Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability

Accountability breeds response-ability.

Each team engages in a simple weekly process that highlights successes, analyzes failures, and course-corrects as necessary, creating the ultimate performance-management system.

The cadence of accountability is a rhythm of regular and frequent team meetings that focus on the Wildly Important Goal®. These meetings happen weekly, sometimes daily. They ideally last no more than 20 minutes. In that brief time, team members hold each other accountable for commitments made to move the score.

The secret to Discipline 4, in addition to the weekly cadence, are the commitments that team members create in the meeting. One by one, team members answer a simple question, “What are the one or two most important things I can do this week that will have the biggest impact on the scoreboard?” In the meeting, each team member reports first if they met last week’s commitments, second if the commitments move the lead or lag measures on the scoreboard, and finally which commitments they will make for the upcoming week.

People are more likely to commit to their own ideas than to orders from above. When individuals commit to fellow team members instead of only to the boss, the commitment goes beyond professional job performance to become a personal promise. When the team sees they are having a direct impact on the Wildly Important Goal, they know they are winning, and nothing drives morale and engagement more than winning.

Create a cadence of accountability

With Discipline 4, teams share accountability. Commitments are not only made between leaders and their teams; they are made between individuals on the teams. By keeping weekly commitments, team members influence the lead measure which in turn is predictive of success on the lag measure of the WIG®.

Quote PNG

Where do you find people who are passionately committed to their work? You find them working for leaders who are passionately committed to them.

— Jim Huling, Co-author of The 4 Disciplines of Execution

Free Guide

4 Steps to Refine and Execute Your Team Goals

Use this guide to bring laser focus and clarity to your goals.

Free Tool

Execute Your Must-Win Strategies

Every organization has pockets of great performance—the best organizations know where their pockets of greatness reside and they are better than the rest at scaling greatness.

01
Discipline 1:

Focus on the Wildly Important
Learn More

02
Discipline 2:

Act on the Lead Measures
Learn More

03
Discipline 3:

Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
Learn More

04
Discipline 4:

Create a Cadence of Accountability

Please fill out the form and we will contact you.