# The 4 Disciplines of Execution  ## Metadata - Author: [[Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling, Scott Thele, and Beverly Walker]] - Full Title: The 4 Disciplines of Execution - Category: #books ## Highlights - You must be able to figure out what problem needs solving most, or nothing else matters. And you must solve that problem while maintaining vigilant oversight of the day-to-day transactions—or else they will become your new crisis. ([Location 37](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=37)) - At the heart of every vision, every aspiration, is a crisis. ([Location 39](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=39)) - one of my most significant jobs as a leader was keeping score. In government, we are not used to playing in a winning game. But you cannot know what it will take to win if you do not know the score. ([Location 61](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=61)) - 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. ([Location 149](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=149)) - 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. ([Location 196](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=196)) - Stroke-of-the-pen initiatives are those you execute just by ordering or authorizing them to be done. ([Location 204](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=204)) - Breakthroughs that require a change in behavior are very different. You can’t just order them to happen, because executing them requires getting people—often a lot of people—to be highly engaged in a new or different approach to creating results. ([Location 207](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=207)) - “To achieve a goal you have never achieved before, you must start doing things you have never done before.” If it requires people to do something different, you are driving a breakthrough strategy, and it’s not going to be easy. ([Location 216](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=216)) - One prime suspect behind execution breakdown was clarity of the objective. People simply didn’t understand the goal they were supposed to execute. ([Location 233](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=233)) - 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. ([Location 242](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=242)) - 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 you of the focus required to move your team forward. ([Location 252](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=252)) - The challenge is executing your most important goals in the midst of the urgent! ([Location 268](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=268)) - What actually separates the best and worst performers is the shape of their respective curves. The high performer’s adoption curve is more “right and tight.” So while leaders have to accept that they will always have an adoption curve, they do not have to accept the shape of that curve. ([Location 306](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=306)) - Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important requires you to go against your basic wiring as a leader and focus on less so your team can achieve more. ([Location 332](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=332)) - If you are trying to simultaneously execute a number of new goals, each of which requires a high degree of engagement to achieve, you will inevitably be frustrated by your results. ([Location 335](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=335)) - The Wildly Important Goal must be singular and completely in focus. 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 (your desired improved performance), and a deadline for the WIG (the date by which this level must be achieved). ([Location 341](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=341)) - Lag measures are the tracking measurements of the Wildly Important Goal, or any other measurement you cannot significantly influence individually. ([Location 352](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=352)) - Revenue, profit, market share, product quality, and customer satisfaction are all lag measures, meaning that when you receive them, the performance that drove them is already in the past. ([Location 353](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=353)) - 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. ([Location 356](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=356)) - A good lead measure has two basic characteristics. It’s predictive of achieving the goal, and it can be influenced by the team members. ([Location 358](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=358)) - People play differently when they are keeping score. ([Location 375](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=375)) - The cadence of accountability is a rhythm of regular and frequent meetings of any team that owns a Wildly Important Goal. ([Location 389](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=389)) - once a WIG is achieved, it returns to your whirlwind—it becomes part of your day-to-day operations, but at a new level. ([Location 494](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=494)) - Even though you know that more is not better, it looks better, especially to the person above you. Thus, 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. ([Location 542](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=542)) - The more often you say yes, the more you fall into a trap of your own making. ([Location 548](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=548)) - When you have goal-setting autonomy, instead of asking, “What’s most important for our team?” begin by asking, “If every other aspect of our team’s performance remained at its current level, what is the one area where significant improvement would have the greatest impact?” ([Location 564](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=564)) - When you don’t have goal-setting autonomy, it’s more effective to ask, “What improved outcome would represent our team’s greatest contribution to the overall strategy?” ([Location 567](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=567)) - the leader here is asking the wrong question. They should not be asking, “What is most important?” but “Where do we most want to create a breakthrough?” ([Location 617](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=617)) - if the frontline teams cannot find a way to directly or indirectly contribute to the Primary WIG, the forced alignment of their Team WIG can feel artificial and kills engagement. ([Location 645](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=645)) - The only reason you fight a battle is to win the war. The sole purpose of Team WIGs is to drive the achievement of the Primary WIG. It isn’t enough that the Team WIGs just support or align with the Primary WIG. The achievement of the Team WIGs must ensure the success of the Primary WIG. ([Location 664](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=664)) - When a team moves from having a dozen “we really hope” goals to one “no matter what” goal, the effect on morale is dramatic. It’s as though a switch exists in every team member’s head labeled “Game on!” If you can throw that switch, you have laid the foundation for extraordinary execution. ([Location 753](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=753)) - When a lead measure is well chosen, it creates results that are greater than the effort invested to perform them. ([Location 791](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=791)) - managing a company by looking at financial data (lag measures) is the equivalent of “driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror.” ([Location 854](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=854)) - 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. ([Location 1044](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=1044)) - They’re not playing to win; they’re playing not to lose. And the result is a big difference in performance. ([Location 1141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=1141)) - Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence. ([Location 1208](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=1208)) - people will work hard to avoid disappointing their boss, but they will do almost anything to avoid disappointing their teammates. ([Location 1454](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=1454)) - “The most motivating situations,” he says, are those that are “highly structured and full of novelty and stimulation.” ([Location 1465](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=1465)) - 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 year. ([Location 1540](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=1540)) - Tim offered us an insight that has remained in our minds over the years. He said, “The first thing I want to know when I am talking to a leader is, where has that leader chosen to spend disproportionate energy?” ([Location 1565](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BZW8NGC&location=1565))