People waste a lot time at work. Too often, they end up doing things which don’t really matter. The authors of 4DX wants leaders to reclaim their time and and purpose by focusing on Wildly Important Goals (WIGs). WIGs are the one or two things which really drive results for an organization. However, leaders often give in to the temptation to try to do too much. When leaders try to accomplish too many things, they neglect the wildly important or do not give enough concentrated effort toward accomplishing the most important things for the organization.

Leaders should not impose the wildly important through “top down” decrees. Why? Because what leaders really need from those they lead is engagement and ownership. Employees or volunteers will be more invested in the outcome of a WIG when they contribute to how it is crafted. Do any of us excited about other people’s goals? No. We want to accomplish our goals. So leaders need to have developing WIGs be a collaborative experience, an interplay between leader and those they lead.

Crafting WIGs

So how do leaders go about developing WIGs?

The first step is to brainstorm ideas. A key question is: “Which one area of our team’s performance would we want to improve the most (assuming everything else holds) in order to achieve the overall WIG of the organization?” (121). Applied to LBC:

• When talking to ministry leaders: If the typical ministry stuff still happens, what area of the ministry would you want to move the mission of LBC forward?
• When talking to individuals: Assuming everything in your life (job, current ministry responsibilities) continues like it is, what is one area that you are most passionate about helping in? What unique contribution do you think you could make to help move LBC’s mission forward?

The second step is to write the WIG out using the “From X to Y by when” template. Such a template is important because it forces you to be specific and also set a deadline. Some examples of using this temple:

• From not holding a prayer service to holding a monthly prayer service with 25 attenders by January 5th.
• From having 30 ministry leaders to having 60 ministry leaders by January 2021.

Then simplify. Use a verb.

• Schedule monthly prayer service every month on the fourth Sunday.
• Develop 30 new leaders this year.