Installing 4DX in Your Organization

Each element of the 4 disciplines are done in conjunction with following the 5 stages of change, starting with focusing on the goal. My organizational goal is to foster the creation and continued usage of an ePortfolio by all Entrepreneurship Diploma program students to track the development of their business model and entrepreneurial journey over their high school career. This will allow students choice in how they demonstrate their learning, while also helping them to reflect on the learning process. Reading the books, Influencer: A new science of learning & 4 Disciplines of Execution, helped me gain a plethora of knowledge and resources to use in both my personal and professional lives, on individual and organizational levels.

Rolling out the initiative with one classroom, specifically one led by one of our campus influencers really helped kick start the plan. This buy-in quickly helped spread across the department to include 2 other classes, and from there the expansion of the plan to roll out the ePortfolios across all entrepreneurial courses began to take shape. Admittedly, getting started with this was intimidating, especially when I did not have immediate control over the roll out, as this is not my classroom, however the resources found in both books gave me a solid framework for implementation. While understanding and identifying vital behaviors, a skill practice in conjunction with information provided from the book Influencer; determining lag and lead measures when diving into the 4DX model really helped solidify how change was going to occur.

To be successful in any capacity, but specifically within an organization people have to care, and making people care requires more than just a quick fix strategy. By working together, and building the trust and support of your team together you become equipped to not only tackle the whirlwind, but also start achieving lasting success. The 4DX model is not just a way to execute something, but it is a framework towards real accountability and ownership of a process. With the visual scoreboard people are able to track and see their process, further motivating them to keep setting and achieving milestones towards their WIG.

4 DISCIPLINES OF EXECUTION

Discipline #1: Focus on the Wildly Important Goal
- Understanding what goals your organization wants to hit beyond just the daily tasks and responsibilities is key to moving forward. By focusing on one to two wildly important goals or WIGs your team will learn how to prioritize rather than simply over commit. Too many goals force teams to stretch themselves too thin. Instead creating goals that are clear and measurable is the most productive way to reach that goal.

Discipline #2 : Act of the Lead Measures
- Lead measures are predictive and influenceable actions that push a team towards their goals. Where as Lag measures are an end result and not directly controlled.

Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
- Who doesn't love to keep score? Keeping a scoreboard, something that is visual and clear, helps drive motivation within your organization. By keeping a scoreboard that outlines the WIG, lead measures and lag measures, teams are able to stay focused and driven by their progress.

Create a Cadence of Accountability
- Accountability is something that can be easier said than done, so being clear and initial about it is a must for any organization. For each team member within an organization it is necessary that they identify and commit to personal goals each week that help move towards the WIG. This can be done through weekly meetings where those goals are set and reviewed (reported on) each week. The meetings should be short, consistent in time and day each week, and the scoreboard she be a part of them. During the meetings be sure to review commitments from the previous week, establish new commitments for the upcoming week, and offer assistance to team members where it is needed.

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5 STAGES OF CHANGE

Stage 1: Getting Clear

The first stage is where you begin to put all of the stages of the 4DX model into motion. By focusing on the wildly important goal (WIG), identifying and acting on lead measures, creating and sharing a scoreboard and holding true to accountability with weekly progress sessions, your team kick starts the road towards achieving that goal.

Stage 2: Launch

Once the planning is done for the goals it is time to put that plan in motion.During this stage, remain patient and consistent with your plan, and remember that implementation is a process not a quick action.

Stage 3: Adoption

The launch stage is not necessarily a quick one, and thus reaching this adoption stage could take some time. In this stage, your team has started to see progress and is using accountability as a means to really move the scoreboard. As the scoreboard moves, and the motivation continues to remain consistent, your team continues to work toward the wildly important goal.

Stage 4: Optimization

You have now reached the phase where 4DX is in full implementation and team members are starting to really take the lead on initiatives within the program. Engagement is high at this point and actions are geared towards playing the game to WIN. In leadership, remember that this stage is geared towards providing recognition and celebrating victories with your team.

Stage 5: Habits

4DX isn’t just a quick fix strategy but it's become a habit , and your team has reached the wildly important goal that you all set out to achieve. What you have been doing to get to this point has become a standard set of habits that have shifted the culture within your organization. Since the WIG has been met, it's time to use that same framework as your organization works to establish new goals moving forward.

4DX & INFLUENCER

The framework of the 4 Disciplines of Execution and the Influencer Strategy serve as a compliment to one another, as both are geared towards establishing strategies for behavior change within an organization. Behavior change is not an easy feat and thus small manageable steps towards the overall goal, make reaching and achieving lasting results more plausible and realistic. Both models emphasize the importance of leadership within an organization, and accountability to reach results.

With the influencer strategy, goal setting and motivational factors are the primary focus when moving towards getting your team aligned for success. This requires leaders to look at vital behaviors and use those as a starting point to aligning goals with the six sources of influence. Used to help get the goal achieved, the six sources of influence consist of personal motivation, personal ability, social motivation, social ability, structural motivation and structural ability.

Of course, like any big leap or step comes the fear and hesitation of not being able to predict its success, but with this 4DX model you are truly able to take the guesswork out of the process of planning and executing. This is why the 4DX model is so valuable.

In my organization, especially within my team, everyone wears many hats and has a lot on their plate, so asking them to step away from their whirlwind seems nearly impossible, but having these two strategies will help not only with progression towards our goal, but with consistent and continuous accountability to really drive lasting change.

REFERENCES

Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. New York, NY: Free Press