Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling’s “The Four Disciplines of Execution (4DX) created a very simple and practical framework to guarantee goals are followed up and realized. As we all get caught up with our day-to-day “whirlwinds,” we somehow neglect our more important goals until it spirals to making the “execution gap” bigger, then it becomes unmanageable. When this happens, the behavior change is also not attained. In response to this, 4DX cites four important disciplines to follow so we can see results. This includes “Focusing on the Wildly Important, Acting on Lead Measures, Keeping a Compelling Scoreboard, and Creating a Cadence of Accountability.” As each discipline lays a set of practices that can lead to change, implementers and influencers also known as the team need to work relentlessly to achieve their goal. McChesney, Covey and Huling added that team members need to go through these 5 stages of behavior change, including “Getting Clear, Launch, Adoption, Optimization, and Habits.”

 

I developed an Innovation Plan on Blended Learning, and as it slowly gets more defined with the Influencer Model, incorporating the 4DX framework will be the best tool for executing the plan.  Implementing the plan and putting it into action is evidently our only way to gather data to test its effectiveness, it gives us the information to further improve or make changes as necessary.

 

 

The Influencer Model and 4DX are both goal and results- oriented. When aptly implemented and applied, it can generate data that will affect the overall outcome of the plan. While the Influencer Model depends on the 6 Sources of Influencer to affect results, the 4DX focuses on the team’s efforts towards the lag and lead measures. The development of the Influencer Model is mostly done during the planning and organization period. The 4DX can be applied when the team is ready to execute or implement the plan. The Influencer Model’s Desired Result is similar to 4DX’s WIG. The 6 Sources of Influence is also closely similar to every discipline within the 4DX framework. For instance, during WIG meetings (4DX), it addresses accountability and commitment, which is also reflected under the social motivation and ability source of influence. In general, the Influencer Model and 4DX complement and supplement each other, that both impacts behavior change not just to comply with daily “whirlwinds, instead to achieve set more important goals.

 

References:

 

Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013).  Influencer: The new science of leading change: 2nd ed. New York:             McGraw-Hill Education

 

McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. New York, NY: Free Press.