Installing 4DX With Your Organization
Executing change is never easy… especially in a field that has done things a very specific way with good results for quite some time. “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.” is a phrase I hear quite often. And yet our students, while not broken, are changing, and technology is evolving so quickly and impacting every aspect of life as well as our students, so we just find a way to use it to our advantage.
In The 4 Disciplines of Execution, McChenesy, Covey, and Huling lay out a strategy for rolling out change within an organization in a valuable and effective way. Earlier in my studies I created an innovation plan for developing an application for dyslexia students to practice diacritical coding skills outside of their therapy sessions. Below I will overlay my plan with the 4DX model.
Disciplines
Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important
The Wildly Important Goal or WIG is what efforts are focused on to make the biggest difference.
WIG: Develop and launch a gamified learning application for dyslexia students to practice diacritical coding skills by the end of Month 31.
Discipline 2: Act of the Lead Measures
Lead measures are the things that are the most critical to reaching the WIG. (McChesney et al., 2022, p. 55).
Lag Measure: Application Development and Quality
Lead Measure 1: Weekly feedback collection and implementation
The amount of feedback taken from stakeholders and implemented into activities or app design.
Lead Measure 2: Development Milestone Completion Rate
Keeps the project on task for final release.
Discipline 3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
Normally the scoreboard needs to be kept in a place where it is seen regularly. This project is a collaboration that will take place over many different locations. I am suggesting using a project management software such as Trello or Clickup to track metrics of the Lead Measures in a visible way. Making a graph of the amount of weekly feedback taken and then implemented (Lead Measure 1) and then a second graph that celebrates when development milestones are reached.
Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability
We will establish a rhythm of weekly and monthly meetings to move the project along. The following meetings and check-ins will occur
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Weekly Check-ins
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Review Lead Measure progress
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Address barriers and come up with solutions
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Monthly Reviews
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Evaluate the progress of completed phases and adjust timelines if needed
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Present updates to stakeholders
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Milestone Check-in and Review
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Occur at the end of each phase
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Use insights from previous meetings to define next phase of project
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Stages of Change
Stage 1: Getting Clear
Establishing clarity, goals and successes
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Clearly defining the Wildly Important Goal (WIG): Develop and launch a gamified learning application for dyslexia students to practice diacritical coding skills by the end of Month 31.
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Identifying and engaging key stakeholders, including ALTA, therapists, and educators, to serve on the feedback committee
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Presenting the vision to mentors and colleagues for initial support.
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Securing buy-in from ALTA and funding to drive early momentum.
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Create scoreboard via online platform and make sure all stakeholders have access
Stage 2: Launch
Begin focusing on Lead Measures and early wins
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Team begins to create activities and submit them to the feedback committee.
Stage 3: Adoption
Keep the ball rolling as team adapts to new processes
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As the team creates activities and implements feedback this moves the Lead measure on the scoreboard.
Stage 4: Optimization
Refine processes and continue to improve
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Regular meetings are held to discuss what changes need to be made to the activities.
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As the project moves into app development this will become crucial
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Stage 5: Habits
Sustaining the Disciplines
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At this point the 4DX starts to become a habit and the application will really start to take off and the team starts to really develop something that will become an incredible tool for dyslexic students to practice diacritical coding skills for years to come.
Influence Strategy vs. 4DX
When comparing the two strategies I believe that both are critically important to my project. Earlier, I described how the Influencer Strategy could be used to help implement my diacritical coding application with dyslexia students, as it is more for influencing behavior (Grenny et al., 2023). I believe that it fits more for the end of the implementation plan while 4DX is an excellent strategy for getting the application developed and created. Together I believe that both of these change strategies married together will be the perfect pair to help launch my innovation plan.