Review of
Instaread Summary of The 4 Disciplines of Execution Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals
by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling
Five out of five stars
The first key
takeaway in this summary is so accurate in defining the problem of trying to
identify and act on long term goals that it should be put in all caps, a larger
font and bolded. It is
“The chief obstacle to sustaining progress toward
goals in a business is the whirlwind of everyday activity that is more urgent
but less important.”
Veterans of the modern business world will greet this
with a loud “Right on!” Implicit in this statement is the problem of quantifying
urgency and importance so that they can be properly balanced against each
other.
The second takeaway is also one that will generate
strong agreement, although the inclusion of the word “wildly” is an act of hype
that is as unnecessary as it is irrelevant. When you are hitting it out of the
park, there is no need to pile it on. Although it does allow for the creation
of an easily remembered acronym, WIG, for “Wildly Important Goal.”
“The first discipline needed to pursue an important goal
is to narrow the list of goals down to the one or two most wildly important. It
is expressed as an action with a starting point, end goal, and time frame.”
The remainder
of the takeaways generally deal with the implementation hows and are also
solid. Creating simple scorecards that are understandable and accurate for
employees to monitor their progress is of fundamental importance and
emphasized.
This summary
contains a great deal of excellent advice on how to break out from the cycle of
feeling like the hamster in the wheel. Moving fast and furious but without
making any progress on the long-term goals of the organization.
This book was made available for free for review
purposes.
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