The Five Interconnected Disciplines of Vision, Planning, Process, Measurement, and Prioritization

Last week I came across these notes from The 12 Week Year and was impressed again at how neatly that book summarizes the essentials for managing your time to achieve ambitious goals. They’re mostly direct quotes and my condensation of a section in the book titled “The Five Disciplines.”

It’s important that you see the interconnectedness of these five disciplines.

• Vision:
  • A compelling vision creates a clear picture of the future.
  • If you don’t have a clear, compelling vision, then the other disciplines really don’t matter because you’re not living by design but by chance.
• Planning:
  • An effective plan clarifies and focuses the top-priority initiatives and actions needed to achieve it.
  • If you have a vision but no plan, then you have a pipe dream.
• Process Control:
  • A set of tools and events that align your daily actions with the critical actions in your plan.
  • If you have a vision and a focused plan but lack process control, then you’ll have a lot of frustration, because some days you will execute and make progress and some days you won’t.
• Measurement:
  • Measurement drives the process. It is the anchor of reality.
  • Effective measurement combines both lead and lag indicators that provide comprehensive feedback necessary for informed decision making.
  • If you have other disciplines in place but lack the courage to keep score, then there is no way for you to know what’s working and what isn’t. There is no way for you to make game-time adjustments that can accelerate your success.
• Time Use / Prioritization:
  • Using your time with clear intention is a must.
  • If all other disciplines are in place but you are not intentional about what you say yes to and what you say no to, then the day is controlling you.

While the 12 Week Year is focused on a system for personal productivity the disciplines can just as easily be applied to your team.

• Do you know where you’re going and how you’ll get there?
• Do you have the right processes in place to meet your goals? Not too much and not too little?
• Do you have after-action reviews of those processes (like team retros) and the outcomes of your projects?

They’re good questions and I think this highlight jumped out at me because I haven’t always had these all correctly balanced or in place across every project or goal. It’s not always been easy to do so but when they’ve been in place it’s always been worth it.