Organizations that thrive and grow are the ones that live by the principles of high performance—high focus on mission and values coupled with superb business execution. In any great organizations, it is their people that make the difference. No organization can succeed until individuals within it succeed.

That is the main thrust of The 4 Disciplines of Execution® — unleashing the power of your entire workforce by creating a high degree of alignment in your organization and focusing your people’s daily energies into delivering results that really matter to the strategic direction of your organization.

UNLEASH THE POWER OF YOUR ENTIRE WORK FORCE

Just as important as it is to get your team moving in the right direction, you have to make sure they're all headed in the same direction. The 4 Disciplines of Execution will give you a set of tools and processes to bring your organization into alignment with its objectives.

A recent study revealed that only 40% of the typical knowledge worker's time is spent on tasks related to the organization's mission-critical objectives. Another estimate has shown that the productivity cost of not having workers actively engaged in implementing strategy is USD300 billion per year. Imagine the power of an entire organization that is focused — 100% of the time — on the things that drive your department, your division...your organization.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution is all about producing results. This two-day course will teach managers how to align the individual productivity of their team members with the organization’s strategic business objectives. The workshop will:

• Help managers to lead employees to focus and execute on the mission critical objectives of the organization while setting aside the distractions.
• Clearly define the wildly important goals with specific measures and targets.
• Guide team members in identifying and committing to the new critical activities and behaviors that must be done to achieve new results.
• Engage and inspire team members to help each other execute on team goals every day.
• Create a culture of accountability, results-focused and follow up.
• Help managers to lead and manage by organizational and departmental objectives to truly achieve better business results.

THE DISCIPLINES

DISCIPLINE 1: FOCUS ON THE WILDLY IMPORTANT

The bottom line: Most people just are not:
1. Committed to the organization’s most important priorities;
2. Not even aware of the organization’s most important priorities;
3. Not able to apply a laser like focus on the organization’s most important priorities.

Employees typically also have too many work goals, too many assigned tasks, and too many roles. They cannot deliver excellent results when they try or are mandated to do everything at the same time. They simply must choose their focus, what matters most to the organization overall and truly add value through flawless execution.

Organizations and their work force have to focus on the wildly important while setting aside the merely important. Highly effective organizations and individuals focus on those wildly important goals and execute around them.

• Principle: Human beings are wired to do only one thing at a time with excellence
• Old Thinking: We can effectively accomplish six, eight, or even ten important goals at once
• New Thinking: The more we narrow our focus, the greater our chance of achieving our goals with excellence, over and over again to deliver meaningful business results

DISCIPLINE 2: CREATE A COMPELING SCOREBOARD

Most organizations and departments have goals, mission, vision and objectives; but few have clearly defined measures around them. Building specific measures allow you to:
1. Ensure that people have the same understanding on what is truly important.
2. Track results, hold people accountable.
3. Reward performers, manage non-performance and encourage performance.

• Principle: People play differently when they’re keeping score
• Old Thinking: Once we’ve communicated the goal, people will know we’re serious about it
• New Thinking: We’re not really serious about the goal until we start keeping score
  

DISCIPLINE 3: TRANSLATE LOFTY GOALS INTO SPECIFIC ACTIONS

Many people jump straight from goal setting to execution. However, to achieve a goal, you must first define and master the specific tasks, activities and competencies necessary to deliver the desired results. Remember, better results require new and/or better activities or behaviors! Also, the actual tasks to realize the strategy will ultimately fall into the hands and shoulders of the individuals in your organization or unit. They must be able to make the connection between the organization’s strategies to their daily personal work processes to truly deliver those results.

• Principle: To achieve goals you’ve never achieved before, you need to start doing things you’ve never done before
• Old Thinking: If people know the goal, they’ll know what to do about it.
• New Thinking: Goals will never be achieved until everyone on the team knows exactly what they’re supposed to do about them.
  

DISCIPLINE 4: HOLD EACH OTHER ACCOUNTABLE, ALL THE TIME

Many decisions fail because organizations do not maintain the discipline of performance and execution towards the goal. Organizations produce exceptional results when each member makes it a habit to keep his/her commitment and helps others to deliver on their performance. In essence, people are held accountable, all the time.

Leaders need to help people deliver on their commitments and execute their part. They effectively support, coach, follow up, remove barriers and hold people accountable.

• Principle: Knowing others are counting on you raises your level of commitment
• Old Thinking: As long as the goal is clear and compelling, people will remain focused and committed to it
• New Thinking: Maintaining commitment to the goal requires frequent team engagement and accountability.
  

IMPLEMENT THE 4 DISCIPLINES
Participants will design a specific plan of action to implement the 4 Disciplines within their teams or organization. The goals are defined in the context of the relevant work groups. A tradition of execution excellence is established.

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