Applying the 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) to your marketing strategy

Where strategy stalls

Whether it be an enterprise strategy or a marketing strategy, it remains a collection of pretty papers until it goes into action. That’s exactly what I have to share with you today. I’ve seen many plans created that fell short of meeting their goals because the execution was flawed. This flaw is usually due to the lack of communication, meaning those below senior leadership were unaware of the plan so didn’t know what or how to get it rolling.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX)

4DX is a set of practices that brings a strategy to life! These disciplines have been tested and refined by countless organizations over many years. They are designed to move the needle forward a little at a time to move all teams forward toward their most (wildly) important goals. The disciplines are simple ones. Some may think them too simple to matter but never doubt the tremendous power these disciplines have in action.

Discipline 1: Focus on the wildly important

One of the disciplines we focus on with 4DX is to focus on only one or two wildly important goals (WIG) at a time. Too many times, we have so many ideas and goals swimming in our heads that we try to accomplish them all at the same time. What happens is that we may get some of them. Maybe most of them to a mediocre degree. Mediocrity is not a goal in 4DX, so we strive for more on focusing on less. Your chances of achieving a couple of goals with excellence are very high, but the more you juggle, the less likely you are to reach them. With a heightened focus on fewer items, not only is excellence probable, but also at a faster rate.

When you define your wig, you want to identify where you are now, where you want to be, and by when.  Here is an example.
We want to get our SEO results from the fifth page to the first page by January 1, 2020.

Discipline 2: Act on the lead measures

In 4DX there are two kinds of measures that we give our attention:

Lag measures

These are the measures that say whether or not you were successful. Notice I say this in the past tense. This tense is because the action is in the past, so not additional actions can be taken for these results. It is too late, yet we lose sleep over these results regularly. Why do you think that is when there is nothing you can do once the result occurs?

In our example, the lag measure will be the placement or ranking on a Google keyword search.

Lead measures

Lead measures are the ones we have control over. Lead measures are what track the activities that drive the lag measure. These actions can predict the success of the lag measure by the direct influence of the team.

Another detail about lead measures is that we are looking at short-term actions for short-term goals. The small goals bundle together to move the needle to success. Let’s put our two steps together:
WIG: We want to get our SEO results from the fifth page to the first page by January 1, 2020
Our example leads to measures: 

• Website content will have a 1.5% concentration of searchable keywords
• Weekly blogs of 1000 words about relative and interesting content
• Weekly emails with a call to action directing the readers to the website
• 30 social media posts weekly
• 40 or more backlinks monthly

All of these actions can easily be measured and will directly affect the lag measure of the SEO results.

Discipline 3: Keep a compelling scoreboard

Before I tell you why this is so important, let’s picture some neighborhood kids on the cul de sac with a basketball and a hoop. They are bouncing around a little bit and talking smack. They aren’t playing a serious game, but they are taking turns shooting. It’s no big deal – until someone is keeping score. All of a sudden, the kids start breaking a sweat and playing for keeps. Why is that? It’s simple:

People play differently when they are keeping score, and scoreboards motivate players to win.
Of course, the team needs to know whether they are winning or losing at all times! How would they otherwise see if they must change course or push full-steam ahead?

A scoreboard measuring SEO may have a weekly entry with the current position or the team and everyone else in the company to see. It will be displayed with the prior weeks to show the ongoing progress (lag measures). Even if we are failing, everyone will know. We won’t let that failure last very long, though, because we have another discipline.

Discipline 4: Create a cadence of accountability

The team must be accountable for themselves, and in doing so, engages in a brief weekly meeting (cadence) as part of the process to note and celebrate successes, analyze failures, and correct course immediately upon identification of any barriers. This cadence keeps the team pointed in the right direction.

Part of the cadence includes commitments by each team member that contributes to the lead measures (that result in the lag measure). These commitments are above and beyond their regular job duties, so only one or two are necessary each week to move the needle forward.
“What are the one or two most important things I can do this week that will have the biggest impact on our scoreboard?”

Each team member will have a different answer to this question. In the meeting, each team member will report on the success or failure of meeting their commitment, then what their commitment will be for the next week. Again, little steps are all it takes to make a significant change, and the meeting time is usually 15-30 minutes. With the cadence, the team celebrates and troubleshoots together.

Our cadence to our customers

Whether in marketing or operations, the disciplines of 4DX bring a team by way of small, achievable steps to meeting their wildly important goal. At Joseph Studios, we provide a monthly performance report to our customers to show them how each of their marketing campaigns has fared and recommend a change in course when it will benefit the results of our client. We also have regular cadence within the team to keep our individual goals (lead measures) with our client results (lag measures). How much attention do you think your company is getting by your marketing team? Contact us at Joseph Studios to see what a white-glove treatment looks like when you become one of our clients.