Tired of not accomplishing your school improvement plan? Try this instead.
By Sean Covey and Lynne Fox
Principal, May/June 2018. Volume 97, Number 5.

Execution, or the ability to accomplish goals and plans, is one of the greatest challenges organizations face. Businesses, government agencies, nonprofits, and schools are generally competent at developing strategies, but they often strug­gle to execute those strategies and produce concrete results.

Our company, FranklinCovey, has studied the topic of execution within all types of organiza­tional settings for more than 15 years. In 2012, we distilled our collective learning into a book titled The 4 Disciplines of Execution.

Our research has taught us that there are two types of strategies. The first type, which we call “stroke of the pen” strategy, is easy to execute because it involves a one-time decision. Consider, for example, a company acquiring a new business or a district selecting a new curric­ulum. These strategies are accomplished with a “stroke of the pen.”

The second type of strategy, however, involves a change in human behavior. Consider, for exam­ple, a company trying to get frontline employees to provide better customer service, or a school encouraging teachers to build stronger rela­tionships with students. The execution of these strategies is dependent on workers doing some­thing different than they had before. It is in the execution of these strategies that we find a signifi­cant “execution gap.”

The 4 Disciplines of Execution® (4DX®) is a method­ology that helps organizations close the execution gap. It is based on timeless, universal principles of human effectiveness, and on deep insights into why organizations fail to achieve their objectives. 4DX has been used in tens of thousands of orga­nizations worldwide, including schools, districts, and state-level education departments. In fact, the Leader in Me community of schools uses them on a daily basis. The four disciplines are described in detail on the following pages.

Click here to read the full article.