Do you always feel like you are caught up in the whirlwind of events at work? Every day, you are dealing with the incessant demands of your job, so all the goals you have set for yourself easily gets forgotten or pushed backward. That is why we need our Wildly Important Goal!
Chasing the Wildly Important
Derived from the 4 Disciplines of Execution, a wildly important goal (WIG) is defined as a goal with significance, consequence and one that makes all the difference. While we pride ourselves on being multi-taskers, the truth is our brains can only focus on one thing at a time to do it well. Similar to the concepts in Kanban, it creates this focus not only within our team but on the company as a whole as well. So let’s quit the whining and start shining as we turn ideas into action with our WIGs!
How do we do this in Titansoft? First, we define our WIG with a definite goal and timeline. Each WIG at every level must contain a clearly measurable result, as well as the date by which that result must be achieved. For example, we might want to increase our customer base hence the WIG would be defined as “Increase number of customers from X to Y by 31st December.” This “from X to Y by when” format recognises where you are today, where you are targeting and the deadline for reaching that goal. This might seem deceptively simple but it was through many sessions of brainstorming and ideas sharing that our WIG was conceived. However, once achieved, all Titaners gained tremendous clarity on our focus for the year.
The Battles You Choose Must Win The War
The only reason you fight a battle is to win the war. These battles are represented by the team WIGs that seek to support, align and ultimately ensure the success our company’s WIG. Each team in Titansoft also defined their team WIGs where each of them will contribute back to what the company seeks to achieve. This ensures that all teams are working together in the same direction in their different expertise to attain our goal.
Beyond defining our WIGs, all teams also have to generate their lead measures. These are behaviors that contribute to achieving our WIG and the concrete action plan for teams to act on.
How do we evaluate our actions? Here is where lag measures come in! Lag measures are our performance indicators. These metrics are measurements of the results we are trying to achieve. The difference between lead and lag measures? A lag measure is hard to do anything about but a lead measure is virtually within your control. So don’t get confused with your execution plan and evaluation measurements!
Execution Starts with Focus
As Stephen R. Covey says, “You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, unapologetically—to say no to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside.”
Focusing on the wildly important is about defining that greater goal, and it is a discipline that here at Titansoft we are out to achieve. Beyond organisations, why not set that personalised WIG to create the focus amidst the whirlwind in your life!
We have set our WIG for 2016, have YOU?
T.8ytes by Titansoft 