The 4 Disciplines of Execution

Rule #4: All WIGs must have a finish line in the form of from X to Y by when.

Without involvement, you cannot create the high levels of commitment that execution requires. While the senior leaders will undoubtedly determine the top-level WIG, they must allow the leaders at each level below to define the WIGs for their teams.

measures are ultimately the most important things you are trying to accomplish. But lead measures, true to their name, are what will get you to the lag measures. Once you’ve identified your lead measures, they become the key leverage points for achieving your goal.

The first discipline is to focus your finest effort on the one or two goals that will make all the difference, instead of giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals.

Rule #2: The battles you choose must win the war.

prime suspect behind execution breakdown was clarity of the objective: People simply didn’t understand the goal they were supposed to execute.

Whether your WIG comes from within the whirlwind or outside it, your real aim is not only to achieve it, but also to then make the new level of performance a natural part of your team’s operation. In essence, once a WIG is achieved, it goes back into the whirlwind.

learned: once you’ve decided what to do, your biggest challenge is in getting people to execute it at the level of excellence you need.

Lack of commitment to the goal was another problem. Even those people who knew the goal lacked commitment to achieving it.