked and how important this client is to us thank you for everything you did in this crucial First Step Susan shows Jeff that she respects him as a team member but she also shows the team that she respects the Whirlwind if she skips this step she'll send two incorrect messages that Jeff is not valued and that the Whirlwind is not important step two reinforce accountability Susan Jeff I also want you to know how important your contribution is to this team without you we can't reach our goal this means that when we make a commitment we have to find a way to fulfill it no matter what happens during the week this is a challenging moment for both Jeff and Susan but because Susan has made it clear that she respects Jeff and the demands of the Whirlwind Jeff should be able to see the importance of doing his best for the team step three encourage performance Susan Jeff I know you want to help us follow through can we count on you to catch up next week by fulfilling last week's commitment as well as the one you were planning on making for next week Susan gives Jeff the opportunity to report with real Pride that all commitments have been fulfilled bringing this important interaction to a successful close is very important it's important to Jeff because he can now keep his commitment to the team it's important to the leader because the team sees she's committed to the Ford DX discipline and it's important for the team to know that a new standard for performance is expected without unconditional commitments you can't drive the black into the gray the gray Whirlwind will simply fill in the black commitments that's the story of execution breakdown weekly commitments ham Smith one of the founders of Franklin cvy has said if your entire paycheck was B based on this one commitment two things would happen automatically you would be more careful in making the commitment and you would be absolutely certain to follow through this is the purpose of the wig session to make commitments intelligently and with the determination to keep them regardless of the Whirlwind keys to successful wig sessions hold wig sessions as scheduled keep wig sessions to the same day at the same time in the same place every week including electronically regardless of the Whirlwind if you're gone delegate leadership of the session to another team member keep the sessions brief maintain a Brisk and energetic Pace a rule of thumb sessions shouldn't run more than 20 to 30 minutes take too long and the session risks turning into a whirlwind meeting set the standard as the leader begin every wig session by reviewing the overall results on the scoreboard and then reporting on your own commitments by reporting first you show you're not asking anything of the team that you're unwilling to do yourself post the scoreboard update the scoreboard before the session and make sure it's present you can't hold a wig session without the scoreboard it reconnects the team to the game and indicates what's working and what isn't without it the wig session is just another meeting celebrate successes reinforce commitment to the wig by congratulating both the team and individual members on successfully keeping commitments and moving the measures share learning through the weak people will discover what does and doesn't move the lead measures they will also discover that some measures work better than others everyone needs this information refuse to let the Whirlwind enter limit discussion to commitments that can move the scoreboard defer dialogues about the Whirlwind the weather morning traffic or sports for other settings clear the path for each other remove obstacles for each other clearing the path does not mean passing a problem to someone else but leveraging the strengths of the team if you agree to clear the path for someone it becomes one of your commitments for the week and requires the same follow through as any other commitment execute in spite of the Whirlwind hold team members unconditionally accountable for their commitments regardless of the Whirlwind if a commitment is missed one week it must be accounted for the following week the payoff we began this section of the book with the team at store 334 who were faltering in their attempt to apply 4dx it just wasn't working one day for example Jim found only day old bread on the bakery rack and nothing but cookie crumbs in the display case Yolanda he called for the bakery manager she appeared covered with flower and simmering mat when he pointed at the scoreboard I have too much to do to worry about that scoreboard she retorted hands on hips I got a big catering order that'll take all day and I've got to do something about inventory cuz I'm running out there's just no time I'm under staffed Copus was alive and well despite all the effort choosing the wig the lead measures the scoreboards nothing had really changed in the store we pinpointed the reason the fourth discipline was completely missing there was no Cadence of accountability there was no regular weekly accounting to say here's what I did last week and here's what I'm going to do this week to move that score so we pleaded with j to meet with the staff and ask each one this simple question what is the one thing you can do this week that would have the most impact on the scoreboard Jim Held his first wig session the next day he promised it would take only a few minutes around the store Scoreboard when the department heads gathered Jim started with the bakery manager Yolanda what is the one thing just one thing you could do that would have the biggest impact on the store condition scoreboard this week surprised by Jim's Earnest look Yolanda asked you want me to choose Jim nodded and waited I guess I could get the back room cleaned out okay and how would that move the score on store conditions well it's kind of cluttered I've got a lot of extra racks out on the floor if I can get the backro cleaned up I can get some of that stuff off the floor it had looked better great just that one thing Yolanda that's it then he turned to the seafood manager Ted what's the one thing you could do this week that would have the biggest impact on your store condition score I have a big promotion this week Ted replied I'll be focused on the Lobster special we are preparing for that's what I'm doing that's great Ted I know that's important and you need to do that but how is that going to move the scoreboard oh I see what you're getting at something clicked for Ted the special while important wouldn't by itself contribute to improving store conditions the wildly important goal yeah okay Bobby's been here 3 weeks and doesn't know how to set up the displays in the morning I'll get him trained and he can back me up perfect Jim responded ask yourself who is coming up with these ideas Jim or his department heads do you think that makes much of a difference was Jim micromanaging now no the staff members themselves were choosing what to do to move the score he had been micromanaging not because he wanted to be an overbearing boss but because he didn't know what else to do so Jim's staff met every week around the scoreboard committing to each other to do just one thing to move the score as the team started working in rhythm in a Cadence of accountability to each other their attitudes changed and the store changed after 10 weeks the average score on store conditions Rose from 13 to 38 on the scale of 50 furthermore their strategic bet paid off as the scores on store conditions went up so did the revenue store 334 the worst of 250 stores when on to outproduce the rest of the Zone in year-over-year sales a few months later we were invited to a debrief meeting with the president of Jim's division to hear Jim report on the progress of the store he told them things are going so well I didn't even have to go in this morning the divisional president asked him what has this change meant to you personally Jim replied I was going to carry this store on my back until I could get a transfer now you can leave me there as long as you want Jim Dixon and his team now knew how it felt to win at a wildly important goal they didn't need external motivation link httpwww Forex book.com q334 vid deep down everyone wants to win everyone wants to contribute to goals that really matter it's so disheartening to push and push day in and day out out and wonder if you're making a difference that's why 4dx is so vital the people at store 3304 learn that the disciplines make all the difference between just pushing that rock up the hill forever or taking it over the top the deliverable the deliverable for discipline 4 is a regular frequent wig session that moves the lead measures but far beyond this the ultimate outcome of discipline 4 is a Cadence of of accountability that produces not only reliable results again and again but also a high performance team discipline 4 requires real skill and a degree of precision in making and keeping important commitments discipline 4 keeps your team in the game every week as the members connect their personal contributions to the most important priorities of the organization with this comes not only the awareness that they are winning on a key goal but that they have become a winning team which is the ultimate return on the investment you make in 4 DX try it use the wig session agenda tool on the next page to prepare for a session wig session agenda tool distribute this agenda electronically or on paper at the beginning of the wig session after you hold the session check it against the criteria on the facing page did you get it right check off each item to ensure that the wig session will drive high performance are you holding wig sessions as scheduled are you keeping the sessions brief brisk and energetic 20 to 30 minutes is the leader the model for reporting and making commitments do you review an updated scoreboard do you analyze why you're winning or losing on each measure do you celebrate successes do you hold each other unconditionally accountable for your commitments does each team member make specific commitments for the coming week do you clear the path for each other finding ways to help team members who encounter obstacles to keeping their commitments do you keep the Whirlwind out of the wi session automating 4dx now that we've reviewed the process for installing 4dx in your team let's explore the powerful support and insight that automating 4dx can bring in our experience your chances of successfully implementing Ford DX go way up if there are tools and automation to support it for more information about how to implement the 4dx principles and tools to help you get started go to team. my4dx.com the website also helps you answer these questions what percentage of people on my team or within my organization are updating their scoreboards making weekly commitments against lead measures and holding wig sessions in this chapter we will use the capabilities of this software to illustrate how technology can support and enhance your team's ability to produce results capabilities that you will need regardless of the technology you use Link HTTP www.4 deo.com qr/ my4dx viid capturing the game any automated system should fully capture the game you've built in 4dx in this chapter we'll will describe the five major components of your 4dx game you need from any system one your team's organizational structure and team members two your wig and from X to Y by1 lag measure as well as your week by week targets for performance three your lead measures in their daily or weekly performance standard four your team's commitments from last week and status on follow through as well as commitments for next week five add a glance summary tracking of wigs lead measures wig sessions and commitments although most organizations are data Rich these things are rarely tracked if so they are spread across multiple systems so that the data can only be Consolidated manually in keeping with discipline 3 your team will develop a physical scoreboard designed to create both public accountability and team engagement my4dx.com provides an electronic scoreboard for tracking the team's entire performance from the moment you start working on the wig until you achieve it more than this my4dx.com also tracks individual commitments which the scoreboard doesn't track the program ultimately provides you with an execution dashboard so that you can monitor the entire Wiig effort in detail in my4dx.com your execution dashboard looks like this let's review the main features of your execution dashboard using the example of Susan's event management team from the previous chapters for DX component number one the leader in each team member with specifics about their role as well as elements of personalization such as photos first notice that the dashboard is specific to Susan and her team although many teams in your organization may be using the software each team has its own unique dashboard on the upper left you see Susan's name along with the names of her team members for DX component number two the wig a lag measure X toy by when and targets for week toe performance moving to the right on the dashboard you see the wig for Susan's team increase revenue from corporate events from $22 million to $31 Million by December 31st the only way to tell if you're winning or losing on your team wig is to know the score my4dx.com displays your lag measure in terms of dollars percentages or numbers to create clear accountability each week the team can record not only their actual performance but also that performance against their target for the week this enables the team to instantly answer the questions where are we now where should we be now from the execution dashboard you can instantly see that Susan and her team are winning at their team Wiig both from the numbers and from the status color green for DX component number three the lead measures and targets for week- toe performance for each lead and lag measure you see only what you need to know you know where you are now where you should be and where you ultimately have to get to based on where you are relative to where you should be the indicator is green yellow or red continuing to the right you see the two lead measures Susan's team is acting on to drive achievement of their team W IG complete two quality site visits per associate per week upsell our Premium Bar package to 90% of all events the actual results on the lead measures are entered each week so the team knows if they are winning or losing on them and what's even more important if the lead measures are predictive of moving the lag measure from the execution dashboard you can see that Susan and her team are performing well on the lead measure of site visits but are below their target for upsells knowing these things Susan and her team are now prepared to make commitments that will move the scores on both their lead measures and ultimately their team Wiig for DX component number four enter commitments and indicate whether those commitments were fulfilled team members can look back at the commitments they made last week in account to the team for their follow through in this example fulfillment of the commitment is indicated by the check box beside the commitment team members can also make commitments for the coming week to move the scores even further in the image on the previous page you can see the expanded view of one weekly commitment for Susan now all the components of Susan's game are captured in one location making the team's overall performance easily and quickly understood the wig session each week Susan's team meets for their 30-minute wig session using the Cadence we've described above prior to the session each member of her team has three important responsibilities one enter personal performance on the lead measures two check off the commitments from last week that were fulfilled three enter commitments for next week all three of these responsibilities should be taken care of before the session begins this way the wig session can move at a fast clip while still providing significant personal accountability as each team member's results are displayed one by one during the meeting for example in the last chapter we read that Kim reported the following results Kim last week I committed to having face-to-face meetings with two companies that have just opened new offices downtown and and I completed that good news one of them is scheduled for a site visit next week on the scoreboard I completed two site visits but only had an upsell conversation with one of them for a score of 50% which I will improve next week for next week I will have a conversation by phone or in person with two of my clients who held their annual meeting with us last year but have not yet committed for this year I want to schedule site visits for them to see our new banquet room and hopefully convince them to resign for this year while Kim is reporting Susan advances my for dx.com to display Kim's results in this same way all members of Susan's team can see their individual results displayed as they report on them verbally at the end of the meeting Susan once again shows the results for the entire team and offers any final guidance or recognition if Susan's team worked in different location or if any member were away during the meeting everyone could easily access my4dx.com through the internet and view the same display as if they were in the room with the team this is particularly effective for maintaining accountability with teams that are dispersed geographically in these situations the software also serves in place of a physical scoreboard automating Ford DX across the organization we've intentionally limited the discussion of Technology supporting for for DX to those capabilities that are most essential to you in your team for more information you can visit team. my for dx.com for DX component number five at a glance summary tracking on wigs lead measures wig sessions and commitments however let us emphasize that the need for automation is even more vital when multiple teams within an organization are launching 4dx without these capabilities for At a Glance assessment of process adoption and results it will be difficult if not impossible to effectively Drive results to meet this requirement you will need summary reporting that is Graphics based and that instantly shows the execution dashboard for the entire organization an example of this type of reporting is the team status report from my4dx.com this report which shows the execution dashboard as on line per team contains the following information sessions held as a percentage how many team members are attending wig sessions commitments made how many team members are making weekly commitments commitments kept how many commitments are executed lead measures where are the lead measures in relation to where they should be wigs where are the lag measures in relation to where they should be red green and yellow status signals enable you to see in only a few seconds if you're winning or losing for your entire organization from an organizational perspective the leader's job is to get the red out starting from the right with Wiig sessions and moving to the left toward achieving the wigs themselves if this scoreboard is entirely green all teams in your organization are following the Ford DX process fully and achieving the results you set out to get if participation rates are high but execution percentage rates are low it means people are making a good effort to identify the activities that drive their scoreboards but are not following through leaders can zero and on areas of execution efficiency and provide support we believe that two of the greatest drivers of success and 4dx are Simplicity and transparency and with the right technology you can have both this means getting a clear line of sight across the organization and showing results for every team in real time it ALS o means seeing the status of wigs from the top level to the Frontline teams including everyone's lead and lag measures most important you can see instantly where you're winning and where you're losing section three installing Ford DX in your organization in section one of this book you learned about the four disciplines of execution as an operating system for achieving the goals you must achieve section two was about installing Ford DX in a work team we now want to expand our scope to installing Ford DX in an organization made up of more than one team whether you're a small business or a multinational corporation or something in between in section three you'll find out what some outstanding leaders have accomplished with 4dx they will tell you how 4dx has actually transformed not only individual work teams but entire corporations and major agencies of government into high performance organizations their experience shows that Ford DX is not just another program but a transformative operating system for any organization here you'll also learn the specific steps for focusing people on wigs and rolling out Ford DX across the entire organization the FAQ chapter provides answers to the questions people most frequently ask us like section two this section is designed to be a field guide for leaders turn to section three whenever you need to Direction and insight into the great challenge of moving a whole organization to execute with Excellence best practices from the best throughout this book we've presented Concepts and methods for implementing the four disciplines which represent the best of all we've learned when working with thousands of leaders however without the opportunity to hear from some of these leaders and to read their own stories and their own words this book would not be complete in this chapter we have chosen four leaders not only because they are each exceptional in their skills and experiences but also because they have utilized the four disciplines to achieve extraordinary results often on a very large scale these stories show a real world view of the challenges and the rewards that can be achieved when your team applies these powerful principles providing a perspective that can be conveyed fully only by those who have implemented them Alec Covington and Nash Finch Alec Covington is President and chief executive officer of Nash Finch the second largest publicly traded Wholesale Food distributor in the United States in terms of Revenue serving the retail grocery industry and the military commissary and exchange systems annual sales are approximately $5.0 billion the team at Nash Finch implemented the four disciplines of execution and in only 6 months produced remarkable results the following are Alex insights into 4 DX as well as his description of that experience we've now come through more than 6 months of implementing the four disciplines and as I look at the results I can only say it's absolutely fantastic in fact it's almost unbelievable how well our team has performed against their wigs the process has been followed the meetings have been conducted as they should have the regular updates have been there and finally the scoreboards are exciting easy to read and easy to understand today we have a great story to tell about how our leaders are using the four disciplines to make a difference and leave their fingerprints on our company over my years in this business I've said many times that in the absence of a crisis transformative change is almost impossible when you walk into a business that's a few days away from bankruptcy you automatically have everyone's attention customers are worried employees are worried about whether they're going to have a job vendors are worried about how are they going to get paid or even if they're going to get paid because of this uncertainty customers are willing to change and employees are willing to do things differently and they are willing to do it today not tomorrow so the crisis gives you full alignment on the sense of urgency and you immediately narrow your focus even if you have 100 problems you know that you can't possibly solve them in the time that it takes to solve a crisis that's why a crisis is actually a catalyst for change but when the crisis is over the next challenge is charting the long-term path I always dread that period because it's the one that creates all the frustration all the stress and all the disappointments during that period the Whirlwind always outweighs the Strategic plan it's not a phenomenon that's unique to Nash Finch it's been true in every company I've been with despite these challenges we've been able to move our strategic agenda forward but it's required a different approach in the absence of a crisis and as we began to implement the four disciplines it allowed us to have an organized approach that replaced the sense of urgency created by a crisis the four disciplines allowed us to do what we did when we were having a crisis focus on only the most important things and drive them forward and it's worked beautifully now as we continue to engage in this process and learn more about it it's become part of our DNA part of our culture today I can walk into a meeting unrelated to the four disciplines and I will still hear someone in the meeting say what's the X to Y by when it's a beautiful program that has been deployed well by Nash Finch one that will chart the path of change within our company for many years to come today we understand our progress as well as the rest of the way forward we know what we need to do to achieve our wigs and land This Plane safely we're also asking what will the new wigs be for next year the four disciplines have literally become a part of how we run our business we're also celebrating the success that we've had here we know that we can't leave celebration and fun behind if we do we'll be missing one of our building blocks the four disciplines work perfectly when we combine them with celebration and fun both for the successes we we have and for those individuals and teams that are excelling in that process when I travel to facilities and don't see banners celebrating things that have been accomplished I always ask why the answer is always because we're too busy with our Whirlwind but now we have a new agenda the four disciplines along with our wigs and wig sessions in the Hast of getting all those things done we now make sure that we don't fall short on celebration and fun and you see it in the banners I also want to add that I'm a leader who knows that he can't manage everything so I look for one or two key indicators that can tell me what's really going on in the business my lead indicator for the four disciplines is the attendance at and consistency of the wig sessions that's the only question I ever ask because I believe that if people are engaged and they're consistent about the meetings and the reports eventually peer pressure will take over in the rest of the process will take care of itself it all revolves around participation and engagement the second indicator I watch for is how prepared people are in the wig sessions and do you know how I gauge that by how long they last wig sessions are designed to be short concise meetings that move the teams forward if they're taking too long something's not working you see most companies have meetings so the leaders can report on how well well they did against a goal or an objective that the senior leaders gave them it's as if the powerful people on high right the tablets in stone pass them down throughout the company and then ask you to come in once or twice a year on how well you did inspiring isn't it the question we need to be asking is what really have been the results of running things this way not much what the four disciplines allow you to do is to make a major Paradigm Shift one in which the senior leader simply say to the organization that we want to grow and we want to move forward by this much through our wigs with X to Y by when then the leaders and teams that make up the company decide what the team wigs and Lead measures are to achieve them they decide the key elements of how we track progress the real difference here is that the leaders are then reporting on their own goals instead of the ones given to them from above today with the four disciplines our people talk about the things they decided to do the time frame in which they decided to get them done and the progress they made toward their own goals Corporate America is all about asking people to perform to achieve somebody else's goals but if it comes down to making or missing your goal that's when the creative juices start flowing achieving a corporate budget will never be as important as achieving goals that you set for yourself and keeping commitments that you made for yourself it's amazing how different the behavior is this is powerful stuff in our company I don't think we have any bad people they're all just wonderful but sometimes they're wonderful people that have been with the company 20 30 or more years and they just can't get over the fact that we have to make changes one way of working has to go and new methods and processes have to come in for some people we just can't figure out a way to sell or convince or otherwise make them understand that things have to change with the four disciplines you have a process that makes clear what needs to change and it helps hold everyone accountable for accepting and adapting to those changes it also lets you take the learnings from one way of working and apply them to other parts of the business I remember running my first Warehouse when I was in my 20s I didn't understand much about how a warehouse operated because I grew up as a store manager and didn't learn about warehousing until I got involved in the distribution business I remember walking through the warehouse one day when something caught my eye two employees were on break and were playing checkers and that bothered me I sat down with the two guys and said I'm delighted that you're playing checkers but why are you playing checkers now they said we're on our break and this is what we look forward to every day do you know what bothered me about that it was that the work was so boring the only thing these guys could look forward to was playing checkers years later I was walking through a different facility and I saw a big upright piano when I asked what an upright piano was doing in the middle of the manufacturing plant I was told to wait a few minutes and I would see soon after a bell rang and all the employees gathered around the upright piano to sing songs from their Russian Homeland I thought wouldn't it be something if you could channel that energy and connect it to the business instead of singing for 15 minutes what if the enthusiasm was about the business today as I walk through some of our facilities since we've implemented the four disciplines I see the equivalent of checkers and the upright piano for our employees they are having fun they are engaged it's their Checkers instead of coming to work every day and just pulling cases they come to work with meaning more important they're working on things they can understand it's not iida and it's not revenue and it's not earnings per share it's how many cases can we select in an hour it's focusing on things that connect with their world that allows them in addition to doing their work to have some element of fun and feeling of accomplishment this is what makes the four disciplines powerful all the way through the company when we can do those kinds of things it's very powerful another thing that I would encourage you to think about as you're engaged with the four disciplines is to look for Future Leaders as you attend wig sessions you'll see people that are growing up in your organization that are becoming leaders maybe today they drive forklifts maybe they receive trucks or maybe their inventory control people but through this process you're going to see them firsthand now I can't say that without also looking at the other end of the spectrum because the Wiig session doesn't just identify the people that are doing exceptionally well it also identifies I the people who are not showing up for the meetings and who are not making their commitments these are people that are holding you back the ones who are keeping you from reaching your goals ultimately the four disciplines of execution will enable you to identify promote protect and retain the people who are accomplishing their goals and it will help you identify those who are not the greatest results we've seen are coming from teams that have the most Vivid and the most recognizable scoreboards that can be easily understood by the broadest group of people when we walk into some of these warehouses it's amazing to see how creative people are out of a 100 employees somebody will be an artist we've proven that over and over again if you have a problem take a look at your scoreboard and ask yourself these questions is it visible does it really connect with the people that need to see the score is it simple and easy to understand did the people people who are going to use it help create it or was it created for them a scoreboard is a very powerful thing some of the ones you'll look at might seem like the goofiest things in the world but they may also be the most powerful because they mean something to the people that need to see them every day it doesn't matter that you don't like it it really doesn't the last advice that I would offer is that when you celebrate your accomplishments don't thank the senior leaders please the senior leaders didn't do anything I've never seen a single wig that was accomplished by a senior leader let me tell you the way it really works the senior leaders found the tool they owned up to the fact that things weren't working and found a process that would help but it's the leaders and teams down in your organization that embraced it learned it used it and delivered remarkable results the senior leaders don't need to be thanked the senior leaders need to thank the leaders and teams down on the front line at the end of the day senior leaders are like golf caddies if the leaders on the front line tell you they need a nine iron your job is to give them a damn good nine iron if they need a new driver your job is to get them one that will hit the ball farthest and that's exactly what happens with the four disciplines this program has provided a means by which we can pitch the ball end because of the disciplines and the organization around it we can actually know that the ball is going to be caught by someone who's accountable on the other side it's beautiful it's also provided a means for leaders and teams to get the ball and run with it to be held accountable for it but also to be recognized when they do a great job it's very powerful Dave Gren and Marriott International Incorporated Dave Gren president of the americaas for Marriot International began by implementing the four disciplines and eight pilot hotels these eight hotels produced results so significant that Dave and his team went on to conduct two progressively larger pilots and ultimately implemented the four disciplines and more than 700 Marriott Hotels over the next 2 years which is one of the largest and most significant implementations of the four disciplines worldwide link httpwww 4 deo.com qr/ marot the following are his insights as well as his description of that experience let me start by explaining that Marriott a leading hospitality company has nearly 3,700 properties across the globe and approximately 129,000 employees and Company operated hotels the Marriott family established the core values and culture of the organization 85 years ago which are instilled in the employees today J Willard Marriott believed that if you take care of your employees they will take care of your guests and the guests will come back the spirit of service reflected in this philosophy is the Cornerstone of the company's strong culture High employee satisfaction and continued growth we continue to look for ways to innovate and improve our operations while enhancing our culture therefore as soon as I heard about the four disciplines of EX ution I thought it was perfect for our business it was almost as if someone had watched our operation and designed a process that was customized for exactly what we needed the best evidence of this is that it's one of those processes that people run toward instead of away from in fact we have yet to ask a single hotel to participate they all come to us and ask to be part of it we began our implementation of the four disciplines with eight pilot hotels by the end of the pilot every one of them had achieved remarkable results perhaps the best example comes from our largest company operated Hotel the Marriott Marquee in New York City in the first year of implementing the four disciplines the team achieved the highest guest satisfaction scores in this great hotel's 30-year history along with this achievement they also recorded their highest ever results in both revenue and profit as most leaders know achieving record results results and sales profit and the satisfaction of your customers in the same year is quite an achievement based on this success we then made the decision to implement the four disciplines in over 700 hotels in North and South America in pursuit of a wildly important goal to become the preeminent lodging company on both continents we began by establishing a team of experienced leaders within Marriot who would form the core of our infrastructure and who would provide guidance and accountability in partner ship with Franklin cvy establishing this internal team was an important investment for us and once that was in place we were then ready to systematically implement the four disciplines in each of the hotels and our major markets as you can imagine this was a large scale effort one that required a significant investment from our leaders at every level but in city after City the leaders were not only committed they were passionate about the power of these disciplines and their ability to used them to achieve their wildly important goals over a 2-year period we certified almost 4,000 leaders and completed the implementation of the four disciplines in over 700 hotels as well as in our national sales teams and many of our centralized corporate teams such as human resources and information technology during this time about 10,000 employees began using the process and recorded 1 million commitments toward our wildly important goals this illustrates the high level of Engagement and dedication to the process as well as the scope of the implementation while our plans for further implementation continue we can now see clearly that the four disciplines of execution have given us an operating system for focusing large numbers of people on very precise goals and sustaining that Focus until they are achieved this execution platform allows hotels to create their own targeted goals aligned to the companies Vision with this Clear Vision employees understand how their day-to-day activities relate to the company's overall business results and they feel that they are working toward a common goal as a result we have a level of adaptability Focus engagement and reporting that is unique in our industry as I look back and think about the advice I might offer to other leaders reading this book I want to offer a few key lessons that I believe are important first design your implementation to fit your culture while the for disciplines will work in any culture the method of implementation will vary based on the unique attributes of your organization and your people and what resonates best with them in our culture if I had simply mandated the implementation of the four disciplines at every Hotel it would not have worked while this might have been the most efficient method in our culture what was really needed was Buy in to help us gain this we have the leaders from the eight original pilot hotels many of whom have Decades of experience with us gather with leaders from the other hotels at a regional meeting when the general managers from each of the pilot hotels stood up and acknowledged that the four disciplines had brought their team a better way of focusing and achieving results it was priceless and when they said we'll never go back to the way we executed before it became contagious as a leader your always tempted to implement the ideas that you believe in most passionately however what you must realize is that if you offer the four disciplines as just another good idea you won't generate the level of commitment needed to be successful we've all implemented ideas where it seemed that we had Buy in initially but later realized that the organization simply allowed them to die a quiet death this doesn't happen because people are against the idea it happens because they're busy in their Whirlwind generating buyin takes longer but the result is that it really works you can mandate speed to Market of any new program but the real test is are they doing it with the four disciplines taking additional time to implement it well will result in a more successful rollout and greater results second realize that it's harder to implement the four disciplines in an organization that's already very successful when you're failing it's it's easy to help your teams see their burning platform and as a result their need to change but when you have an organization that's been really successful for many years it's harder for them to see why they should try something new they are also more likely to challenge the validity of new ideas leaders who are struggling are ready to accept anything that will help them leaders who are succeeding need the time and opportunity to assess an idea on their own and test its worth the pilot results coupled with our service culture and belief that success is never final helped cultivate this leadership by in understanding your culture leaders and how to implement new ideas is another aspect of why a careful roll out is essential third the senior leader must focus on holding all leaders accountable in other words once they're in they have to be all in to do this well you need the tools such as reporting systems and regular accountability that the Ford disciplines and the software my4dx.com provide when the leaders who report to you understand that this is important enough for you to watch every week they will see that it's real and that it's not going away the system rolls up to me and each week I'm reviewing performance the clearest way you demonstrate that this is how we now execute is by holding them accountable for the results as soon as you let one leader off the hook everyone else gets the message and their focus starts to decline the transparency of the system helps with this since all senior leaders including me can view the details at the hotel level even leaders who are passionate and committed need the extra pressure of accountability to help them stay focused when their Whirlwind is Raging fourth make sure you have the infrastructure to support your implementation if your implementation is small having one or two four disciplines coaches may be enough for the size and speed of the roll out we were planning I knew that without a sufficient infrastructure we couldn't be successful making this level of investment upfront is never easy it requires people of real talent we chose very experienced people leaders who had operational experience in our hotels and who had the credibility to influence others and get the job done looking back this was one of the most important decisions we made in addition to talented leaders implementing the four disciplines we also knew that we needed the right tools systems and training to support the effort we branded the program to show our company's commitment to this process and make it part of the culture we also designed and built reporting tools to track participation and results and used virtual training since we were launching across 15 countries in multiple languages we needed different Training Method methodologies to implement the program in the desired time frame and ensure speed to Market fifth remember that implementing the four disciplines will raise the engagement of your team since I began by emphasizing the importance of understanding your culture I'll come full circle by emphasizing that the four disciplines can take even a very strong culture such as the one that we enjoy to an even higher level because each individual on the team sees the impact of their performance on the team scoreboard every week they are not only accountable but are also engaged they can clearly see that what they do each day really matters while this has always been true in our company implementing the four disciplines has helped us to strengthen this level of Engagement as I have stated each employee has a Clear Vision of the goals which are tied directly to our core values everyone from our Frontline staff to our management teams to our cosos understand how what they are doing impacts the company and this gives our employees a strong voice everyone can make a difference we are innovating at the ground level while Ford disciplines focuses on execution to drive business results it has the added benefit of giving employees skills to use Beyond work and throughout the rest of their career we've heard countless stories from employees of how they've use the concepts to make improvements in their personal lives providing this Education and Training training and investing in our leaders is yet another way our employees are further engaged today as we continue to roll out the four disciplines it remains a unique investment in our company and in our people one that is changing the way in which we operate daytoday whether we focus our wildly important goals on market share profit or guest satisfaction we know that the four disciplines will enable us to achieve them for great business skills or great life skills the four disciplines is an all-encompassing process about how you hold yourself accountable how you hold others accountable and ultimately how you execute better lean talbet and Comcast lean talbet is the senior vice president of Comcast's Freedom region which includes Comcast's headquarters in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas prior to that she was senior vice president of the greater Chicago region GCR where she was responsible for Marketing sales and operations in Central and Northern Illinois Northwest Indiana and Southwest Michigan the GCR was one of Comcast's largest operating regions but also one of the most challenged in terms of performance in Leanne's words while the potential was there the region had not been able to change the trajectory of its performance two years later lean and her team had moved the greater Chicago region from last place out of more than a dozen regions to second in the company's internal rankings and Rising the following are Leanne's insights as well as her description of her experience in implementing Ford DX throughout the region do in Chicago what you did in your previous region take it to first place that was the mission I was given by the president of Comcast cable as I interviewed for the leadership position of the greater Chicago region a region known for two important characteristics it was one of the largest in size representing 10% of the company and it was not performing well over the past nine years the region had remained last in virtually every metric Comcast used to measure performance despite a succession of leaders to put it simply this wasn't a happy place and talented people didn't want to risk the move to the Chicago region because they thought it could negatively impact their careers the stage was set it was clear that we needed to improve our results quickly and show that this important region was on track and because of the importance of the region we were also getting a significant level of attention what we refer to as the love that added additional pressure simply put we needed a discipline plan to execute with excellence and we needed it now we began by ensuring that the right leadership team was in place one that would create a culture of diverse thought respect and accountability this ultimately meant that 70 % of the people in leadership roles had to change as we work to create a visibly engaged team of leaders next our team needed to believe they could win so we looked for every opportunity to celebrate a success no matter how small at first they were hard to find but over the next several months success bred more success and our team slowly began to believe in themselves we also had key champions in the company that were engaged with us and they helped to E our success throughout Comcast reinforcing the team's new mindset with these foundational elements in place we then knew we needed to find the one Focus that would be our primary Catalyst for dramatic Improvement a difficult assignment when there were so many areas of our operation needing attention we've all heard that when the student is ready the teacher appears and this is exactly what happened for us one of the leaders on our team happened to attend a luncheon on the Ford disciplines of execution he returned from that luncheon and walked straight into my office saying we need this when I listened to the four disciplines audio CD that night on my way home I had to agree in fact I couldn't wait to get started my team was trapped in its Whirlwind and I was convinced that the four disciplines were the way out there was only one problem as a region we were not yet achieving our goals as a new leader I faced the difficult decision of justifying money spent on a new program while we were simultaneously eliminating all but the most critical expenses more personally I also worried whether making this investment might mistakenly signal that I didn't believe my team was capable of turning the region around on our own in the end I took the risk I truly believed that the four disciplines would give us the structure and the focus we needed throughout the implementation I never saw the four disciplines as a training program or even a management program instead the four disciplines were an operating system that would enable us to sustain our necessary Whirlwind while also moving the needle on our most important objectives in essence the four disciplines would give us a way to systematically work the plan we had created and ensure we delivered results despite the Urgent demands of our day-to-day operations we began quietly with a pilot in the city of Chicago as the third largest city in the country Chicago is a unique environment running a cable system there is a significant challenge one that had resulted in some of our lowest performance metrics despite all our efforts we just couldn't seem to get traction it was the ideal environment in which to prove the four disciplines because if they worked in Chicago we knew they would work throughout the region what happened next to our results and more importantly in the engage engagement of the team drove the decision to implement the four disciplines throughout the entire region a key metric in our business we were able to cut our repeat rate almost in half repeats are when we have to revisit a customer's home to address an issue we've attempted to address at least once prior in addition we doubled the number of customers saved meaning when customers wanted to cancel their services we were able to convince them to stay along with a host of other oper ating metrics that were all moving in the right direction our small investment in the four disciplines helped us reduce costs by more than $2 million in only 5 months Beyond these operating results the effect on the team was dramatic I saw Tech supervisors and these are big guys walking through the Halls wearing pink wigs to their wildly important goal Wiig sessions I saw them in their meetings holding teddy bears laughing in working together Frontline technicians were huddled around the scoreboards every week waiting for their results to be posted and through it all the needle continued to move substantially on our wig because we acknowledged the Whirlwind with our teams we gained needed credibility we were honest in saying that our day jobs would always be there the Whirlwind doesn't go away but we also promised and proved that the four disciplines would allow us to make progress in key areas that would ultimately help to diminish the Whirlwind we also learned how critical it was to have a four disciplines coach with the teams to build that resource into the organization is instrumental to the success of the four disciplines and also helped us to grow our own internal experts our coaches were HR Partners already teamed with the groups who expanded their responsibilities to fulfill the role of Coach making sure wig sessions were held each week that teams found their Cadence scoreboards were created and updated results were celebrated and team members were accountable to fulfill their commitments we also saw an additional benefit emerge as the teams that had already launched started to Pay It Forward by helping newer teams those just launching were invited to attend wig sessions and the summit meetings of more season teams those who were Veterans of the process acted as consultants for other teams in the end we chose the four disciplines to help us Achieve Financial and customer service goals and the results we produced were extraordinary but the cultural impact of the four disciplines on our teams was icing on the cake leading the greater Chicago region to success didn't happen solely because we launched the four disciplines we put a solid leadership team in place quickly assessed our gaps and developed an action plan that would drive results but it all came together when we found the the operating system the four disciplines of execution that enabled us to navigate the journey to winning today we're near the top of the rankings and are continuing to improve with respect to our financial and customer service performance and we have started to receive recognition as an employer of choice including being recognized as a top 100 workplace for 2011 by the Chicago Tribune I really wouldn't have thought all of this progress could have happened so quickly when we first first began our journey I think of the four disciplines like the frame of a house but I always remember it is a house that could not have been built without talented people and the drive hard facts support from above strong leaders and a champion to steer the entire operation BJ Walker and the Georgia Department of Human Services BJ Walker has served in the administrations of two Governors Illinois and Georgia and the mayor of the City of Chicago in 2004 she was appointed by Governor Sunny Purdue to run the Georgia Department of Human Resources a massive Human Services Agency with a combined budget of over $3.2 billion and almost 20,000 in staff the agency had oversight of virtually all of the state's Human Services in 2007 she began using the four disciplines of execution to help move forward reforms across the agency particular particularly in areas where errors in Frontline practice might result in serious injury and or death for their clients under her watch a number of key indicators in child welfare in child support in welfare to work and in food stamp eligibility continue to make significant and sustained progress link httpwww point4 Dex book.com qr/ bjw Walker the following are her insights as well as her description of that experience in 2007 when Governor Sunny Purdue asked me to use Franklin cvy for disciplines of execution I was making slow but steady progress in improving a troubled and crisis-ridden agency however we were clearly struggling to achieve consistency in our performance to fully convince our massive bureaucracy that we were targeting the right priorities to use metrics as a day-to-day tool in our practice on the front line and to weather the storm of what seemed like constant media and political scrutiny there were many days where I felt challenged and burdened by the need to make so many changes with so little time and so few people and resources implementing the four disciplines of execution was a game Cher first it convinced me that results are greatest when the game is played as a team rather than focusing on the talents of a few individual Superstars second it convinced me to stop waiting for reports filled with lag measures to determine whether I was winning or losing data that always arrived far too late to do anything about it I played softball for many years and one of the things I learned is that it's less painful to lose an entire game than it is to endure failure inning by inning when you operate using only lag measures it's like posting the score only after each inning is over you can see that you're losing but by then it's too late to change your game and the losses just keep coming particularly in a human services organization it's easier to just rationalize by saying things like I am doing good work I am helping people I am extremely busy but when you do this you're really just playing the game you know and waiting for the final score if you lose it's only a single moment of pain instead of the day-to-day week to week pressure of your lead measures the good news is that when you apply Focus to your lead measures you see them move and when your lead measures move you start winning on your lag measures tragically most public sector organizations have never had the experience of seeing a winning score every week and as a result seldom think of themselves as winning teams I made it my responsibility to keep my eye on the score every week making it public in the end we sustained this focus and created a team that became used to winning instead of losing third and perhaps most important it convinced me that I had to be willing to learn new behaviors specifically I had to learn to lead from a position on the field as well as from that of a senior executive to step off the pedestal of mission and into the arena of practice and to move nimbly and intentionally between the leader view at 30,000 ft and the team's view on the ground implementing the four disciplines makes you learn to lead differently because you want to win the for disciplines of execution will change the way your team moves the needle on their highest priority goals however it is up to you to determine what you need to do to embed them into your organization we all know how hard it can be to get people to buy into our mission and our goals mostly because they are ours and not theirs however when you implement the four disciplines of execution you learn to do something different to use involvement to generate commitment this begins with cultivating a very specific and for some a very different relationship with your Frontline teams those people who move the transactions that produce results whether it's your sales team customer service Representatives production operators or case managers your first job in implementing the four disciplines is to stimulate an organizational hunger for Success on the overall wig on our team this was particularly challenging because there was never much appetite to talk about death even though Serious injury and death were the forces preventing us from successfully executing our mission it was a war we could not Escape day after day we worried about failing and we also worried about being blamed so when we implemented the four disciplines we pulled our Wiig right out of the heart of our fear reduced by 50% the number of incidents that can lead to death and serious injury for people in our care custody and oversight once it had been said out loud everyone on our team could openly acknowledge it as our real Mission interestingly it was always the work the team wanted to do and for many it was the compelling reason they came back day after day but creating our wildly important goal allowed us to take ownership of what was really our core Mission preventing bad things from happening to vulnerable children and adults and that ownership created a significant shift in our approach instead of waiting to respond after bad things happened we now proactively plan ways to keep them from happening ultimately we used the four disciplines to make ourselves publicly accountable for reducing death and serious injury and as a result began to work as a team to ensure we were successful people often ask me what specific aspect of the four disciplines made the biggest difference for my team my answer is always the same the weekly wig sessions in these powerful meetings the Cadence the rhythm of asking your people what commitments they are willing to make to move the score forward is the process that erases most of the distance between leaders and the actual day-to-day work in government the Cadence constantly brings to the surface policy as well as practice issues that are otherwise invisible to or hidden from executive leaders in addition the wig sessions allow the knowledge and experience of the front line to be shared throughout the organization eliminating the gap between what an organization is ultimately accountable for in the actions of the front line that are driving it in government any outcome of significance is almost always a lag measure whether it's from federal or state entities Governors or Mayors usually it's also a result that has not been achieved in any recent period if at all therefore the leaders are unlikely to know what behaviors would actually promote success and achieving it or alternatively are causing them to fail they feel accountable but aren't sure what it will take to move the needle wig sessions closed that gap between the leader's vision and the work of the front line by putting everybody in the same room the flow of data about lead measures and weekly commitments forces leaders to see and hear from the front line regularly and conversely it provides the front line with unprecedented access to the eyes and ears of executive leaders when they are in a similar wig session with them I can assure you that the bigger and more bureaucratic the organization the more significant this effect is many private sector Business Leaders would be surprised at how easy it is to run a large public sector organization while never really understanding let alone being involved in the day-to-day work the four disciplines compels even the most senior leader to stay in the room with the Frontline and the work the second most impactful aspect of the or disciplines was what I referred to as my second job creating an environment where the right work could be done the right way and for the right reasons that work is principally seen in discipline 2 act on the lead measures this discipline became the glue that connected the front line to the overall wig we needed to achieve as well as to the leaders of their team it wasn't hard to get the front line to see the importance of their day-to-day work they knew how much it mattered what was difficult was convincing them that the leaders had the same perspective and understanding in a Human Services Agency where the threat of death and serious injury is always present it's hard for Frontline workers to trust leaders Who Remain distant the unspoken question is always who will be thrown under the bus if something goes wrong building trust is a large part of leading the four disciplines successfully the best way for leaders to build that trust is by putting them in the middle of the work each week those leaders are accountable for making commitments that help their team for reporting results of the team's efforts to senior leaders and for clearing the path of significant obstacles for their team that's what I call putting leaders in the middle of the work for the leaders on my team these became three absolute requirements as for disciplines leaders we must stay the course on our wigs Frontline teams love assure footed leader particularly when the stakes are high and nothing rattles the confidence of a team like changing the rules in the middle of the game as four disciplines leaders we must give the front line what they need this means playing the team that is already on the field we quickly learned that a high functioning team will take care of its own laggards while low performers and those who resist change will initially slow down the team's efforts it won't last long in Ford DX there there is no place to hide because of the highly visible accountability of results this also means fixing the bureaucracy when it stands in the way of the front line getting the job done often this means fighting the political battles to change a policy remove a restriction confront an issue or even get more funding teams have little use or respect for a leader who cannot clear the path for them as four disciplines leaders we must deliver our own messages on our team this meant that the first person to talk about death and serious injury had to be me if I wanted the teams to do something different then I had to begin by saying it was safe to change our practices and even to operate outside the boundaries of existing policy if it would reduce the number of incidents leading to death or Serious injury as you know from the opening story in this book we were ultimately successful in exceeding our wildly important goal reducing repeat cases of child Mal treatment by a stunning 60% from that experience I want to end with the most important things I learned things that will help any leader implementing the four disciplines embed the language of the four disciplines in your culture one of the easiest ways for people to dismiss accountability is to say they are already doing things that are just like the four disciplines the four disciplines are specific and precise and unless you implement all of them you don't see the real benefit most important when the senior leader stops walking and talking the four disciplines the entire organization immediately stops believing that she is serious ensure that your leaders are clearing the path you should immediately look for a breakdown and execution if you are not hearing clear the path commitments that come all the way from the front line always remember non-moving lead measures on the front line mean non-moving wigs for the organization communicate openly and often to the front line every member of your team needs to see and hear your commitment to the four disciplines and to the achievement of your overall wig I sent weekly and often daily emails directly from my inbox to the front line with no layers of leaders in between filtering my message make sure people know that it is the work on the front line that matters most your team needs to know that the wig must be achieved leadership matters but at the same time they need to know that you know that their work on the front line is what produces bottom line results don't allow the four disciplines to be about you make it clear that even if you leave the four disciplines are about their ability to win focus on raising the performance of your b-level leaders to that of your top performers the single most powerful way to do this is by consistently and Faithfully holding your wig sessions use this discipline to show them how the four disciplines accentuates their leadership and how the success of the team comes from them mid-level leaders particularly in large bureaucracies are often unaccustomed to Leading a winning team it is more often their job to distribute and monitor policies set by others whether they work or not and to manage the organization through periods of transition both up and down the chain of command they need the four disciplines be willing to hold the leadership High Ground in the beginning some people will criticize the four disciplines as being all about the numbers and not about the people involved when this happens you have to hold strong on why the numbers matter this was particularly true in human services where the numbers were always about vulnerable people and effectively helping them live better and safer lives but the principle is true everywhere as the senior leader you must be willing to stand behind the laser focus on performance that the four disciplines bring to your work whether it is about helping children or making widgets when I was introduced to the four disciplines of execution I was facing the greatest challenge of my career my 2,000 employees were completely demoralized we were under constant media scrutiny because of deaths and accidents involving children and I was the sixth leader in 5 years because of these powerful disciplines and because of the hard work and dedication of all the people who dedicated their lives to this Mission we knew that the children in our care were safer and better protected we could not have asked for a greater or more significant outcome focusing the organization on the wildly important with contributing author Scott fely you can see from these four stories that each leader faced the challenge of focusing the minds and hearts of literally thousands of people on a set of wildly important goals when they created Focus their organizations accomplished truly extraordinary things in section one we introduced four rules to help you narrow the focus of your entire organization rules for discipline one one no more than one to three wigs per person at the same time two the battles have to win the war three you can veto but don't diate for a wig must have a Finish Line from X to Y by when while these rules may seem straightforward even simple following them requires tremendous commitment and discipline creating focus is never simple for any organization it only looks simple once it's been accomplished however the results are worth the effort in fact every successful implementation of 4dx begins When leaders take on the difficult challenge of narrowing the organization's focus in this chapter we will expand on these four rules and show you step by step how to translate your organization's complex strategic agenda into a set of focused wigs with clear finish lines with actual examples we'll also show you how to translate those wigs all the way to the front line the result Clarity at every level of the organization and dramatic results at the end of the process translating organizational strategy into wigs the case of opery land when we first met the leaders of the oper Land Hotel in Nashville Tennessee the largest convention hotel in the United States outside Las Vegas they had dozens of urgent priorities including introducing new marketing and advertising programs planning for a 400,000 ft expansion of their 2000 room property launching several initiatives designed to improve their occupancy rate controlling expenses to improve their bottom line engaging in multiple new programs to improve the satisfaction of their guests revamping their Convention Services identifying ways to help their guests more easily navigate the 56 acre property like most leaders they add their hands full it's likely that you have your own list and no matter how often you try to simplify it this dizzying list of priorities feels overwhelming we want you to know that you're not alone as the executive team at op land began the Ford DX process their crucial First Step was focusing the entire Hotel on a wildly important this is never automatic particularly in larger organizations it takes work and that work Begins by answering the question if every other area of our operation remained at its current level of performance which one area would we want to improve the most remember to avoid asking the question what's our most important priority this question question will only result in a never-ending debate as each member of the executive team expressed their ideas about the one area they wanted to see improve the most guest satisfaction Rose to the top as the most impactful the primary reason for this is that the experience of the guest literally impacted every other aspect of their business from revenue to market share it was also a focus to which every employee of the hotel could make a contribution as their focus became clearer Arthur Keith the general manager recommended improved guest satisfaction as the highest level wig for the hotel his role at this point in the process was important and timely leaders should be open and should truly listen and explore Alternatives but they may also need to step in at the right moment to help the team reach a decision the leader must be ready to play both roles primarily participating in the discussion but also willing to Advocate a position selecting a highlevel wig for an entire organization always feels a little like buying a pair of shoes you have to walk around in them for a while before deciding if they feel right don't force the team to decide on the wig too quickly instead just select the wig that seems right and let the leaders walk around in it as they develop supporting wigs to ensure its achievement they can always select a different wig if it doesn't feel right to apply it across the organization a highlevel wig is a serious organizational commitment so leadership teams are often more than a little hesitant to make a choice this is why so many organizations rarely achieve rayal Focus giving your team the freedom to choose and reconsider their choices frees them to take this step before we go to the next step with opery land let's look at where most organizational wigs come from three sources of organiz ational wigs we've noticed that almost every leadership team regardless of Industry size or geography chooses a highest level wig from one of three areas Financial operational or customer satisfaction Financial wigs are measured in dollars whether Topline Revenue bottom line profit or some key measure in between surprisingly less than a third of our clients choose a financial wig as their first priority even though Financial results are always among the highest priorities operational wigs focus on production quality efficiency or economies of scale most leadership teams Focus here initially these wigs often focus on key operational measures such as production volume quality improvements increased market share or expansion into new areas customer satisfaction wigs focus on closing the gap between the current level of performance and the level that represents Excellence whether to customers of a business patients in a hospital or guests in a hotel unlike financial and operational wigs these measures depend on the perception of the customer for mission to wig the highest level wig for your organization is not your mission statement it's also not your vision nor does it often represent your entire organizational strategy your highest level wi IG is a point of laser focus one to which you will give a disproportionate amount of energy because it requires a change in human behavior this diagram helps you see your wig in context of the overall organization if you're like most organizations you have a defined Mission or purpose statement that clarifies why you exist once the mission is defined many leaders articulate what success will look like at some point usually five or more years and in the future this is your vision both your mission and your vision are aspirational meaning they are statements or ideas of what you want the organization to become you then create a strategy to map out how your vision will become a reality we believe that there are usually three components to an effective strategy the first component is what we've termed stroke of the pen these are initiatives that if you have the money and the authority you can make happen simply by deciding to implement them they are often critically important as were many of the initiatives already underway at oy land when they began the 4dx process the second component is the Whirlwind this includes everything your leaders must manage to have confidence that the day job of their teams is being done effectively while leaders use for DX to execute key strategic priorities they must also remain focused on effectively running the core operations these these elements of the business can be monitored through tools such as Norton and kaplan's balanced scorecard this brings us to the third component of your strategy initiatives that will require a change in people's behavior to successfully Implement these are by far the most challenging in any strategy and the primary target of 4 DX for DX applies to the Wiig key battles and the lag and Lead measures this holistic view of your strategy map is helpful because it shows all of your strategic imperatives in their proper place it also reinforces the critical importance of a whirlwind most important the map warns you against blurring the important boundary around Ford DX territory as you begin to see the effectiveness of 4dx in producing results you will be tempted to bring more and more initiatives inside this boundary and if you do you will lose the narrow Focus that is the key to the effectiveness of 4dx link httpwww fordex book.com qrst strategy map translating broad strategy into specific Finish Lines once oiland leaders had chosen guest satisfaction as their highest level wig they needed to set the finish line that would define success the measurement system for guest satisfaction at Opryland tracked only perfect scores which they refer to as top box scores of five on a 1 to five scale this was a very demanding standard far beyond the normal measures of guest satisfaction they asked themselves what would be the highest achievable top box score they could get their top box score from the previous year was 42% meaning 42% of guests gave them a perfect rating while the highest ever recorded was 45% after much debate they decided to go for a lag measure of 55% having set the highlevel wig which we sometimes call the war oiland leaders were ready to move on to the lower level wigs that would ensure Victory what we've referred to earlier as battles once the war is set defining the battles becomes the leader's key responsibility the metaphor of wars and battles is helpful for several reasons first you should ideally fight only one war at a time second all lower level WI WIS battles must be aimed at winning the war rather than at any other objective after all the only reason to fight a battle is to win the war and third you isolate those wigs that are most essential for Success leaders must ask what is the fewest number of battles necessary to win the war the energy level of a team always jumps to a new level when they begin to work on this question a result we saw clearly at auy land the leadership team at auy land had never before wrestled with this question why because they had never forced themselves to narrow their focus to a single War like most leadership teams they were engaged in so many wars that they never even came close to defining battles and as they tried to identify the battles needed for winning the war for guest satisfaction they found so many candidates that the effort was almost overwhelming every leader listed dozens of possible battles but then they realized is that we weren't asking how many candidate battles they could identify we were asking how few were needed to ensure success this is the question that requires real strategic thinking from the leadership team in the end the leaders at auand decided that three critical battles had to be won to raise guest satisfaction to a top box score of 55 arrival experience problem resolution and food and beverage quality arrival experience this battle was essential their research had shown that negative opinions of a hotel formed in the first 15 to 20 minutes were almost impossible to change the higher the quality of that first experience the better the overall impression of the hotel problem resolution the leaders knew that regardless of their efforts things would still go wrong improving guest satisfaction isn't a question of if a problem will occur it's about what you do when it occurs the response of their teams to guest problems could make or break the guest's entire experience they wanted their teams to be world class at resolving problems food and beverage quality because auy land is such a large property guests are less inclined to travel to restaurants outside the hotel in addition most of the hotel's restaurants are considered fine dining and are priced accordingly as a result guest expectations of the quality of the food are exceptionally High Meeting those expectations consistently would significantly raise guest satisfaction scores the leadership team at auand believed that if they could put the energy of the entire Hotel Behind these three critical battles they would change the game winning those three battles would win the war and as soon as they realized this reaching a top box score of 55% began to seem possible this is the real power of a leader leadership team determining the fewest possible battles it enables them to see if their war is winnable choosing the battles however was only half the work now they had to set a Finish Line from X to Y bywin for each battle they had not only to figure out the top achievable score for each battle but also to make sure those scores would add up to winning the war if the battles won't win the war you haven't created an effective strategy or a winnable game remember the key principle of Leverage the lever must move a lot for the rock to move a little the oiland leadership team spent an entire day defining the war and battles and setting the Finish Lines for each when the day was over Danny Jones the head of quality and guest satisfaction said now that we're done it looks so simple like something we could have written on the back of a napkin over lunch he was right but he also knew that the Simplicity and the clarity of the plan would be the keys to its Effectiveness Danny's thoughts were echoed by Arthur Keith the general manager this was the most valuable day we've ever spent together as a leadership team for the first time we can articulate in just a few sentences the direction and strategic bets of the entire Hotel although the excitement of the leadership team at Opryland was a strong endorsement the real impact of this work is seen in the teams at auy land 7 five different operating teams across the hotel were now able to Leverage The Clarity and Direction the leadership team had provided by choosing their own team wig that would ensure victory in one of the three battles a process described in on page 136 for example the battle for a better arrival experience was largely in the hands of the front desk team whose team wig was to improve the speed of checkin however this battle wasn't Theirs to win alone the guest rooms team had a closely aligned team wig to increase room availability for guests needing early check-in which was essential to speeding the check-in process the team that really caught our attention was the bellstand team for years this team had struggled to deliver guest bags more quickly however faced with Antiquated systems and a massive 56 acre property to cover they were still averaging a delivery time of 106 minutes per Gap that's right guests had to wait an hour and 46 minutes for their bags the bellstand team knew that even if the room was available and the check in fast their failure to deliver the bags quickly would ultimately hurt the arrival experience score they chose a team wig to reduce luggage delivery time from 106 minutes to 20 minutes after only a few months of intense focus on this team wi they exceeded their goal by by reducing luggage delivery time to 12 minutes the graphic illustrates the 4dx architecture we've just described for winning the battle arrival experience within the context of the hotel's War for guest satisfaction it's important to remember that each of these teams still spent most of their time on the Whirlwind managing the hotel serving guests and responding to dozens of unexpected challenges each day but now the game had changed each team had had a wildly important goal they could remain focused on in the midst of their day-to-day responsibilities and because that team wi had a Finish Line they were not only accountable for it they wanted to win for each wi each team also defined lead measures created a compelling scoreboard and met every week to make commitments that would drive those scoreboards as we described in section two now when you get 75 teams all driving toward the same overall goal you can do something amazing which they did after 9 months opilan not only reached a top box guest satisfaction score of 55% but went beyond their goal to hit 61% remember they had never before scored higher than 45% now they achieved almost a 50% net Improvement in only 9 months although Gaylord's oldest property ailan now led every other Gaylord hotel in guest satisfaction although we had been optimistic even we did not anticipate this level of improvement could be achieved so quickly for us the auand story serves as a powerful reminder of the untapped talent and potential that exists in even the best run organizations when they move from a vague strategic intent to a set of specific Finish Lines too many organizational goals are hazy and imprecise leaving people wondering what they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to do it they need clear unmistakable Finish Lines so people know exactly what success looks like translating wigs through functionally similar organizations the 75 teams at auy land were very diverse in their functions including Engineers housekeepers front desk clerks bellhops and restaurant teams as well as support services such as Finance accounting and human resources other organizations like retail chains manufacturing facilities or sales teams consist of many similar units that perform the same functions the same 4dx principles apply to them however in multi-unit organizations wigs translate to the front line quite differently as we'll see take our experience implementing for DX with a large retailer with hundreds of outlets as at auand their overall wig Focus focused on improving the guest experience in their case it was to increase likelihood to recommend LTR a customer loyalty measure devised by business strategist Fred Reichel their research had shown a strong correlation between the profitability of their stores and the likelihood that people would recommend them to their friends with this wig in place the leadership team spent an intensive day defining the fewest battles to win the war and finally isolated the three most critical improved customer engagement was of course essential to increasing the willingness of customers to recommend the store this battle focused primarily on whether their Associates were available and eager to help customers find what they needed as soon as they enter the store reduce out of stocks was also critical if a customer wanted a product that was sold out Not only was the sale lost the customer was less likely to recommend the store to others in increased speed of checkout could make a huge difference in the speed-driven world of retailing getting customers checked out and on their way has a disproportionate influence if the last thing customers remember about the store is a frustrating checkout it will influence their perception of the whole shopping experience you might think the battles they chose were obvious but as with operand the leadership team many of whom had spent decades in this industry evaluated dozen of candidate battles before settling on these three they actually Drew Simplicity out of enormous complexity it took time tremendous energy and a little fighting before they landed on this simple but powerful plan when you begin this process remember that The Closer you are to your operation the more complex it is and often the harder it is to narrow your focus in the end does this war and battle structure look simple yes in that simplicity is one of the keys to a successful implementation remember the greatest challenge is not in developing the plan it's in changing the behavior of the Frontline teams that must execute it while managing the never ceasing demands of the Whirlwind now let's see how this multi-unit organization translated the wig to the front lines for the sake of Simplicity we'll describe how one region of the company translated the wigs to districts and how each district translated it to the stores unlike the functionally diverse units at opery land these units all perform the same functions therefore they all adopted the same wigs and battles still they had leeway in defining the Finish Lines the battles selected to increase the likelihood that customers will recommend the store to others so the region chose from X to Y buy when finished lines that were specific to their region then the district leaders who had helped develop the over overall war and battle structure assigned unique from X to Y byin Finish Lines to represent the performance objectives of the district the region leader did not dictate the Finish Lines to The Districts The District leaders took ownership of this responsibility Regional leaders were free to ask for adjustments if they didn't agree with the numbers ultimately the region leader ensured that districts to find a winning game for the region store wigs were the same as District wigs but with unique from X to Y buy one measures for each store however at this level there was a Twist the stores were given the choice with oversight from the district leader to choose the battles that represented the greatest opportunities for the store if already exemplary and out of stocks or customer engagement the store could narrow Focus to another battle in this way two things were accomplished store leaders who could choose their own battles were Al more committed to them they could also focus on the battle that mattered most a clear and executable strategy in this chapter we've described an intense but rapid process for achieving a profoundly simple result at auand with its diverse teams and at the retail chain with similar teams highlevel wigs were defined within a day the result was a clear and simple strategy but more important it was a strategy that could be executed remember that for an organization for DX is not for your stroke of the pen initiatives nor is it for defining all of the measures for monitoring the day-to-day well-being of the operation the Whirlwind it's for driving behavior changes that have to happen because so few leaders and organizations have this kind of discipline your ability to focus the entire organization on what's wildly important might become your greatest competitive Advantage rolling out 4D X across the organization the chapter you are about to read was the most challenging for us to write Our intention is to describe for you a proven method for installing Ford DX not only with your own team but also with multiple teams across a larger organization we've spent years developing this method in our first three years of working through Ford DX with our clients we were able to refine the disciplines to the point where we knew they were right not only in principle but in the practice of producing outstanding results however rolling 4dx across an entire organization had a scratching our heads from the beginning our clients embraced the concepts quickly and in virtually every implementation we saw pockets of success which we called campfires a group of aerospace engineers an individual retail store here and there a team of software developers and a manufacturing plant were some of the isolated pocket pockets of Excellence we encountered these Pockets almost always had leaders who caught the vision of what 4dx could mean for the team and for them personally it drove them to produce great results but replicating this success across a larger organization turning campfires into wildfires was evading us we knew that our installation process needed the same level of refinement that we had brought to the disciplines themselves but first we needed to understand why it wasn't working what doesn't work for more than 30 years Franklin cvy has been one of the most successful training organizations in the world given this Legacy it was inevitable that we would first offer the four disciplines as a training solution it was also wrong as Bernard baroo reportedly said if all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail instructor-led training was what we knew how to do and we did it well in our earliest offerings we pulled dozens of leaders out of the Whirlwind for a few days to teach them the concepts of 4dx and they validated the training as highly relevant and engaging at the end of each session leaders expressed real passion for what they had been taught but we and they had to learn the hard lesson that embracing a concept is not the same as applying it the problem is that the Whirlwind is waiting for you the moment the training session is over by the time you've caught up on the backlog of issues that arose while you were in training the excitement and momentum you felt for the new Concepts are often lost it's also difficult to implement new Concepts when the people you work with don't have the same understanding that you do especially if those concepts are counterintuitive you can find yourself trying to install a discipline that no one's excited about and that runs against the natural tendencies of your team finally even though the four disciplines are easy to understand understand in the end they are still disciplines it takes real work to make them an established part of organization's operation and culture Dr Atul Ganda expresses this challenge well discipline is hard harder than trustworthiness and skill and perhaps even selflessness we are by Nature flawed and Inc constant creatures we can't even keep from snacking between meals we are not built for discipline we are built for not Y and excitement not for careful attention to detail discipline is something we have to work at 29 despite these challenges we often encountered powerful leaders who adopted for DX and produced extraordinary results however they were only a few of the leaders we trained we realized that enabling an entire organization to produce large scale results was going to require a system of implementation that ensured a wildfire of organization success what does work as we studied the leaders and teams where we had been successful we began to develop a very different system of implementing the four disciplines the following are the key aspects of our approach the four disciplines must be implemented as a process not an event in this chapter we will show you six distinct steps for successfully launching the four disciplines across an organization these six steps of apply whether you are implementing the 4 DX with your team or across a larger segment of your organization the four disciplines must be implemented with intact teams rather than working with isolated leaders from different parts of an organization we work with all the leaders necessary to achieve the overall wildly important goal this is critical because achievement of your overall wig almost always requires the combined efforts of multiple teams however this doesn't mean that you should introduce the four disciplines to an entire organization all at once in large organizations we have often found it most effective to work with 10 or at most 20 teams at a time if the overall wig is to increase revenue for example we may begin with 10 sales managers and their teams or 10 retail stores or even 10 departments within a large production operation once the in inial teams begin to have success at drives interest in other portions of the organization and makes the continuing implementation easier the four disciplines must be implemented by the leader our greatest breakthrough came when we realized that the most successful method of implementing the four disciplines was through the leaders closest to the front line instead of relying on one of our Consultants to introduce and launch the disciplines we changed our process to instead focus on equ ipping and certifying leaders to launch with their teams from this point we will refer to this process as leader certification there are several reasons that this change made such a significant difference in our results when you are learning something that you know you will ultimately have to teach you truly learn it in fact the most powerful way to learn anything is to teach it to others which is a principle we have seen at work firsthand in hundreds of implementations when teach something you automatically find yourself becoming an advocate when one of our Consultants taught the process it allowed the leader to stay on the sidelines but when the leader brought the four disciplines to the team he or she had to fully commit in other words when you are the one advocating the disciplines you have to be all in or you know they won't work if you are the one advocating the four disciplines you are accountable to live them no credible leader would introduce the disciplines and then knowingly violate them by consistently failing to follow through when you introduce the four disciplines you generate a different level of response from the team because of your credibility when the disciplines come from a consultant an internal trainer or even a more senior leader within the organization there is a tendency for most teams to wait and see if this is real usually the person they watch first to determine this is you their leader and if you are the one teaching advocating and launching the process they know immediately that it is real when we describe this method of implementation in our programs the leaders immediately grasp the benefits but some are concerned about their own ability to effectively communicate and launch so many changes without question a successful launch requires careful preparation but we want you to know that we have seen thousands of leaders at all levels of skill and experience create excellent launches link httpwww Forex book.com qrcp the Ford DX installation process the following six-step installation process leads not only to results but more important to adoption of an operating system for achieving your most important organizational goals over and over again since most of our clients prefer the speed and efficiency of launching multiple teams simultaneously we will present an overview of how the launch process works with 10 teams or more at once in this multi-team process which we use to certify leaders in 4dx leaders work together for a few days to draft team wigs and Lead measures and then to share those results with their teams to get confirmation and buy in Step One clarify the overall wig if you are leading multiple teams this is about determining your overall wildly important goal the specific process for doing this is described on page 235 step two design the te wigs and Lead measures this step usually requires two full days leaders Learn 4 DX Concepts at a deep level reviewing case study videos and working through real world examples all of which are designed to give every leader a firm grasp on the four disciplines and how they applied this diagram depicts the six steps of 4dx installation along with a recommended timeline for the process next following the process described on page 118 each leader chooses a team Wiig that will represent the team's greatest contribution to the overall wig senior leaders play a critical role at this point because they must ultimately decide whether the combined team wigs will lead to achievement of the overall wig in this role the senior leaders may offer counsel or even veto a team wig but they must not dictate what the team Wiig should be only the leader of the team should choose it when team wigs are set leaders then tackle the most challenging part of the Ford DX process defining lead measures for the wigs as we saw on page 136 not many leaders have done this kind of work before coming up with pred Ive and influenceable Lead measures is a complex task that often requires multiple attempts when all the Teen wigs and Lead measures are in place every leader has a clear line of sight from the overall wig to the contribution of his or her own team it's a powerful and often unprecedented Moment of clarity please remember that the team Wiig and Lead measures are not final until they have been validated by the team during a team launch session which we will cover in step four you'll have a hard time getting full commitment from team members who have no opportunity to give input remember no involvement no commitment step three leader certification in this critical step which usually requires a full day the leaders learn how to launch for DX with their teams scoreboard design leaders learn not only how to build effective scoreboards but also how to facilitate the teams involvement wig session skills leaders learn key skills before holding a first Wiig session in particular how to hold team members accountable in front of their peers some leaders struggle in their first few attempts at effective wig sessions so we practice by running mock sessions with other leaders launch meeting preparation the final and most important stage of leader certification is preparation for the team launch meeting the success of the launch meeting is essential to the success of the wig leaders are first prepared to teach their teams a highlevel understanding of 4dx they practice with each other using teaching videos guide books and presentation slides in addition they learn to clearly communicate the overall wig along with the draft team wig and Lead measures and then to facilitate meaningful feedback from the team and make any needed revisions when step three is completed the leaders are now certified to launch for DX with their teams this certification also marks the end of the working session with other leaders step four team launch leaders schedule and conduct a team launch meeting that usually lasts about 2 hours they will present an overview of 4D DX for about 45 minutes and then review the overall w IG and the draft team wig and Lead measures the team then gives feedback and finalizes the team Wiig and measures in this session they also design the team scoreboard and assign responsibility for its completion the meeting concludes with a practice Wiig session in preparation for the actual sessions that will begin the following week this practice session gives the leader the opportunity to discuss the format and ground rules that will be in effect as the team begins its actual pursuit of the Teen wig particularly for inexperienced or reluctant teams it's a good practice to attend wi sessions or Summit meetings of more season teams as lean talbet of Comcast recommended for DX veterans can then answer questions about the process step five execution with coaching steps 1 through four represent the launch phase of implementing the four disciplines and although they are critical they are still the plan for a game that has yet to be played step five is where the game begins now the leaders and their teams begin the weekly process of driving lead measures to achieve the team Wiig a process that requires discipline and accountability week by week the team evolves and matures making higher impact commitments and improving their follow through in wig sessions as the lead measures begin to move the team can see that their focused efforts are actually moving the lag measure and with each movement they can see that they are winning in our experience leaders typically need experienced guidance for about 3 months as they Foster new behaviors and encounter unexpected challenges for DX coaches help Leaders with adherence to the 4 DX process success with lead measures and preparation for quarterly Summits our experienced Consultants coach leader while developing strong internal coaches for the organization a role that is described in more detail in the sections that follow step six quarterly Summits the Summit is a meeting at which the leaders report to their senior leaders on progress and results in the presence of their peers a quarter generally provides enough time to see not only the lead measures moving but also the impact those leads are having a malag measure the more senior the leaders who attend the first sum the greater the sense of urgency to produce results which is important to making the team Wiig and Lead measures a highstakes game for many it will be the first time they meet with senior leaders it's the first time they get to talk about how their ideas have contributed to the company's goals and to be recognized for their contribution as Alec Covington of Nash Finch observed it's a very different experience from receiving orders on tablets of stone and being held accountable for goals you don't understand when the governor of Georgia Sunny Purdue attended the first summit for five agencies of the state government he watched carefully As Leaders explain their team wigs lead measures and results there was tremendous energy in the room not only because the governor was present but more because the leaders who were reporting could see that they were making a difference at the end of the meeting Governor Purdue stood to give a spontaneous closing message he said when I leave office I don't want any statues made or buildings named after me I want my legacy to be the employees of this state as he turned to leave he gave a clear direction to a member of his staff I want every leader in the state to go through this process because quarterly Summits combine the power of accountability with the opportunity for recognition they become a driving force in the leaders implementation of 4dx a summit is always only a few weeks away the powerful role of an internal coach we have found that designating an internal 4dx coach makes a big difference in the success of the installation we often say that if accomplishing a wildly important goal is like driving a Formula One race car the Ford DX coach is the head mechanic like a mechanic the Ford DX coach does two things first the coach helps with repairs on operational breakdowns in 4dx the coach guides leaders who encounter difficult resistors need Counsel on the quality of lead measures or could use help in establishing a Cadence of accountability also the coach helps with preventive maintenance ensuring that the teams adhere to the process and identifying early warning signs of a team that is falling prey to the Whirlwind we strongly recommend that two individuals share this role to compensate for scheduling conflicts or unanticipated turnover in internal coaches benefit the organization in the following Ways responsiveness by assigning and developing individuals in this role the organization creates a significant knowledge resource and immediate Frontline support to for DX leaders there's no need to bring in resources from outside Independence the more experienced and capable the internal coach the less need for ongoing guidance from outside continuity as new leaders are hired or promoted the internal coach can play a crucial role in quickly orienting them to the Ford DX process although the internal coach is not a full-time role selecting the right individuals for the role is crucial a strong Ford DX coach will have a solid knowledge of the business good communication skills and the ability to develop and sustain good working relationships the effectiveness of a coach is largely through influence rather than for formal authority over the years we've seen excellent coaches drawn from many areas operational management Fast Track leadership programs quality assurance and Six Sigma and lean manufacturing belts Beyond any other characteristic a couple of traits are common to the best coaches interest in and capacity for the role coaches with high interest but no capacity beyond their whirl and responsibilities may be passionate about 4dx but can't invest the time and energy to ensure the implementation is a success those with capacity but no interest can actually slow down the implementation of Ford DX and the achievement of results as one of our clients recently said if they're too available they're probably not too valuable in our experience every highly successful 4dx implementation has been supported by an effective coach although achieving your wildly important goal requires the combined efforts of the leaders and their teams the Ford DX coach is essential to a successful implementation and the sustaining of exceptional results watch out finally be on guard against three potential failure points if you encounter any of these it might be better to postpone implementation of Ford DX until they're resolved the absence of a goal that really matters for DX is a powerful process for achieving your most important goals but it's a means to an end not the end itself the more important the overall wig the more committed the organization and its leaders will be to achieving it and as a result the faster they will embrace the disciplines without this Focus the disciplines will not be as effective the lack of full commitment from the senior leader if the most senior leader is not fully committed to 4dx the organization will never fully commit we are not necessarily referring to the CEO but to the most senior leader responsible for the initiative implementing the four disciplines no matter what part of the organization is involved requires complete Commitment if 4dx is seen as an option for leaders who are interested your implementation will fail before it begins certifying leaders at the wrong level it is critical to certify those leaders who are actually responsible for teaching and driving the Ford DX process you cannot win without them if you certify leaders at too high a level the game plan will never reach the Frontline team that produces results against the lead measures in contrast if you certify leaders at too low a level they will too often lack the experience to create the best team wig and Lead measures or the authority to hold the team accountable for results a useful guideline is to certify the lowest level of full-time leadership above the front line for example in a grocery store the bakery manager would be too low because those who fulfill this role usually work as individual contributors and would not be considered full-time in leadership the store manager one level above would be the right level in contrast the plant manager in a manufacturing facility might be too high making the shift supervisor the right level consider also the amount of discretionary time the leader can put toward Ford DX leaders who control their own schedules can generally lead a wig team it's also essential that team members have enough time to make schedule and fulfill weekly commitments in this chapter we've described in general the process we've been through and the issues we've faced hundreds of times in installing 4dx we've tried to give you the benefit of our trials and our errors implementing the four disciplines with 10 or more teams simultaneously as we do in some part of the world almost every day involves a number of careful considerations but in the end the ability to focus multiple teams on consistently driving lead measures toward a critical goal is deeply powerful it's key to creating extraordinary outcomes and raising the performance and effectiveness of an entire organization for DX frequently asked questions here you'll find answers to the questions people most often ask about implementing 4dx we've grouped the questions under these topics how to generate buyin and commitment to 4dx how to sustain 4dx for DX process tips and traps we've also answered questions about applying for DX to certain distinctive types of teams although the issues discussed should interest any reader manufacturing teams high-tech and scientific teams sales teams government and Military teams generating buyin and commitment to 4dx what are the most common mistakes leaders make in implementing 4dx the two main mistakes leaders make in this process are a lack of participation and a lack of patience first leaders often unwittingly presume that the success of 4dx rests with those individuals who have gone through manager certification while the role of the certified managers is crucial to wig and Lead measure success the active involvement of leaders to whom the certified leaders report is mandatory leaders hold wig sessions with their direct reports openly and actively recognizing the contributions of the certified managers and their team members in this process reinforcing the principles of the 4dx and removing barriers to wig success and Lead measure performance second all leaders are results driven so they want results as soon as possible however they often ignore the fact that wig success depends upon consistent ongoing performance against the lead measures if good lead measures have been developed and if the teams are performing to these lead measures the lag measure associated with the Wiig should move unless external circumstances make wig attainment impossible it takes time instead of giving up on the process the leader needs to patiently reinforce it how do you handle the resistors on a team first and foremost understand why they are resisting once you have determined that you can formulate a solution some resistors have unexpressed concerns about issues outside of 4dx they just need to be heard more often however you encounter resistors whose attit udes you won't change by hearing them out they may be skeptical about any change cynical about new ideas fiercely independent or convinced that 4dx is excess bureaucratic overhead rather than a results oriented operating system if they continue to resist you need to require their support as members of a team that is larger than themselves usually they will begin to see the results the rest of the team members are experiencing and then sometimes reluctantly and silently fall in line with the rest what are the most common challenges of running 4 DX every week how do you deal with them teams often face three challenges performing consistently on lead measures keeping the scoreboard current and attending wig sessions regularly first team members have to mentally decouple the wigs from lead measures meaning that they must focus on consistent and successful performance of the lead measures before they see the lag measure moving it's like going to the gym every day you need to exercise patience before you see the changes that result from exercise if team members are sporadic about their performance against lead measures they won't see the impact on the lag measures second team members may feel that keeping a scoreboard current is unnecessary busy work unless the scoreboard is updated Nobody Knows the score they can't see if the lead measures are affecting the lags moreover wig sessions lose their power without the results of teamwork made visible third wig sessions get postponed or canceled and team interest starts draining away without regular wig sessions people lose focus and no longer feel accountable for their commitments the wig session must be sacred team members must contribute to the quality of the wig me meeting by making commitments that impact the lead measures and wig success we have seen so many programs do jure how do we overcome our skepticism and get on board with the four disciplines many organizations are repeatedly Afflicted with new programs that are in the spotlight one day and forgotten the next leaders looking for the next Magic Bullet thus produce cynicism in the workplace as Steven cvy likes to say you can't talk your way out out of a situation you have behaved yourself into so when installing 4dx into a skeptical and disbelieving environment start small with only one critically important goal that will truly make a difference to the daily lives of people to the employees and the quality of their work life then having set just one ambitious and critical goal be extra diligent in creating scoreboards updating them consistently and conducting weekly wig sessions to prove to the team that they really can achieve a level of success they've never achieved before strive for consistency in the process and a quick win once the team absolutely knows they can get significantly better results from 4dx you can succeed at even more ambitious goals for the future does Ford DX need to start at the top of an organization No in fact it usually doesn't most often for DX starts somewhere in the middle there are are some obvious advantages if the CEO is involved right from the start but many great senior leaders or even managers of small teams have successfully launched the process it can start comfortably almost anywhere and grow while it would be great for all members of an organization to align with 4dx to drive results it isn't necessary however a leader who sponsors 4dx needs responsibility for lag measures that are meaningful to upper management if Ford DX is to grow within an organization senior leaders have to care about the initial results what if my boss is always throwing new goals at me we get this question a lot and in a lot of different forms here is the bottom line most people can't control how many goals get thrown at them but they can control which of those goals they choose to drive with 4 DX those few they consider wildly important how do you implement for DX in a matrixed organization the 4dx methodology neither requires nor suggests reorganizing any company matrixed or otherwise what is necessary is cooperation and accountability matching for instance a company with a wig to increase market share might have to rely on a matrix sales organization operating in multiple geographies the United States and Canada Central and South America Europe the Middle East and Africa in Asia Pacific and so on the success of the wig depends on the Cooperative performance of these geographically dispersed matric sales organizations a Ford DX cross functional team involved in manager certification will ensure that everyone who contributes to the wig stays focused on the wig organizational structure is often irrelevant to designating the right team to support a particular wig it might take people with many different skills sets from many different parts of the organization if I run a support function like HR Finance or it how should I go about selecting a wig we have always found that it is much easier and more effective for the support organizations to choose their wigs after the line functions sales production and operations choose theirs if the line functions are clear on their wildly important goals a support function can choose wigs to help enable the achievement of the line wigs for example if the sales team's wig is to move successfully to consultative selling the HR function can set a wig to ensure that every salesperson gets excellent training in the new model if the firm's wig is to move aggressively into social media shouldn't the IT department with its unique expertise set a wig to provide the best possible infrastructure for succeeding in social media my team Team Works several shifts so we are never all together how do I handle the weekly accountability wig session the key word in the question above is accountability the primary purpose of the weekly wig session is to maintain with all your team's players a Cadence of accountability there are two parts to accountability first team members are accountable to each other to fulfill the personal commitments only one or two each week that they make second equally if not more important each team member needs the personal satisfaction and small win of having done what they said they were going to do in reporting it this is a subtle form of recognition that each player receives every week when they report on their commitments hence every effort should be made to give every team member a chance to attend a wig session or to account for commitments in some way with split shifts a leader might hold several w IG sessions to involve all team members if a team member works the graveyard shift and the leader rarely sees him or her a weekly phone follow-up can provide the opportunity for personal accountability and feedback on how the team is doing how do we ensure that the message of our wig is getting all the way through the organization to those on the front lines one of the best methods for addressing awareness of the goal is repetition if the leaders and the Ford DX internal coach establish a regular practice of asking individual Associates what's our wig or what lead measures are you focusing on word will spread quickly and more and more Associates will learn and know the answer how do we conduct a weekly wig session with team members who are seldom in the same place at the same time and who have a big Whirlwind to deal with remember that the team members in a wig session need only from 20 to 30 minutes per week and those in a wig huddle only 5 to 7 minutes each week so it's not a significant investment of time you can hold the wig session right before or after an existing meeting or when the greatest number can attend you can then meet individually with those who cannot remember this key discipline that drives focus and accountability for the wig every member of the team must be in an accountability session around the scoreboard every week how do we get a resisting manager to fully adopt 4dx the leader is the best resource to help deal with this issue which should be raised by the coach as a clear the path item most often a private discussion with the manager is sufficient to resolve the problem require all managers to report on their adherence to the process ask them to report team lag measure results for the week team lead measure results for the week week meeting held an attendance percentage percentage of team commitments fulfilled personal commitment for last week and results personal commitment for next week when reluctant managers are held publicly accountable for these results and when they hear other managers reporting success they will almost always respond sustainability of 4dx what types of recognition work best to keep our teams engaged the types of recognition that have the greatest impact include public recognition of individual performance everyone wants to be recognized for their contribution especially in front of their peers Awards like execution leader of the week or top performer this week are greatly appreciated just be sure that the criteria for winning are fair and consistently applied public recognition of team performance a team award for the week or month such as leaders and Lead measures for the highest lead measure performance can also drive real Behavior change public recognition of execution launch a trophy for fastest launch best scoreboard or best Wiig session can help to lock in the performance behaviors that drive results meaningful celebration as we've said taking time to meaningfully celebrate team performance is essential to keeping people engaged the price of pizza or ice cream is far outweighed by the returns on a small celebration combined with a meaningful message from the leader how do I keep coming up with new and fresh commitments each week a leader should be at no loss to come up with fresh commitments because the team's execution discipline can always be improved the discipline of working on the system ultimately distinguishes a leader from an individual contributor while this may seem challenging at first it will soon become an exciting part of your role as you come to see the impact you can have while individ ual contributors make commitments to drive the lead measures the most effective commitments the leader can make will leverage and improve the capabilities of the team so instead of making direct commitments to the lead measures the leader makes commitments that enable the entire team to move the lead measures as one of our clients says leaders do not get paid for what leaders do leaders get paid for what they can get others to do if you're struggling for ideas commit to do something in one of these areas training there will always be team members who need to be trained or re-engaged on the best practices of the team choose a team member and train or coach the individual in a specific skill during the coming week this commitment might also help you to stay at the top of the game engaging the team for higher performance one of the most powerful practices of high execution leaders is engaging the team in a two-way dialogue about the team's performance and their ideas for making it better by listening and then implementing the team's ideas the leader not only improves performance but also increases engagement in this way not only does the team do better but each individual feels valued and respected which adds even more emphasis and enthusiasm to their performance recognition and modeling identify top performers and recognize them in front of their peers everyone wants to model winners recognition shows the team the behaviors and levels of performance the leader values recruit top performers to coach others as a senior leader what is the most important thing I can do to sustain 4dx the most important contribution a senior leader can make is to remain focused on a wildly important goal and resist the Allure of your next great idea remember there will always be more good ideas than capacity to implement your focus becomes the organization's Focus second ensure that you are modeling the process over time your practices not just your words will have the greatest influence on the teams you lead third follow the suggestions made throughout this book for recognition of outstanding performance by both individuals and teams over the past year we did everything right we created wigs and measures and executed maniacally weak after after week but we're not seeing results what now remember that a wig is like a strategic bet when you set a wig you're betting on a new product or service or a new approach to a problem and then you make an execution bet you define the critical activities and Lead measures and perform those activities relentlessly in all confidence that the Strategic bet will pay off but sometimes it doesn't pay off there 's no such thing as a brilliant strategy until it actually works it's not a brilliant new automobile until it sells like hot cakes in the market it's not a brilliant new way to improve student achievement until the school shoots past old achievement levels you are making a bet of course it should be an educated bet but it is still a bet an insurance company made a strategic bet on a new kind of insurance policy targeted at a new market they devised the approach in great detail and rallied the sales force to fully engage in the critical actions to realize the goal they worked maniacally moving the lead measures on the scoreboards every week exactly according to plan but six months into it the lag measures hadn't moved well during this time a very intense competitor had devised a lower-cost product and delivered it in a leveraged electronic way the competitor had made a much better stre strategic bet so while maintaining your confidence and enthusiasm set your wigs with humility and awareness place the best strategic bets that you can but keep one eye on your scoreboards and the other eye looking over your shoulder we've made fast progress on our wig and it now seems likely that our team will exceed it should we raise the goal first congratulations it's always exciting when a team realizes they will meet or exceed their wig when this happens the first reaction of a leader is often to raise the goal while the intention of this decision is good to drive the team to higher performance it can disillusion the team unless the change is handled carefully the team will lose their sense of accomplishment and disengage from the new higher goal then re-engaging the team is more difficult than initially launching 4dx here are the three most likely scenarios and how to deal with them the goal was set far too low and the team has already or will soon exceed it in this case the right thing to do is to congratulate the team for their performance and then take full responsibility for setting the goal incorrectly if possible engage the team in setting a new wig at a level that will challenge them while still being realistic the goal was set correctly but the team exceeded the leader expect expectations and met it early in this case congratulate and reward the team for their outstanding performance and declare the original wig successfully met then set a new wi for the remaining period of time with a new X to Y unless you celebrate their success team members will conclude that they are running a race where the finish line is always moving out faster than they can run and they will disengage so celebrate their success and then involve the team in setting the new stretch goal your goal was set correctly but you benefited from a windfall declare the Wiig achieved and move on to a new wig without delay otherwise your team will falter in adopting 4dx remember your goal is not just to achieve the wig but to build a high performance team for DX process tips and traps how do you know when it's time to change a lead measure it's dangerous to change a lead measure too quickly most teams begin looking for a new lead measure when they reach a plateau on the scoreboard if the leader responds too soon all the momentum of the lead measure will be lost and the team will start over again when giving the original measure more time might have made the difference before abandoning a lead measure consider these important questions is the lead measure moving the lag measure if so be careful about changing something that's working is the lag measure moving enough if not you might consider raising the standard for performance on the lead measure before changing it remember the lever has to move a lot for the rock to move a little is the scorekeeping on the lead measure accurate if not the team may have a false sense of the value of the lead measure has the team achieved the lead measure for at least 12 consecutive weeks this is the minimum time in our experience needed for a team to form a habit if not they simply don't know yet what consistent performance will bring about will the performance of the team remain if we remove the lead measure from the scoreboard if not it's likely better to stay focused on the lead measure until it becomes a habit so long as the lead measure is moving the wig remember that the big picture aim of 4dx is to establish a new standard of consistency and excellent in some area of the team's operation then to sustain it long enough to make it a habit what if the lead measure is moving but the lag isn't moving this is not uncommon especially as you first begin 4dx here are three possible explanations often it just takes time we can't tell you how many times we have seen a delay between the lead and the lag the team might not be consistently moving the lead measure with all the energy invested in a new lead measure people tend consciously or unconsciously to gain the system a little be sure that the measurements are accurate and that people are not just showing you what you want to see this is one reason we are very leery of tying any kind of compensation to lead measures the lead measure just isn't predictive consider this explanation last because it's often the first conclusion people jump to if in fact the lead measure is truly not moving moving the lag it's time to reexamine your assumptions we have seen organizations lay to rest beliefs long held but never questioned or tested another possibility is that external conditions have changed so radically that the lead measure no longer applies how do you know if you have a good lead measure first we want a measure that is predictive which is to say that it is not only correlated but causal not simply necessary but sufficient to move lag measure from X to why within the time frame look at these two contrasting lead measures for a wig to increase sales ah sales representative will make X number of visits a week to a client B sales representative will make X number of visits a week to move the targeted client one or more tiers down the sales cycle as defined by our sales performance model Choice a is correlated to the Wiig and necessary for its achievement but compared to Choice B it isn't specific enough to be a sufficient cause of increased sales second we want the right frequency are we acting on the lead measure often enough is it the right thing to do but we just need to do more or less of it are three client visits a week the right number four the only way to know is by testing the measure for years major drug companies fielded huge sales forces because they believe the more often doctors were visited the more they would prescribe their products doctors soon got weary of the flood of visitors many banished salesp people from their offices the frequency of the lead measure was all wrong third we want a lead measure that will motivate highquality performance are we putting our best and finest effort into the lead measure if I'm a salesperson am I not just making sales calls but making excellent sales calls as defined by the team some some drug companies finally asked the frustrated doctors how they could help them most the doctors replied help us learn the science behind your products as a result the majors adopted a new sales model many pharmaceutical salese are now research scientists with a mission to educate rather than to push products the lead measure of sales success in that industry has changed radically if the measure is predictive done at the right frequency and done with quality you have a good lead measure and should see movement in the Wiig over time how should we align compensation to support 4dx there is no one answer to this question if your organizational culture and Compensation Plan rewards performance against clearly articulated objectives at all levels then compensation aligned to achieving wigs would be both appropriate and expected this plan will further reinforce the importance of 4dx as an operating system for achieving results if your current compensation plan is not aligned to Performance compensation for achieving wigs can still be a sound practice note however that the purpose of a compensation system should not be to get the right behaviors from the wrong people but to reward the right people in the first place and to keep them there this is the lesson Jim Collins learned in his research for good to great pay for performance on wigs works fine as long as you have the right people on the team can Ford DX support our Performance Management System it depends on the system for DX will support a system that emphasizes performance to specify goals and measures within established time frames personal development plans can be aligned to achieving wigs if for example a wig requires people to develop certain new skills in some cases our clients have replaced annual performance reviews with wig sessions which they feel are more immediate and more useful for gauging the performance of team members others have repurposed performance reviews to assess an individual's contribution to wigs still others continue to hold traditional performance reviews in addition to the Ford DX accountability system I'm having trouble determining whether we are making highquality commitments each week can you tell me what defines a good commitment a highquality commitment has three characteristics specific don't settle for a commitment such as I'm going to focus on upselling instead push for more specifics such as I'm going to coach three team members on how to properly upsell or premium lines aligned ensure that every commitment aligns to the wig don't accept a commitment from the Whirlwind each week in the wi session each team member answers the following question what could I do personally this week that would have the greatest impact on achieving our wig this question should generate a weekly stream of new and better answers to match the changing priorities of the team timely make sure the commitment can be completed in the coming week watch out for multi-week commitments be wary of the I'm making progress answer is there anything we can do to drive higher performance on a lead measure before we change it yes first you are wise to sense that the performance that drives your initial results won't work at the same level indefinitely the key here is to make careful adjustments that will continue to drive performance consider these ideas for adjusting lead measures raise the bar if the team has a lead measure for 90% performance challenge them to drive it to 95% often a small increase yields a disproportionate result and keeps the team reaching for a higher level raise the quality if a team is meeting its lead measure performance standard such as 10 upsell conversations per person then focus on raising the quality of those upsells create a best practice script have team members role play during the meeting or recognize those whose quality is outstanding and invite them to coach others create a linkage if the lead measure has been fully adopted by a team you can gain additional results by linking it to a closely related additional behavior in a retail environment this might mean linking the behavior of greeting every customer within 10 seconds and walk them to the product they want this slight expansion of the lead measure behavior Can yield significant results and is far less disruptive than creating an installing a new lead measure what should we do when a leader is on vacation should we cancel the wig session huddle no consistency and accountability are the most powerful drivers of performance when the Cadence of the wig sessions is interrupted the team's momentum is lost even in the leader's absence the performance of the team must continue if the leader is absent one choose an individual to lead the meeting a supervisor or a senior member of the team some teams rotate the leadership role from week to week two prepare them for success in your absence take time to communicate the importance of this responsibility and review the wig session agenda with them three recap and debrief when you return ask for a review of the session with the substitute leader as soon as you return take time to thank and congratulate them on handling this important responsibility is it a good idea to have more than one coach absolutely with two coaches or more they can share the workload of coaching the leaders and get backup or a logical replacement if a Coach moves on to different responsibilities if you bring on a second coach be sure to retain the primary so that you can ensure that the advice and coaching are consistent manufacturing teams can Ford DX be used to support methodologies such as lean manufacturing and Six Sigma yes one of the world's largest carpet manufacturers used a customized form of 4D DX to run certain green and black belt teams the Ford DX teams cut their project completion Time by almost 50% they found that project delays were due to the lack of involvement by team members trapped in the Whirlwind the Six Sigma work was being pushed back to the black belts and the projects were bogging down when they ran their Six Sigma projects with visible for d scoreboards and held a weekly wig session to eat the elephant one bite at a time not only was completion time cut nearly in half but the team members had fun winning the game for DX can also ensure adoption of the new process changes that result from a Six Sigma project in this case for DX is used to drive a change in Behavior which it was designed to do high-tech scientific teams can you offer any lessons or watch out for leading a team of Highly technical people who are often skeptical through 4dx most technical individuals are hardwired to assess risk identify gaps and innovate to get viable solutions they are under pressure to deliver on schedule within budget to exceed customers moving expectations and changing requirements and to anticipate future needs all under the threat of being outsourced they relish challenges and they build their careers on analyzing ing problems and creatively solving them if you try to impose 4 DX on them as if they don't matter they will dig their heels in unlike most groups they tend to struggle more and take longer with discipline one the idea of drawing a Line in the Sand setting wigs and measures in place is often very frustrating for them because they can see all the things that can go wrong we have found that if we take our time here and let them work though it and keep reminding them of the big picture will get there the good news is once they get through discipline one they excel at disciplines 2 and three it feels like a puzzle to them and that's their strength how do we apply 4 DX to creative or intuitive processes like R andd we have seen 4dx applied to many such teams from R&D groups at pharmaceutical companies to squads of journalists there is always the initial hesitation what we do can't really be managed with some like a lead measure but we have never found that to be the case the Ford DX process tests their creativity challenging them to figure out what it is about what they do that is both influenceable and predictive you can never tell creative people what their lead measures ought to be but you might be surprised what they come up with what kinds of lead measures yield the best results for these kinds of teams we have found very powerful lead measures tend to come from the touch points or the handoff within a technical or creative environment for example increased interaction and communication earlier in the development process sharing of knowledge with others Midstream process checks key stakeholder discussions to assess changing requirements with development underway sales teams how can Ford DX help us execute our new sales process for DX is extremely effective in helping people adopt a new sales process because it allows them to focus on specific High leverage aspects of the process and really get those embedded before moving on to something else the diagram on page 150 is a good example of this sales is such an intuitive process for most professionals that laying a process over it never feels comfortable the first time it doesn't work out well they often abandon the process and go back to what they think works for them the problem is they are usually trying to eat the whole elephant at once for DX not only provides a vehicle for coaching and accountability but also helps a salesperson to get good at the process one bite at a time how do you get a sales team to commit to a weekly meeting unless the sales team is held consistently accountable middle performers will not dial up their game salespeople especially need the structure 4dx provides the process gets sales team teams sharing insights into what works which is essential in a profession in which everyone believes they're already doing all the right things don't most sales teams already have some form of lead measures in our experience while most sales teams measure aspects of their sales pipeline existing sales measures don't work as viable lead measures because they are not directly influenceable by the team sales managers are often focused on measures that will give them better forecasting predictability but these are not usually in the control of the sales force a predictive but non- influenceable measure does not give a sales team The Leverage they need of all people sales managers are the most intensely focused on lag measures quarterly volume weekly bookings and yearly revenues too often their idea of management is to call team members on the phone and demand the numbers therefore of all people they are the most in need of effective lead measures once equipped with them sales managers can truly make a difference they can coach train and Mentor people on the behaviors that drive results government and Military teams does Ford DX add value in a military culture that is already based on a high degree of discipline and execution the military has already written the book on the art of execution in combat that is they know how to win battles and stay radically focused despite the fog of war the Whirlwind but the Garrison military that is out of combat is swamped by bureaucratic rules resource constraints and family demands they are driven to serve dozens of merely urgent tasks while disregarding truly important goals such as team Readiness or personal development our many military clients often say it's ironic that a unit in combat can produce Miracles but the same team in pin becomes disengaged for DX is an effective system for re-engaging the military these are people who want to serve they are mission oriented the concept of the wildly important goal energizes them and accountability is second in nature to them how do you set wigs in a government organization with many outside stakeholders pulling it in many different directions government operations don't always seem designed to maximize results at every turn there is a tendency to be risk averse one of our clients recently remarked our government is designed to make change very hard and rewards Behavior you might call good enough for government often the various checks and balances that are in place make setting wigs seem almost impossible impassion leaders may have Visionary strategic plans and announce them in town halls but sustained Behavior change is incredibly difficult when the employees return to their day jobs and face the Whirlwind leaders in public service must spend much more time promoting the wig with all stakeholders especially the employees involvement in defining the wigs helps engage their minds and hearts once adopted once the employees are engaged and given the opportunity to sharpen and validate the leader's intent then the wigs need to be shared with the customers who receive the services it's much more work and there's risk in being so bold but it's a formula that produces dramatic results as we've seen in the story of B J Walker in the state of Georgia how can implementing for DX increase Employee Engagement for DX is a system not only for reaching big goals but also for increasing Employee Engagement and satisfaction usually Employee Engagement is gauged through surveys about the workplace the leadership and the culture let's see how Ford DX principles affect these typical measures of Employee Engagement bringing it home change is hard if you've ever tried to lose weight improve your marriage stop smoking or drinking start a new relationship develop a hobby or finish that degree you've been working on for8 years you know what we mean in this chapter we want to briefly show how these principles of Team execution can also be used to help people change their lives and accomplish some important personal or family goal it happens all the time people approach us after a 4dx work session look around to make sure no one is listening and Whisper do you think 4dx would work in my personal life our answer absolutely although we didn't set out to find a better way to accomplish personal goals we discovered that Ford DX is a profound methodology for achieving any goal of any kind whether at work or at home not surprisingly the principles of focus leverage engagement and accountability which under each of the disciplines seem to work at any level be it organizational team or personal take the case of Jeffrey DS a colleague of ours after helping numerous organizations apply for DX Jeffrey couldn't resist sharing the insights he was learning with his wife Jamie on her own accord Jaimie decided to apply them to a very personal matter when my husband Jeff showed me the four disciplines of execution I knew I could use those principles in my personal life I already had a complex life but now that I was pregnant with our seventh child I knew I had my work cut out for me in order to keep pace and stay in shape I had to do something different deciding on my wildly important goal took a lot of thought and energy even though it now seems so simple I decided that my wig would be don't gain more than 36 lb by October 9th naturally I knew that the two ways to reach my goal were through eating and exercising our family had a healthy diet and so I wasn't real concerned about the food instead I focused on the exercise part and I chose one lead measure walk 10,000 steps per day sure there were many other things I could have focused on however with the Whirlwind of six children and a husband who was on the road 3 days a week this was the lead measure that I thought was challenging but doable to get to my wig what transpired over the next 9 months was truly remarkable I no longer focused on my weight I simply focused on walking by parking far away in the grocery store parking lot walking instead of driving to my children's school or getting up early to walk with friends or my husband whenever I had an opportunity to walk I walked figuring out a simple score scoreboard was more challenging than I thought at first I started by trying to graph my progress that didn't work so I tried a computer spreadsheet but it was too hard to consistently find computer time what finally distilled out of all these attempts was a scoreboard that I hung on my bathroom mirror that had four columns the day the number of steps I needed to take that day the actual steps I had taken that day and the overall total steps in a simple glance I could tell where I was where I needed to be and whether I was winning or losing the key to my scoreboard was not where I was but rather where I should be this set the scoreboard apart from any other scoreboard I had ever kept in the past I just kept track of where I was now I was keeping track of where I was compared to where I should be and that made it a game the whole family got in on the game my children would ask as me if I had done my 10,000 steps my oldest daughter would walk with me when she knew I was tired my husband was my accountability partner and he and I would go over the scoreboard and I would make commitments on what I was going to do the next week to keep walking something amazing happened during all of this that was completely unexpected when I learned that I was pregnant with our seventh child one of my concerns was that my time with my other children would suffer I thought and prayed a lot about this and didn't know how this concern would be answered but by focusing on the simple task of walking an activity that everyone was aware of and everyone could participate in my relationships with my children and my husband were actually strengthened from toddler to teenager everyone could walk with me and as a result I grew closer to each for example I did a lot of walking and talking with my oldest daughter we talked through difficulties she was having with her friends what college she wanted to attend and how her boyfriend was treating her with my other children I learned about their Joys and struggles what they thought about having a large family and how they felt about a new baby with my youngest I established a strong bond which I cherish to this day when talking with my husband about the four disciplines he would often refer to the ancillary benefits of following them but I never realized how significant that would be in my life in the end did achieve my wildly important goal gaining fewer than 36 lbs in the process I took 1,7 51,2 steps more important I strengthened family relationships and on October 4th I delivered a healthy baby boy as you read this remarkable story we hope you were able to spot some of the same insights we noticed first Jaimie was smart to narrow her Focus to only one lead measure to achieve her wig of not gaining more than 36 lbs she knew she needed to focus on diet and exercise but because she already ate a healthy diet watching what she ate wasn't necessary so why track it it would only add complexity instead she chose to focus on the single new and different Behavior she thought would make the difference walking 10,000 steps per day there's a good lesson here in some some cases the best thing is to focus on the single thing lead measure you need to do differently that will make all the difference instead of the many next the key ingredient on her scoreboard was the where I should be column if you don't know where you should be at any given moment it is hard to tell if you are winning or losing always knowing where you are in relation to where you should be is one of the key aspects of a compelling scoreboard as Jamie also learned finding the right scoreboard a scoreboard that is motivating and simple and easily updatable is not easy in our experience this is where most people get stuck they come up with a good wig Define a lead measure or two and then never pay the price to put up the scoreboard then the whole thing falls apart don't let that happen to you finally there is power and public accountability Jaime's husband was her official accountability partner but her kid kids where every bit is involved Whenever you set a personal goal your chances for Success go way up as soon as you involve others in your goal and have them hold you accountable one of our clients tells the touching story of his 5-year-old son clay who just couldn't overcome a bed wedding problem the family had tried a lot of things but the problem persisted he would wake up in the night and not make it to the bathroom his dad said after going through Ford DX training I had a light bulb go off that evening at the dinner table clay and I started to talk about how we were going to help him make it through the night without wetting his bed we would make a calendar for every day of the week and go for a month at a time we put the calendar on the refrigerator so that his mother and his brothers could see the results every morning after that clay would come down for breakfast and he would report whether he was wet or dry we had a green crayon and a red cray on Clay would draw a green smiley face or a red frowny face depending on how he had fared the previous night of course the first morning he drew a green face the whole family made a big deal of it and gave him high fives and so on after a full week of greens we made it really special by going for ice cream within 30 days clay was sleeping through the night and was dry it seems so simple but the fact that clay posted a scoreboard and would report to the family every morning in a Cadence of accountability made it so important to him that he took it very seriously here's a fun scoreboard created by one of our clients who wanted to lose 80 lbs in a six-month period before his son's High School graduation his lead measures walk 5 miles per day no eating after 8 in the evening limit intake to 2,500 calories per day he achieved his goal and then set another wig to drop 15 more pounds before his beloved hockey season so he could get out and play with his kids of course for DX is about more than just turning around a tough situation it's also about achieving your highest goals and aspirations one of our colleagues sets three wigs for himself at the beginning of each year One Professional goal one family goal and one personal goal he carefully identifi his lead measures tracks his scoreboard and spends 30 minutes each week evaluating progress on his prior commitments and setting new commitments for the coming week through this practice he is able to stay balanced and accomplish a great deal we know of people who have used 4 DX to achieve all kinds of life goals running a marathon finishing a degree learning a new sport even blending two families some of the wigs we've heard about are profoundly personal another colleague has several young grandchildren he has a deeply felt personal wig that they should all know that he loves them and that they can turn to him for anything of course the lag measure is kind of hard to pin down when asked he laughs I can tell I'm winning if they run up and hug me instead of running away from me his lead measure is very clear however I have a strict personal policy of spending time with each one of them every week on weekends he might be at the Dinosaur Museum the playground or the soccer field watching them play every year he takes them to buy pumpkins for Halloween and to the amusement park in the Renaissance Fair in the summer he never misses the birthday parties sometimes he just shows up in the evening to read a bedtime story or two his strategic bet is that careful attention to this lead measure will reap dividends forever the lag measure already moves you should see it move he says whenever they see me they scream and giggle and throw themselves at me do you think anything in this world is more wildly important to me than that another friend of ours Married with Children relates how he worked on a personal wig of improving the culture of his family over an entire year but felt like he made little progress he had several lead measures but none of them seemed to be working in a moment of clear he recognized that the single best way he could improve the feeling in his home the culture was to love their mother in other words he needed to do a better job of showing his kids how much he adored his wife their mother through kindness gentleness and small acts of service so this single measure became his focus and as he relates it immediately made all the difference seeing the love we had for each other as Mom and Dad seemed to Cascade good feelings upon the kids and upon home in general and resolve a multitude of other everyday challenges our family was facing so many of the wildly important things in our lives never get the attention we should give them because they aren't urgent caring for our health helping our children getting more education strengthening our marriage these things tend to take second place to the Whirlwind urgencies that require our attention right now according to Dr Ray Levy founder of the global medical forum 80% of our health care budget is consumed by five behavioral issues smoking drinking oving stress and not enough exercise the cause of most disease he says is very well known and by en llarge behavioral just changing these five behaviors would eliminate our health care crisis link httpwww deo.com qrgo set even after life-threatening heart attacks and strokes people generally don't change their behavior it's been studied over and over and over again and so we're missing some Link in there even though they know they have a very bad disease and they know they should change their lifestyle for whatever reason they can't 30 could it be that the missing link is an operating system for changing human behavior a system like 4dx do we think 4dx can apply to your personal life our answer is a resounding yes in fact we think the principles in this book can help you to achieve any great purpose you have in mind so now what now that you've finished reading the four disciplines of execution your mind might be spinning if you're like most people so much about the four DX operating system is not in your DNA to most people it's counterintuitive demand manage things this way to some people it seems too simple to others way too complex at the same time we believe you'll benefit dramatically from experimenting with 4dx in fact we believe that once you understand the four disciplines of execution you will never lead in the same way again years of trial and error have convinced us that the art of execution comes down to the handful of principles and practices in this book actually we hope your mind is spinning with possibilities the question is now what we invite you to try a few simple thought experiments they won't take long discipline one focus on the wildly important if you haven't already done so try your hand at drafting a wildly important goal and lag measure for your work team ask yourself these questions if we achieve that wig what would it mean to my team to my organization to myself discipline two act on the lead measures try drafting lead measures that would drive your wig to accomplishment ask yourself how would this new understanding of lead measures change the way we operate discipline three keep a compelling scoreboard sketch a scoreboard complete with wig lag measure and Lead measures ask yourself what difference would it make if we FOC focused our best efforts on moving the numbers on that scoreboard what impact would it have on the team on our business results discipline four create a Cadence of accountability visualize your team holding a wig session around the scoreboard ask yourself how would regular frequent wig sessions change the way we operate how would our focus and engagement change finally Envision for yourself the day you report the achievement of your wildly important goal to your own leaders what would that day be like for your team for you now imagine that day never comes imagine you forget everything you've read in this book consider spending the future in the midst of a Relentless Whirlwind where everything is always urgent and the really important priorities are forever postponed the great management scientist Peter duer observed I've seen a great men many people who are magnificent at getting the unimportant things done they have an impressive record of achievement on trivial matters 31 but you don't want to be magnificently trivial you want to make a real difference you want to make a high value high impact contribution the four disciplines of execution can take you there if we can help you move forward in any way we're ready but remember the achievement of your wildly important goal is not the only objective here for DX gives you Knowledge and Skills to do something far more important in the long run to reignite the passion of your team to bring focus and discipline to their efforts and ultimately to help them see that they are winners in your career you will never leave a greater Legacy than this instilling this sense of winning in the people you work with will not only drive a new level of performance in your organization but will also equip these people with the skills and confidence they need to become winners in every phase of their lives as workers as fathers and mothers or as leaders in their communities and that's a legacy that can't be measured about the authors Chris mcchesney Chris mzn is the global practice leader of execution for Franklin cvy and one of the primary developers of the four disciplines of execution for more than a decade he has led Franklin CV's ongoing design and development of these principles as well as the Consulting organization that has achieved extraordinary growth in many countries around the globe and impacted hundreds of organizations Chris has personally led many of the most noted implementations of the four disciplines including the state of Georgia Marriott International Shaw Industries Ritz Carlton Kroger cocacola Comcast Fredo locked Martin and Gaylord entertainment this practice IC experience has enabled him to test and refine the principles contained in the four disciplines of execution from the boardrooms to the front line of these and many other organizations Chris's career with Franklin cvy began by working directly with Dr Steven or cvy and has continued over two decades to include roles as a consultant managing director and general manager within the organization Chris launched the first four disciplines of execution practice in the Southeast region of Frank cvy and today has seen it expand around the globe throughout this period of significant growth and expansion Chris has maintained a single Focus to help organizations get results through improved execution known for his high energy and engaging message Chris has become a highly sought after speaker consultant and adviser on strategy execution regularly delivering keynote speeches and executive presentations to leaders and audiences ranging from a hundreds to several th000 Chris and his wife Constance are the proud parents of five daughters and two sons his love of family is combined with his passion for boating water sports coaching and trying to keep up with his children for more information on Chris visit www. chris- mcn.com Sean cvy Shan cvy is Executive Vice President of global Solutions and Partnerships for Frank cvy and oversees Franklin Cy's International operations in 141 countries around the globe sha also serves as Franklin CV's education practice leader which is devoted to transforming education throughout the world through implementing principal centered leadership as the chief product architect for Franklin cvy Shawn organized and directed the original teams that conceived and created the four disciplines of execution and has been an avid practitioner and promoter of the methodology ever since sha has also overseen the design and development of most of Franklin CV's other Solutions including the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People leadership greatness Focus the five choices to extraordinary productivity and the Leader in Me Shawn is a New York Times best-selling author and has written several books including the six most important decisions you'll ever make the seven habits of happy kids and the seven habits of high effective teens which has been translated into 20 languages and sold over 4 million copies worldwide he is a popular and versatile keyter who regularly speaks to kids and adults and within schools and organizations and has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows Shawn graduated with honors from BYU with a bachelor's degree in English and later earned his MBA from Harvard Business School as the starting quarterback for BYU he led his team to two bowl games and was twice selected as the ESPN most valuable player of the game born in Belfast Ireland Sha's favorite activities include going to movies working out hanging out with his kids riding his motorcycle and riding books Shawn and his wife Rebecca live with their children in the Rocky Mountains for more information on Shawn visit www.shi.com Jim Hing Jim Hing is the managing consultant for Franklin cvy for disciplines of execution in this role Jim is responsible for the four disciplines methodology teaching methods and the quality of delivery worldwide Jim also regularly leads large scale engagements including the Ford DX implementation for Marriot Hotels Kroger Ritz Carlton in a number of large hospitals he is a sought-after keynote speaker for events ranging from senior executive sessions to audiences in the thousands Jim's career spans over three decades of corporate leadership from Fortune 500 organizations to privately held companies including serving as CEO of a company recognized as one of the 25 best companies to work for in America prior to joining Franklin cvy Jim was one of the first leaders to adopt the four disciplines of execution and used it to drive performance for almost 5 years this experience enabled him to significantly enhance the methods by which the four disciplines are taught and implemented around the world Jim's teams have won national awards for customer service Excellence business ethics and an outstanding culture as well as numerous local and Regional Awards as a workplace of choice Jim's personal Awards also include being selected for the tacit leadership character award recognizing CEOs who demonstrate the highest standards of ethics and integrity Jim holds a degree in computer science from the University of Alabama a degree in music from Birmingham Southern College and serves on the boards of several local organizations as well as the seagull Institute for leadership ethics and character Jim is most proud of his wonderful marriage of over 30 years to his sweetheart Donna being dad to two phenomenal adults Scott and Sarah and Papa to his three grandkids he holds a a third degree black belt in taquan Du and is an avid Runner Backpacker and white water rafter for more information on Jim visit www.jim Hing