Carie Johannsen
4DX
Implementation strategy
Stage 1: Getting Clear
I will work with my leadership team to commit to a new level of educational expectations.
We will come together to evaluate and discuss our short-term goals that are driven by our WIG. I want my team to be on the same page and have an execution plan that is team driven. My cohorts and I are in a situation where we are literally teaching the same group of students based on needs, weekly WIG meetings will be invaluable. We will come together to make clear goals and expectations each week while keeping our WIG at the forefront.
Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important
The 4DX explains how without the WIG goal other disciplines will be irrelevant. Organizations tend to roll out dozens of new ideas and goals yearly and in the end half to none of the goals get reached. Concentrating on one big goal will help my team be more successful on making real change in my organization.
My WIG:
We will increase our attendance to live class connect from less than 25% to 85% by the end of the first semester on December 21st.
Discipline 2: Act on the Lead Measures
The Lead measures will be daily or weekly goals that get us ultimately to our WIG goal. These goals will be guiding us throughout the year. Lead measures are goals broken down into smaller pieces to ultimately reach your WIG. Lead measures will adjust and change depending on each week, new situations, and information and statistics from week to week.
Lag Measure:
All students will be exposed to blended learning in the virtual environment and be held accountable for participation.
Lead Measures:
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During class expose students to engaging and interactive lessons that help increase learning and productivity. We will be looking for active participation 75% of the time during a 50 min session.
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Students will explore and identify key insights as they work through their lessons then bring those insights and questions to class and/or to our discussion boards.
Discipline 3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
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Keep it simple. My team will have to come up with a scoreboard that is easily monitored. We can include our attendance charts and create survey students to see if the process is helpful and use that as actual data. Measure what has change vs our starting point.. use this survey every 4 weeks to determine how well we are doing and what directions
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Place it where it will be highly visible to the teacher community. In our setting we only use newsletters and data sheets to post community updates so finding a place where our data is highly visible will be a bit more difficult. I do think as a team we could put our heads together and come up with a plan. We may even find a way to share the information with families during class times so that they will have a desire to help with the goals.
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Make sure that both lead and lag measures are included. We could have these posted during our weekly meetings and then posted on our desktops so we see them daily when we log onto our computers.
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The scoreboard must immediately identify to viewers whether they are winning or losing. As a math team the charts we use will make it extremely obvious how who is winning and who needs to make adjustments.
Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability
Discipline 4 seems to be one of the most vital pieces of the puzzle when creating a plan that will actual come to pass. Discussions and accountability, in the midst of the whirlwind of the day to day, are imperative when it comes to reaching a specific goal. Discussions of what works and what doesn’t, what could be done differently, and creativity in teaching, can all result with cadence of accountability. despite the daily whirlwinds we experience along the way teachers must have WIG sessions to share progress, whirlwinds, give feedback and refocus on set goals.
Weekly 20 minute meeting example:
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Scoreboard- where do we all stand on the lead measures
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Progress: focusing on the lead measures, share and celebrate successes, review what didn’t work, what activities or discussion took place that others could implement, etc…
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New goals: what 1-2 things are you going to work on this coming week to help you strive towards the WIG.What lead measures do we need to adapt to get us to our WIG (if any)
Stage 2 Launch
We will meet as a math department. This year we are all learning a new online school program with new features and opportunities. We will listen and learn about each member of the team, beliefs, visions, their why, where they are, and where they want to be. Identify the goals we have for this year and focus the conversations towards our goals and our WIG.
Stage 3 Adoption
In this phase we will need to make sure to focus first on the process and less on the results. We have a department, but we also have grade level partners. During the adoption process we will encourage the grade level partners to communicate more so that accountability is not just during the accountability meeting but in ongoing conversations throughout the week. On many occasions we are teaching the same lesson several times a week so by having these continuous communications we have more of an opportunity to grow as a team.
At this time, if there are resisters, we would follow the steps outlined in the crucial conversations book so that we can end the discussion with an action. We hope that seeing the scoreboard regularly, hearing the discussions, and being immersed in the team atmosphere, that they would desire to be part of the team that the 4DX model has helped develop.
Stage 4 Optimization
By this stage we should be seeing our efforts pay off. The WIG sessions should be focused on our results. We need to make sure that ideas and work that is moving the lead measures is recognized and celebrated. We will want to make sure that we are celebrating the trail we have pioneered and continue to build on this success. We will have opportunities to be part of educating others in our environment, so we need to make sure to capitalize on those opportunities.
Stage 5 Habits
We want to increase our attendance to live class connect from less than 25% to 75% by the end of the first semester on December 21st. When each member reaches this goal, we have created habits that can be reproduced. We will celebrate with admin and as a team and recognize that we have created a new operating norm.
How do the 4DX and Influencer
models compliment
each other
The Influencer model provides ways to influence behavior in order to encourage and cultivate change while the 4DX model gives steps on how to bring about the change. These two books together have entirely changed my perspective on how to go about discussing or implementing change in my organization. I think if you have one book without the other then vital pieces of your change goals will be missing.
The 4DX model starts your organization in the direction they need to go by focusing on the heart of the change they are trying to create. Without knowing your Wildly Important goal, you do not have a direction to start. Having to take all your ideas and condense them into one focused goal helps keep organizations from becoming sidetracked by, what the book calls, the whirlwind of everyday expectation in work and personal life. The 4DX states, “human beings are genetically hardwired to do one thing at a time with excellence.” I think the keyword is doing something with excellence.
Once you go through the 4DX model, then it is time to implement the Influencer model. This model takes your groups wildly important goal and helps determine the vital behaviors that are necessary to reach this goal throughout the organization. It helps you see six sources of influence that you can use to promote your team’s goals. Anyone of the influence sources alone typically will not work. You need to invest in a minimum of four of the goals and strive for all six.
It is shocking that the same authors did not write these two books. They complement each other in a beautiful marriage. It seems the authors of both books came together and had the Wildly Important Goal of using the Influencer model to work hand and hand with the 4DX model.
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change. New York : McGraw-Hill Education
McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution . 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020: A Division of Simon & Schuster.
