The Four Disciplines of Execution: Recommendation

COVID-19 threw a major wrench in our work at our lab school in Austin. However, we are moving forward with making our strategic plan for next year. I really enjoyed reading The Four Disciplines of Execution. It helped me gather information about what seems like a really effective method for setting goals and motivating others to achieve them.

I especially appreciate the simplicity of the model. Discipline 1 is to establish 1-2 wildly important goals. Once you have those goals, you think about the small indicators that will reveal whether or not you are on track to reach the goal. So often, our goals are things that can’t be changed once the final data comes in. So we need to have approximations for the end goal that we can look at along the way and make adjustments accordingly.

Once you have those smaller indicators, you need a scorecard that shows everyone on the team how close you are to achieving the goal. And, finally, you set up a regular cadence of meetings to check in on progress and establish next steps.

Now I just need to combine this idea with my massive to-do system to make sure I can get everything done!