In my new role as a Digital Learning Specialist, I have a lot of variability in my job and I absolutely love what I do. I am responsible for managing the help desk for the Digital Learning team. Also, I spend a lot of time managing communication for our team, whether that is internal communication between departments or externally on Twitter. Finally, the bulk of my work is project-based, so I spend some of my day organizing and completing tasks toward a larger project. Unfortunately, I spend a lot of time managing the whirlwind of the day-to-day tasks and I don’t always make as much headway on projects as I would like, let alone acknowledge my impact on our district’s WIGs.
What is the whirlwind and why does it get in the way of successfully implementing behavioral change?
According to Chris McChesney (2011), the Whirlwind is “all of the work, energy, and attention necessary to maintain the operation.” It is urgent, systemic, and highly habitual. Take technology help tickets as an example of my Whirlwind. Help tickets will keep coming in whether I pay attention to them or not. Also, if I don’t give them the right amount of attention, my boss will hear about it, ergo I will hear about it. Our long-term change goals sit in opposition to these daily tasks. McChesney (2011) says that these goals to move an organization forward get in the way of the Whirlwind of tasks that pile up when we ignore them. In fact, most meaningful initiatives that require significant systemic and behavioral change are “choked and starved by the whirlwind” (McChesney, 2011).
How does 4DX recommend you compensate for the whirlwind?
To make any significant organizational change, we need to get intentional about planning and executing our goals. The book The 4 Disciplines of Execution (McChesney et al., 2015) implores us to apply The 4 Disciplines of Execution.
1: Focus on the Wildly Important
The first discipline is about goal setting. You should focus your energy on one to three simple goals. Why? “Human beings are genetically hardwired to do one thing at a time with excellence” (McChesney et al., 2015, p. 25). This means that any more than three goals and your team is spread too thin.
2: Act on the Lead Measures
The focus of the second discipline is on what to measure and why. It is important to acknowledge lag and lead measures, but to act on lead measures. Lag measures denote the success of the WIG, but by the time you see them the performance that drove them has passed, while lead measures track activities that drive a lag measure (McChesney, 2016). In this sense, they are predictive and act as the lever to move your lag goal (McChesney et al., 2015). Why do humans often pay more attention to the lag goal?
3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
Creating a compelling scoreboard is all about motivation! Why? It’s all about the power of small wins in lead goals (McChesney et al., 2015). People notably perform best when they are engaged emotionally, and the highest level of engagement comes when people know if they are winning or losing (McChesney, 2016). The best scoreboard is designed for & by the players and should show, “where you are, where you should be, and the ultimate goal” (McChesney, 2016).
4: Create a Cacdence of Accountability
Last but certainly not least is the concept of accountability through in form of WIG meetings. A WIG meeting is a brief daily-weekly meeting focused solely on the WIGs. The driving question in a WIG meeting is, “What are the one or two most important things I can do this week that will have the biggest impact on the scoreboard?” (McChesney, 2016). Team members focus on their contribution to the goal in the form of bite-size tasks. It is important to note that individuals have choice and ownership over these commitments.
I know that I’ll always struggle with the Whirlwind.
The moment I open an email or look at the help desk, I’m sucked back into the flow of day to day tasks. Daily tasks are like hard-to-break habits – they are a part of us. That’s why 4DX is so important. Applied correctly, 4DX can make lead goals a part of the routine. And when that goal has become a habit, we can move onto another one. Like I said in From Cog to Metacognition: My Story (Stateler, 2022), you eat an elephant one bite at a time.
How can you incorporate these concepts intentionally as we all work toward meaningful structural change in our organizations?
References
McChesney, C. (2011, July 26). Move Your Middle – Chris McChesney. YouTube. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3ThJ5b3vww
McChesney, C. (2016, December 29). The 4 Disciplines of Execution in a Nutshell. YouTube. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEJDliThj7g
McChesney, C., Huling, J., & Covey, S. (2015). The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals. Simon & Schuster UK Limited.
Stateler, K. (2022, February 21). From Cog to Metacognition: My Story. Cookies N Cache. https://karinstateler.com/?p=619