Visibility
The same book (2012) states that only 1 in 7 employees can name one of their organisation’s top three objectives. An objective that nobody can name is one that nobody can achieve.
Concepts
Which goal was at the top of your annual plan in January, and how many hours did you actually spend on it last week?
Not planned, not intended, but booked. If you can’t name that figure within ten seconds, your team won’t know it either. And then, every morning, your annual plan has to compete with your inbox – and it loses.
Not forecast, not in the board slide, but booked: this quarter's new ARR. If you cannot name that number within ten seconds, your sales team cannot either. Then your plan loses every morning to Slack and the support queue.
Not budgeted, not hoped for, but invoiced. If you cannot name the margin on your largest shipper within ten seconds, neither can your planners. Then your annual plan loses every morning to the first sick call and the first moved loading slot.
Not planned, but booked in the timesheets. If you cannot name that number within ten seconds, your team does not know it either. Then every morning your largest client's urgent ticket beats the retainer model you promised in January.
Not the pipeline, not that order from Bavaria, but this quarter's signed order intake. If you cannot name that figure within ten seconds, your sales team cannot either. Then your annual plan loses every morning to the change requests in your inbox.
90 mins · senior consultant · no slide deck
The cause is not a lack of will, but a structural conflict over capacity
Praise it
Take the initiative that’s been on the back burner for months. Estimate what it will yield each month once it’s up and running: extra profit margin, less rework, regained capacity. Divide that monthly amount by 4.33. The divisor is the number of weeks in an average month, 52 divided by 12. The result is your weekly opportunity cost. Example: 25,000 / 4.33 = approximately 5,774 euros per week. Enter your own monthly figure; the divisor remains 4.33.
Take the new packaging with a Pro tier that has slipped down the roadmap since the last board meeting. Estimate what it brings in per month once it is live: expansion MRR from existing accounts, less discounting at the deal desk, higher NRR. Divide that monthly figure by 4.33, the average number of weeks in a month (52 divided by 12). Worked example: 18,000 / 4.33 = roughly 4,157 euros a week. That is your cost of standing still, and your runway pays it. Use your own figure; the divisor stays 4.33.
Take the diesel surcharge you have meant to pass on automatically for months. Estimate what it brings in per month once it sits on every invoice: recovered fuel and Maut costs, fewer credit notes, fewer disputes with your shipper's accounts payable team. Divide that monthly figure by 4.33, the weeks in an average month (52 divided by 12). The result is your weekly cost of standstill. Worked example: 18,000 / 4.33 = roughly 4,157 euros per week. Enter your own monthly figure; the divisor stays 4.33.
Take the plan to move support from ad hoc hours to a managed-services contract, the one that has slipped for months. Estimate what it brings in each month once it runs: recurring revenue, fewer unpaid bug fixes, senior hours back for projects. Divide that monthly figure by 4.33, the average weeks per month (52 divided by 12). That is your weekly cost of standstill. Worked example: 18,000 / 4.33 = about 4,157 euros a week. Use your own figure; the divisor stays 4.33.
Take the modular standardisation of your conveyor units that has been slipping for months. Estimate what it yields per month once it runs: fewer engineering hours per order, less rework during assembly, a shorter lead time to FAT. Divide that monthly figure by 4.33, the number of weeks in an average month (52 divided by 12). The result is your cost of standstill per week. Worked example: 25,000 / 4.33 = roughly 5,774 euros per week. Use your own monthly figure; the divisor stays 4.33.
McChesney, Covey and Huling, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, 2012
The Whirlwind
In *The 4 Disciplines of Execution* (2012), McChesney, Covey and Huling refer to this as the ‘whirlwind’: all the energy required to keep the business running today. Escalations, invoicing, quotations, faults, releases.
McChesney, Covey and Huling call it the whirlwind in The 4 Disciplines of Execution (2012): everything that keeps the business running today. A P1 incident on a Friday afternoon, a wobbling renewal, the sprint demo, the monthly numbers for your investors.
McChesney, Covey and Huling call it the whirlwind in The 4 Disciplines of Execution (2012): all the energy needed to keep the business running today. A driver calling in sick at six, a queue at the Venlo border, a damage claim, a missing CMR.
In The 4 Disciplines of Execution (2012), McChesney, Covey and Huling call it the whirlwind: all the energy it takes to keep the business running today. A production outage at your largest client, a Friday-afternoon hotfix, a proposal due, timesheets still unbooked.
In The 4 Disciplines of Execution (2012), McChesney, Covey and Huling call it the whirlwind: all the energy it takes to keep the plant running today. A rush order for spare parts, a FAT that overruns, a milestone invoice left unpaid, a quotation due out on Friday.
That whirlwind isn’t a bad thing; it’s the reason you’ll still be here tomorrow. But it’s urgent, and urgency trumps importance. Always, and without anyone having to make a decision about it.
The second bill
The second invoice isn’t recorded anywhere in your ledger. Every initiative that stalls undermines the credibility of the next one. Your staff will be less committed the third time round. This means the energy required to get things moving increases with every subsequent change.
The second bill appears in no board deck. You announced the DACH launch at two all-hands meetings, and twice it slipped. At the third announcement your AEs nod and go back to calling their Dutch pipeline. Every next change needs more activation energy.
The second bill appears nowhere in your ledger. The last planning board in the TMS lasted three months, then everyone went back to Excel. Every initiative that stalls lowers the credibility of the next. Your planners invest less the third time, and your drivers notice first.
The second bill appears nowhere in your ledger. Your own product or accelerator has started twice and stalled twice, because the developers were pulled back onto client work. At the third announcement your team nods and nobody plans hours for it. Every next change takes more activation energy.
The second bill appears nowhere in your ledger. Think of hour booking per machine, launched twice and dropped twice as soon as the order book filled up. The third time, your project managers log their hours half-heartedly. That is how the activation energy for every next change keeps rising.
[ Four questions ]
Four questions
Answer them using your own figures or your own observations, not based on a hunch.
stilstandprijs per week = maandwaarde / 4,33
Can your line manager state the main objective for this quarter verbatim, including the figure and the date?
Can your Head of Customer Success state this quarter's most important goal word for word, including the NRR figure and the date?
Can your head of planning state this quarter's load-factor goal word for word, with the percentage and the date, without opening the TMS first?
Can your delivery manager recite this quarter's goal word for word, with number and date, such as retainer revenue from 25 to 35 per cent by 30 June?
Can your head of project management state this quarter's most important goal word for word, including the number of machines through FAT and the date?
What is the weekly opportunity cost of your key initiative, calculated as the monthly figure divided by 4.33?
Which metric does your team review each week, and is it a retrospective figure or an action the team can carry out themselves this week?
How many initiatives are currently labelled as ‘important’, and how many of those have a regular weekly session lasting 20 to 30 minutes?
4DX is not a model with four tips
It is an integrated system comprising four disciplines, and it only works as a whole. I have retained the authors’ names, with the Dutch meanings given alongside them.
D1, Focus on What Matters Most
Choose a breakthrough goal, the WIG. Formulate it using the authors’ format: ‘From X to Y by When’. From a measured starting point to a measured end point, with a date. Without those three elements, there is no finish line.
D2, Act on Key Measures
Lag measures are outcomes: turnover, margin, retention, delivery reliability. You don’t manage them directly, and once the figures are in, they’re a thing of the past. Lead measures are actions that the team carries out themselves this week.
Lag measures are outcomes: ARR, net revenue retention, gross churn, CAC payback. By the time they reach your monthly report, they are history. Lead measures are behaviours the team carries out itself this week, such as demos with accounts that sit squarely in your ICP.
Lag measures are outcomes: margin per lane, DSO, customers kept after the rate round. You cannot steer them directly, and once the figure is in, it is history. Lead measures are behaviours the team performs this week, such as every CMR back within 24 hours.
Lag measures are outcomes: project margin, billable utilisation, share of recurring revenue. You cannot steer them directly; once in, the number is history. Lead measures are this week's behaviour: after each sprint the project manager sets booked hours against budget.
Lag measures are outcomes: order intake, project margin after post-calculation, cash from milestone payments. You cannot steer them directly, and once the figure is in, it is history. Lead measures are what the team does this week: chasing every German quote within five days.
The two-axis test
Assess each candidate along two axes: predictive and influenceable. The polarity – explained once and consistent throughout – is that high is good on both axes. A high predictive score means that the lag measure moves in tandem with this metric. High ‘influencability’ means that the team can adjust it without external authorisation. If either axis scores low, the metric is discarded. Our limit – not a measured standard – is a maximum of two lead measures per team.
Our estimate; not a measured standard.
D3, Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
The authors distinguish between a coach’s board and a player’s board. A coach’s board is the management report. A player’s board belongs to the team itself: lead and lag are shown side by side, and you can see within five seconds whether you’re winning. The board tracks work, not people. The team fills it in themselves and uses it to clear work.
D4, Establish a Culture of Accountability
A regular weekly WIG session lasting 20 to 30 minutes (McChesney, Covey and Huling, 2012), with three fixed agenda items: Account, Review, Plan. ‘Account’ involves reporting on what you promised to do last week. ‘Review’ involves looking at the board together. ‘Plan’ consists of one or two commitments for the coming week.
What to do in week one
What you do in week one as the person with final responsibility. You set out a WIG in the ‘X to Y’ format. You ask the team to propose two candidate lead measures themselves. You assess these against the two criteria. You schedule the weekly session as a fixed appointment in the calendar.
Your first week as CEO. You write down the WIG: gross churn from 2.1 to 1.2 per cent a month by 31 March. Your CS team proposes two lead measures itself, for example calling every account with falling logins within five days. You test them on the two axes. The weekly twenty-minute session goes into the calendar as a fixed slot.
What you do in week one as owner-director. You write the WIG: empty kilometres on Rotterdam–Ruhr from 22 to 12 per cent by 30 June. You let the planners propose two lead measures themselves, such as a return load booked before departure. You test them on the two axes. You fix the weekly session in the diary.
What you do in week one as managing director. You write a WIG in the from X to Y by when format, for example: revenue from your three largest clients down from 60 to 50 per cent by 31 December. You let the account team propose two candidate lead measures. You test them on both axes. You fix the weekly session in the diary.
What you do in week one as managing director. You write a WIG in the from X to Y by when format, for example spare parts revenue from your installed base from 1.2 to 1.6 million euros by 31 December. Your service engineers propose two lead measures themselves. You test both on the two axes. The weekly session goes in the diary.
That’s all. The whirlwind will keep blowing just as hard; that’s all part of it.
[ By sector ]
The same four disciplines, three different diagnoses
SaaS scale-up
- 01 D1 Focus. The unit of measurement is the account, not the euro. Rewrite as follows: from a net retention rate of 96 per cent to 108 per cent at the end of Q4.
- 02 D2 Lead Measures. The metric is the product event stream in your data warehouse. Lead measure: the proportion of new accounts that perform the core action for the first time within 14 days. High predictive value, as without the first core action, there will be no renewal. High influence, as onboarding is within our own control.
- 03 D3 Scoreboard. A fixed panel in the team channel, organised by cohort, updated weekly.
- 04 D4 Cadence. The clock is the sprint. Schedule the WIG session at the start of the sprint week, separately from the sprint review.
Logistics
- 01 D1 Focus. The unit of measurement is the consignment, not the month. Formulate the target as follows: from 91 per cent to 97 per cent of consignments delivered within the agreed time window, by 31 December.
- 02 D2 Lead Measures. The tool used is the scanning points in the TMS. Lead measure: the proportion of consignments leaving the cross-dock before the cut-off time. Highly predictive, as every missed cut-off costs a whole day. Highly influenceable, as on-floor triage determines the order of processing.
- 03 D3 Scoreboard. A physical board at the dock, visible to the team filling it in, updated at the start of each shift.
- 04 D4 Cadence. It’s the clock that sets the pace, not the week. A five-minute daily kick-off by the board, plus the weekly WIG session with the team leaders.
Mechanical Engineering
- 01 D1 Focus. The unit of measurement is the order, and the timeframe is the project lead time. Formulate: from a 4 per cent to an 11 per cent margin following final calculation on new orders, delivered by 30 June.
- 02 D2 Lead Measures. The tool used is the post-calculation function in the ERP system, alongside the service reports. Lead measure: the number of bill of materials changes following engineering approval, per order. Highly predictive, as every change made after approval has knock-on effects for procurement and assembly. Highly influenceable, as the approval check is an internal process decision.
- 03 D3 Scoreboard. An A3 sheet for work planning, with one line per current order, updated on each release.
- 04 D4 Cadence. The clock sets the pace, so the board moves with each milestone. The WIG session must be held weekly, otherwise focus will wane between two milestones.
The unit of measurement, the instrument and the clock vary from sector to sector.
Please bring
Paste this into any language model
First, the practical bit about data.
Before you use this
Do not include client names, personal data, rates or anything covered by an NDA in a template. This exercise is based on roles, not names: write ‘account manager’, ‘planner’ or ‘work planner’. If you do wish to include company data here, please use a business subscription with a data processing agreement, as a free consumer account does not provide that legal basis.
Je bent een uitvoeringscoach die werkt volgens de vier disciplines uit De 4 disciplines van uitvoering (McChesney, Covey en Huling, 2012). Stel mij eerst deze vier vragen, een voor een, en wacht steeds op mijn antwoord: 1. Welk resultaat wil ik over twaalf maanden bereikt hebben? 2. Wat is de huidige gemeten waarde daarvan, en in welke eenheid meet ik die? 3. Welk systeem levert dat cijfer, en hoe vaak ververst het? 4. Welke rollen in mijn team kunnen dat cijfer met eigen handelingen beinvloeden? Lever daarna, en pas daarna, deze vier onderdelen: A. Een WIG in het formaat "van X naar Y voor wanneer", met mijn eigen startwaarde, eenheid en datum ingevuld. B. Vier kandidaat lead measures, elk als gedrag dat een genoemde rol deze week zelf uitvoert. Toets elke kandidaat op twee assen: voorspellend en beinvloedbaar. Hoog is goed op beide assen. Valt een van beide assen laag uit, dan valt de maatstaf af. Zet per kandidaat een regel waarom hij hoog of laag scoort. C. Een schets van een spelersscorebord: welke twee lijnen erop staan, wie hem bijwerkt, hoe vaak, en op welk medium. D. Een agenda voor een wekelijkse sessie van 25 minuten met de drie vaste onderdelen Account, Review en Plan, met de tijd per onderdeel. Regels: gebruik alleen mijn eigen cijfers, verzin geen benchmarks. Noem geen personen, alleen rollen. Stel maximaal twee lead measures voor om mee te starten. Als ik een cijfer niet weet, zeg dat het meetbaar gemaakt moet worden voordat de WIG vastgezet wordt.
This is the pattern of structured extraction with self-criticism. The model first retrieves your own figures. It then produces a fixed structure and tests its own proposals against an explicit rule, with the same polarity as above. High is good on both axes, and if either axis scores low, the benchmark is rejected. In our agentic setup, this is the first step. A second agent then populates the scorecard weekly from the source system, so that nobody has to manually retype figures. The outcome remains the team’s, not management’s.
4DX does not draw up a strategy
It assumes that you already know what you want to achieve. If you’re heading in the wrong direction, you’ll simply get there faster. The authors are clear: you choose a WIG where you want to make a breakthrough, not based on what sounds most important. Safety or EBITDA are usually too broad.
4DX assumes your direction is right. Push into Germany while your product-market fit in the Dutch mid-market still wobbles, and you only execute that mistake faster. The authors are explicit: you choose a WIG where you want a breakthrough. 'Lower the burn multiple' or 'become category leader' is usually too broad.
It assumes you already know what you want to achieve. If your direction is wrong, you only execute it faster. The authors are explicit: you choose a WIG where you want a breakthrough, not where it sounds most important. Growing in Germany or making the warehouse more profitable is usually too broad.
It assumes you already know what you want to achieve. If you keep selling by the hour while your clients want to pay for value, you only execute that course faster. The authors are explicit: you choose a WIG where you want a breakthrough. Growth or client satisfaction is too broad. Overruns on fixed-price projects are sharp enough.
It assumes you already know what you want to achieve. Pick the wrong direction and you only execute it faster. The authors are explicit: you choose a WIG where you want a breakthrough, not where it sounds most important. Growth in Germany or a higher EBITDA is too broad for a machine builder.
It doesn’t work in bits and pieces either. A WIG without lead measures leaves your team guessing. Lead measures without a board make the gamble invisible. A board without a weekly session will disappear within a month, swept away by the whirlwind. You’ll also need patience: our estimate – not a measured standard – is that it takes at least six weeks to see the first reliable movement in a lead measure.
Read more
- 4DX supports a chosen change, but does not determine which change you choose. That process is set out in RENEW, the method that documents how your work is currently organised before you change it.
- If your organisation doesn’t feel the need to get started, then the whirlwind isn’t your main problem: read ‘Urgency’.
- How a WIG fits into a broader implementation agenda is explained under ‘Strategy and Implementation’.
- If you do not wish to update the scoreboard manually, you will find the setup for this in ‘Strategy execution with agents’.
Would you like this for your own business?
I’m not planning an introductory meeting, but a 90-minute working session. You’ll come away with three things written down.
No introductory call: a 90-minute working session before your next board meeting. You leave with three things on paper.
Not an introductory call but a 90-minute working session on your lanes and your planning. You leave with three things on paper.
Not an introduction but a 90-minute working session on your utilisation and project margin. You leave with three things on paper.
Not an introduction but a 90-minute working session on your order book. You leave with three things on paper.
- A WIG in the ‘from X to Y’ format, with your own starting value.
- Two lead measures that have passed the two-axis test.
- A scoreboard sketch on an A4 sheet, showing an owner and a refresh rate.
90 mins · senior consultant · no slide deck