4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) and Its Role Within Ingrained Excellence
“To achieve a goal you have never achieved before, you must start doing things you have never done before.”
— Jim Stuart
During the past year, we have received many questions from clients about effectively deploying the ‘4 Disciplines of Execution’ (4DX). The concepts, based on the book of the same title by Chris McChesney and Sean Covey, have driven far more inquiries than any other newly emerging concept. In this post, we explore the key ideas related to 4DX, provide thoughts on integration with Ingrained Excellence, and offer tips on effective implementation that you can utilize in your organization.
4DX is a strategic deployment methodology designed to help executives focus and align the organization’s entire workforce. Because of this, it directly supports one of the ‘Four Musts’ of Ingrained Excellence: ‘Alignment and Focus.’ When properly implemented, 4DX can help ensure the needed execution to achieve the key strategic objectives of the organization.
McChesney and Covey define the four disciplines as follows:
Focus on the Wildly Important
Keep a Compelling Scorecard
Create a Cadence of Accountability
Next, we will explore each of these disciplines in more detail.
Focus on the Wildly Important
According to McChesney and Covey, the purpose of this phase is to “focus your finest effort on the one or two goals that will make all of the difference, instead of giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals.” Focusing on only one or two “Wildly Important Goals” (WIGs), allows executives to align the organization’s collective energy on executing those critical few goals. When too many goals are present, the best of intentions get swept away by the “whirlwind” of urgent day-to-day activities.
A WIG is not a BHAG. In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins outlines a BHAG as a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. In Lean parlance, we view BHAGs as being synonymous with the ‘True North’ vision of a long-term ideal state. WIGs are specific and short-term in nature; they identify what is most important for the organization to achieve in the form of “from X to Y by when.” For example, a trucking company may define their WIG as reducing operating ratio from 92.7 to 87.3 by year-end.
It’s important to remember that high-level WIGs are designed by executives and then cascaded into progressively lower level WIGs across all levels of the organization. These lower level WIGs all correlate to the achievement of the highest level WIG. For example, the maintenance group of the trucking company may define their lower level WIG as “Reducing Maintenance Spend per Tractor from X to Y by Year End.”
For goals to be successful, there have to be measurable guidelines to track progress. Directly measuring progress against WIGs provides a lagging, after the fact, indication of team standing versus goal attainment. In addition, the team should also define daily or weekly measures—these measures should be causal and influential in nature. When reviewing goal progress, team members should determine and take the necessary actions to positively impact the lead measures. Authors McChesney and Covey argue that their method provides a flexible just-in-time approach, compared to the traditional one-time activity of simply defining and deploying resources to execute a detailed plan of all activities needed to achieve the WIG.
By ensuring a goal is adaptable to environmental changes and marketplace modifications, there is a better chance of successful execution. Continuing with our trucking company example, the maintenance group may define ‘% of tractors receiving preventative maintenance within every X miles’, as a leading measure for their local level WIG. After the team identifies the lead measure, they should then – on a regular basis – define and act on the specific actions needed to positively influence the metric.
Keep a Compelling Scorecard
Visibility is a key component of goal attainment. To support WIG achievement, each team should develop a simple, highly visual dashboard displaying progress against the WIG. The board should also include the performance of the corresponding lead measures and status of activities to drive the leads in the appropriate direction.
By placing the dashboard in a visible area, everyone is able to keep up-to-date on whether or not the team is “winning.” This component directly aligns with the fundamental Lean hallmark of Visual Management.
Create a Cadence of Accountability
This discipline is “where execution actually happens.” The team should come together frequently, around the visual scorecard, to assess the actions taken thus far and to plan for future actions as they move forward. McChesney and Covey suggest the 20-30 minute sessions take place at least weekly; however, our experience shows that it is more effective when performed on a daily basis at the local level. Weekly accountability sessions are acceptable for higher levels of the organization. No matter the level or job titles, frequent accountability sessions keep the WIG in the forefront of everyone’s mind. This accountability is an extension of the common Lean practice of daily team huddles.
How Does 4DX Integrate with Ingrained Excellence?
As stated previously, 4DX directly supports one of the ‘Four Musts’ of Ingrained Excellence: ‘Alignment and Focus,’ by rallying the entire organization around the achievement of the one or two most critical objectives.
Additionally, Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability, links to another ‘Must’ of Ingrained Excellence – Must 4: Fundamentally Ingrain CI into the organization’s culture. Engaging front-line workers every day in taking action toward achieving the WIG cultivates an environment in which improvement becomes a daily habit of all workers. This ensures all workers, no matter the level within the organization, are continually focused on improving the way work gets done rather than viewing this as an additional set of bolt-on activities that must be accomplished. If this mentality is built within the organization, it can play a valuable role in achieving Ingrained Excellence.
Tips for Effective Deployment of 4DX
Although 4DX can play an integral role in Ingrained Excellence, here are several recommendations to support an effective deployment:
Define a common methodology and support structure for executing toward WIGs. While the authors suggest teams meet regularly to review progress and agree on next steps, they do not provide details on how to do this. We recommend integrating the practices of Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata into the ongoing accountability process. This will provide a common methodology and the needed structure and coaching support to accelerate progress.
Deploy WIGs only into areas that impact them. Some businesses require all areas to be involved in the achievement of WIGs, whether or not they directly impact them. However requiring an area that cannot directly impact a WIG to participate drives wasteful activity. Workers forced to develop scorecards and attend accountability session linked to goals that they have little impact over can easily become jaded with the process. All business areas should develop ongoing improvement efforts, but if they do not directly impact a WIG, these efforts should be targeted on making progress toward moving a step closer to the long-term True North vision (e.g. achieving zero defects or one-piece flow).
Ensure mechanisms are in place to sustain the gains. McChesney and Covey explain that once WIGs are achieved, they are released back into the “whirlwind.” We contend that without continued attention, backsliding is very likely. Our recommendation is that critical lead measures be integrated into the ongoing Daily Performance Leadership process of the organization, a tool that allows the management of the daily whirlwind of business. This helps maintain the required level of day-to-day performance by ensuring an ongoing focus on the most critical factors impacting process outputs, and fostering continuous incremental improvement.
In summary, 4DX is a strategic deployment methodology that can play a fundamental role within Ingrained Excellence. It can serve as a key tool for aligning and focusing the entire organization, and engaging everyone in the execution of the needed activities to achieve the organization’s most critical goals. But to be successful, it must be deployed properly.
Lessons Learned: The 4DX process, or similar strategic deployment approaches, can be an integral part of Ingrained Excellence. Strengths include aligning and focusing the organization on achieving the most critical few objectives, making the progress clearly visible to all affected team members, and building a cadence of improvement and deep employee engagement. And, when it comes to effective deployment, there are key tips that play an important role when aligning with Ingrained Excellence. Define a common methodology and support structure, deploy WIGs only into areas of the business that impact them, and ensure mechanisms are in place to sustain the gains.
