Revised and Updated: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals
1982156988
Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling, Scott Thele, and Beverly Walker
Notes
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.
Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important Goals (WIG) requires you to go against your basic wiring as a leader and focus on less so your team can achieve more. When you implement Discipline 1, you start by selecting one goal where you would most like to achieve breakthrough results, instead of trying to significantly improve everything all at once… This is achieved not only by selecting the specific area where you want to achieve breakthrough results (your WIG), but also bringing it into focus by defining a starting line (your current level of performance), a finish line (you desired improved performance), and a deadline for the WIG (the date by which this level must be achieved)…The From X to Y by When format recognizes where you are today, where you want to go, and when you plan to reach that goal.”
Discipline 2: Lead measures are quite different in that they are the measures of the most impactful actions (or behaviors) your team must do to reach the goal…The second discipline is to apply disproportionate energy to the few actions (or behaviors) that will have the greatest impact on achieving the WIG. We call these actions “lead measures” because they are the measurable drivers that actually lead to WIG achievement… The real insight of Discipline 2 is simply this: Regardless of the outcome you’re seeking, a few actions or behaviors will create disproportionate results on your WIG. Working together with your team, you can find and then leverage these lead measures to produce extraordinary results……the impact of the lead measures has been greater when the top-down influence of the leader provides guidance and direction, and the bottom-up influence of the team provides clarity on which actions actually produce the greatest results….Lead measures must be both predictive of achieving the Team WIG and influenceable by the team…
Lead measure ideas:
- Is it predictive?
- Is it influenceable?
- Is it an ongoing process or a “one-and-done?”
- Is it a leader’s game or a team game?
- Can it be measured?
- Is it worth measuring?
Discipline 3: is based on the principle of engagement. 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…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…“If you’re not keeping score you’re just practicing.” A game without a clearly measurable score will never be a game that matters.
Characteristics of a compelling player’s scoreboard
- Is it simple?
- Can I see it easily?
- Does it show lead and lag measures?
- If your team is geographically dispersed, the scoreboard should be visible on your desktop computer or mobile phone.
- Does it show lead and lag measures?
- Can I tell at a glance if I’m winning?
- If you can’t tell within five seconds whether you’re winning or losing, you haven’t passed the test.
Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Responsibility…
WIG session agenda
- Account. Report on last week’s commitments.
- Review the scoreboard. Learn from successes and failures.
- Plan. Clear the path and make new commitments.
One important caution to keep in mind at this point is that battles (sub-WIGs to the Primary WIG) are not lead measures… A lead measure is predictive of goal outcome, but must also be something the team can have direct influence on.
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.
With a leverage behavior lead measure, the team measure, the team is accountable for performing the behavior rather than producing the result.
Strategy
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Stroke of the Pen – Breakthrough (WIG) – Whirlwind
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Sub WIG – Sub WIG – Sub WIG
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Lead Measure
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Lead Measure