The 4 Disciplines of Execution for Educators

by Sean Covey, Lynn Kosinski, Meg Thompson

From bestselling author Sean Covey, a revolutionary operating system that helps educators achieve their most wildly important goals by focusing on what matters most, even amid the daily whirlwind of urgent demands—based on the groundbreaking 4 Disciplines of Execution framework.

In education, setting goals is easy—but achieving them is hard. It’s easy to understand why. Every day, educators face an overwhelming whirlwind of urgent tasks, making it nearly impossible to focus on long-term objectives. The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) offers a proven framework that has helped thousands of schools worldwide break through this barrier to achieve their most important goals.

This groundbreaking book shows educators at every level how
-Focus on the one or two goals that will make the biggest difference, using the principle of “less is more.”
-Identify and act on high-leverage activities that predictably drive results.
-Create visible, compelling score boarding that motivates students and staff.
-Build a culture of shared accountability that gets everyone engaged in the goal.

Through inspiring real-world examples—from improving graduation rates to dramatically boosting reading proficiency scores—the authors demonstrate how schools have used these four simple but powerful disciplines to achieve what once seemed impossible. Whether you’re a superintendent, principal, teacher, or support staff member, this book provides the complete framework you need to cut through the daily chaos and consistently deliver on your most critical educational priorities.

Based on timeless principles of human effectiveness and backed by years of successful implementation in schools globally, The 4 Disciplines of Execution for Educators is an essential operating system for any educator serious about turning their biggest goals into reality.

Genres: Education

216 pages, Paperback

About the author

Sean Covey was the starting quarterback for Brigham Young University during the 1987 and 1988 seasons. He was benched due to an ankle sprain. Following his college football career wrote a book called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. It is a book based on the principles of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which was written by his father, Stephen R. Covey, but directed towards the life of a teen. A more recent book he has written is The 6 Most Important Decisions You Will Ever Make. The book directs the six big choices teenagers will make in their teenage years. The six decisions are: School, Friends, Parents, Dating and Sex, Addictions, and Self Worth.

Reviews

[Dusty Kirkland · Rating 4 out of 5]

This method could apply to more than just educators. It takes some seemingly simple ideas and turns it in a way you can actually see progress and accomplish things without getting overwhelmed. It helps you learn to focus on what is most important and what you can change rather than all the list of things we have going on that some of which we cannot change.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is nothing earth shattering or new in this book, but it did simplify for me the seemingly overwhelming task of school-district support. It works right alongside the research of improvement and implementation science, and I'll likely use some of the ideas for creating lead measure scorecards and accountability notetaking. While I appreciated the simplicity and easy readability, a lot of the book also reads like a sales pitch for this method, which was unnecessary and annoying. All in all, I would recommend it to a colleague leading school change efforts.

[Ashley Canuteson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for work in preparation for our upcoming school year and the work we will be doing on implementing WIGs (Wildly Important Goals) around student achievement. Though none of the thoughts or practices are groundbreaking in and of themselves, putting them all together as an overlay of practice in a district focused on living the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People I will be a difference-maker in how we operate.

[Toya Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical nuggets can that I believe can help transform a school!

[Angela Thomson]

School improvement process/goal setting