The 4 Disciplines Of Execution®

Written by Chris McChesney | May 18 2021

 

 

Do you remember the last major initiative you watched die in your organization?

Did it go down with a loud crash? Or was it slowly and quietly suffocated by other competing priorities? By the time it finally disappeared, it's likely no one even noticed. What happened?

The "whirlwind" of urgent activity required to keep things running day-to-day devoured all the time and energy you needed to invest in executing your strategy for tomorrow! The 4 Disciplines of Execution can change all that forever.

The 4DX process has been refined to achieve three objectives:

1. High-quality implementation in the shortest possible time.

2. Maximum leader and team engagement with minimum disruption to business operations.

3. Sustainable WIG results through full process adoption (new habits).

4DX is not theory, but a proven set of principles and practices that have been tested and refined by hundreds of organizations and 126,000+ teams over many years. When a company or an individual adheres to these disciplines, they achieve superb results –– regardless of the goal. 4DX represents a new way of thinking and working that are essential to thriving in today's competitive climate.



The 4 Disciplines:

Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important
The discipline of focus requires you to go against your basic wiring as a leader and focus on less so your team can achieve more.

Discipline 2: Act on The Lead Measures
The discipline of leverage requires you to identify and act on the measures that are predictive of reaching your goal and that can be influenced by you and the team.

Discipline 3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
The discipline of engagement requires you to create a players' scoreboard so that members of the team can easily tell whether they are winning or losing.

Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability
The discipline of commitment requires you to hold regularly scheduled team meetings where members make and keep commitments to each other to execute on the wildly important goal.

Gain a deeper understanding of the skills, processes, and disciplines that are essential to strategy execution by reading one of our guides: