I had referred to 4DX in my previous blog and the book that introduced this concept was my next read. Executing projects to completion successfully has been my strength for long and after reading the book, was delighted to know that I already follow most of the rules given in this book. So, the book helped build my vocabulary on execution focus and also articulate how one can succeed with excellent execution. In this blogpost, have summarized the key rules and principles behind 4DX.
People working at large organizations will be familiar with the struggle to prioritize execution of important strategic goals as they will invariably end up spending most of their time on urgent day-to-day operational tasks. So, the real enemy of execution is our day job, which the book calls the whirlwind. 4DX acknowledges the importance of whirlwind and provides a set of rules for executing our most critical strategy in the midst of our whirlwind.
- Discipline #1: Focus on the Wildly Important – The big idea here is to focus our finest effort on a few highly important goals that can he achieved in the midst of the whirlwind of the day job, rather than giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals.
- Rule #1: No team focuses on more than two Wildly Important Goals (WIGs) at the same time.
- Rule #2: The battle you choose must win the war.
- Rule #3: Senior leaders can veto, but not dictate.
- Rule #4: All WIGs must have finish line in the form of from X to Y by when.
- Discipline #2: Act on the Lead Measures: Discipline 1 takes the wildly important goal for an organization and breaks it into a set of specific, measurable targets until every team has a WIG that it can own. Discipline 2 then defines the leveraged actions that can enable the team to achieve that goal. Tracking a goal is done through two types of measures:
- Lag Measures: Measurement of a result we are trying to achieve and called lag measure because by the time we get the data the result has already happened, so they are always lagging. Example – sprint velocity, lead time, revenue, profits, etc.
- Lead measures: Foretell the result and is virtually within our control. Example – while a sprint goal (say velocity, lag measure) can be jeopardized due to external dependencies that are out of the team’s control, the team can certainly adhere strictly to acceptance criteria (lead measures like definition of ready and definition of done). And more the team acts on the lead measure, the more likely sprint goals will be accomplished. Lead measures should have two primary characteristics:
- Predictive: If the lead measure changes, team can predict that the lag measure will also change.
- Influenceable: It can be directly influenced by the team without a significant dependence on another team.
- Discipline #3: Keep a compelling Scoreboard – The third discipline is to make sure everyone in the team know the score at all times, so that they can tell whether they are winning. A Sprint Burndown Chart that tracks the team’s progress towards sprint goal can be an example. The following four questions will determine if the scoreboard is likely to be compelling to the team:
- Is it simple?
- Can I see it easily?
- Does it show lead and lag measures?
- Can I tell at a glance if my team is winning?
- Discipline #4: Create a Cadence of Accountability – The fourth discipline is to create a frequently recurring cycle of accountability (WIG sessions) for the past performance and planning to move the score forward. In a Scrum team, Sprint Retrospective is a routine that strives to achieve this by expecting the team to discuss those things that went well and others that went wrong, to identify improvement opportunities for future sprints. A WIG session has the following three part agenda:
- Account: Report on commitments
- Review the scoreboard: Learn from successes and failures
- Plan: Clear the path and make new commitments
Over the years, I have seen numerous strategic organizational initiatives being launched with the right intent and much fanfare. However, only a few of them achieved the real goals and many went down quietly over time, slowly suffocated by the whirlwind. The book summarizes this situation beautifully and kindles hope at the end: Once people give up on a goal that looks unachievable – no matter how strategic it might be – there is only one place to go: back to the whirlwind. After all, it’s what they know and it feels safe. When this happens, your team is now officially playing not to lose instead of playing to win and there is a big difference. Simply put, 4DX gets an organization playing to win!