As Chris McChesney said people are “Choked or starved by the whirlwind, the urgency of the day to day. People are not stupid, and they’re not lazy… their busy”. Goals are important but they fall to the back burner because daily activities and the daily sense of urgency take over, what Chris McChesney calls the whirlwind.
The Four Disciplines (4DX) say we can compensate for the whirlwind by lessening the number of goals we add to people's plates. By focusing ourselves on the “wildly important goals” or the “WIG’s” then we are more likely to see success in these goals. When a team has only one or two WIG’s at any given time they are able to focus all efforts on those goals, resulting in higher levels of accountability and engagement.
One of the main factors that play a role in this process is both the lag and lead measures. Lag measures are the results, the goal we are aiming for. On the other hand, we have the lead measure, the things we can measure, the things that will predict or influence our goal. Many people tend to become fixated on the lag measures because this is the measure that matters to us, it is the measure that we are accountable for. Lag measures also have data that is easier to collect, because of this it becomes the measure we focus on the most. More important though is the lead measure, this measure helps influence and predict the success or progress of our WIG.
To track these two measures we must have a compelling scoreboard, this aspect of 4DX is important because it allows for all people involved to become engaged and held accountably. By creating a compelling scoreboard we give people an incentive to work harder and become more involved in the process of attaining our goal. Being able to say that you are winning or making a difference is one of the most important factors in increasing morale.
To create a compelling scoreboard it must be:
Simple
Visible
Include the right “lead” and “lag” measures
Show whether you are winning or losing
The final aspect of 4DX includes holding a weekly meeting where the team shares about last weeks commitments, they review and update the scoreboard, and then make commitments for the upcoming week. This meeting not only holds team members accountable but allows for all parts of the team to see where successes are happening and where things still need to be worked on.
All of this is important because it separates the important goal from the daily tasks, It also engages every member of the team around the winnable game, and it allows any organization to achieve its goals in the middle of the whirlwind.