Discipline 4 is where execution really happens.
The first three disciplines set up the game, but until you apply Discipline 4, your team isn’t in the game. It is based on the principle of accountability: that unless we consistently hold each other accountable, the goal naturally disintegrates in the whirlwind.
The cadence of accountability is a rhythm of regular and frequent meetings that happen at least weekly and ideally last no more than twenty to thirty minutes. In that brief time, team members hold each other accountable for producing results, despite the whirlwind.
The magic is in the cadence. Team members must be able to hold each other accountable regularly and rhythmically. Each week, one by one, every member of your team answers a simple question: “What are the one or two most important things I can do in the next week that will have the biggest impact on the scoreboard?” Then they report on whether they met the previous week’s commitments, how well they are moving the lead and lag measures on the scoreboard, and their commitments for the coming week, all in only a few minutes.
The secret to Discipline 4, in addition to the repeated cadence, is that team members create their own commitments. Because they make their own commitments, their ownership of them increases. Even more importantly, making commitments to their team members, rather than solely to you as the leader, shifts the emphasis from professional to personal. The commitments go beyond their job performance to become promises to the team.
Discipline 4: Create a cadence of accountability asks to establish a regular rhythm of accountability – one where commitments to the goal are kept despite the whirlwind of urgent priorities
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