Lead Measures Vs. Lag Measures
In the field of strategic management, there is a distinction made between “lead measures” and “lag measures.” “A lag measure,” the authors of The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) write, “Is a measurement of a result you are trying to achieve.” “Lead measures are the leveraged actions most connected to achieving the lag measures.” Publishing a newsletter once a week, for instance, is one of my lag measures. And making a few notecards everyday—one of my lead measures. The key to achieving any result, the 4DX authors write, “is to apply a disproportionate energy to the lead measures.” Focusing on lead measures—that’s the theme of this SIX at 6.
The Things You Can Control
The core characteristics of a lead measure, the 4DX authors write, is that “a lead measure is influenceable; it can be directly influenced by you.” Apply a disproportionate energy, they write, to the things you can directly influence. In his first conference call with the media after he was selected by the New England Patriots with the 199th pick in the 2000 draft, Tom Brady was asked: “Are you aware that [along with starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe] there’s another quarterback here that they drafted last year—Michael Bishop from Kansas State?” Brady said he was aware of that. He said he had seen Bishop play many times. “And I know he’s a heck of a player,” Brady said. “But I’ve always really concerned myself just with the things I can control. And I don’t put a lot of thinking into the other guys because I know I’m not really at my best when I’m not just thinking about playing as well as I possibly can.”
That’s What It’s About
After the final episode of “Seinfeld” in 1998, Jerry Seinfeld didn’t know what to do next with his life. With the success of the show, he had options. “What do I do?” he asked a friend. “Well what’s been the best experience you’ve had so far?” the friend asked. Seinfeld said two things. First, writing—“I just see something and I write it down—I like a big, yellow legal pad—and once I get that pad open, I can’t stop…the next thing I know, the day is gone.” Second, performing stand-up—“I just love the life of it,” Jerry said. “I love the joy of hearing laughs and making jokes.” So, despite the cool and lucrative opportunities to further an acting or screenwriting career in Hollywood, Seinfeld moved back to New York City where he returned to writing jokes by day and performing in comedy clubs by night. In 2002, in the back of one of those comedy clubs, he was approached by a comedian who said he’d been struggling and sacrificing for about 10 years to “make it” as a comedian. Approaching his 30s, he was worried he’d taken the wrong path. “I see my friends,” the struggling comedian says to Seinfeld, “and they’re making a lot of money. They’re married. They have big houses. They’re moving up.” “They’re moving up?” Seinfeld asks. “Are you out of your mind?” He points in the direction of the stage—“this is such a special thing. This has nothing to do with ‘making it.’” One of the differences between Seinfeld and the struggling comedian is what they are focused on. The struggling comedian is focused on lag measures: money, celebrity, a big house, “making it.” Seinfeld is focused on lead measures: writing in his yellow legal pad every day and getting up on stage to hone his material every night—“that’s what it’s about,” Seinfeld tells the struggling comedian.
A Gift To The Art of Reading
In 1954, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Hersey investigated a lag measure that parents around the country were increasingly worried about. “Parents,” Hersey writes, “[are] in dismay that their children can not read.” For 2 years, Hersey read children’s books, met with experts, and attended schools to observe how reading was taught. “It became obvious,” Hersey writes, what the problem was: Children’s books were terribly boring. “Reading troubles,” Hersey writes, “come from a failure to help children to want to read.” Remember, Hersey points out, “reading has to compete for the interest of children with television, radio, movies, comic books, magazines, and sports.” So to be able to compete and to help children to want to read, Hersey says, children’s books need to be more interesting and entertaining. (File next to: The Dance Between Intelligence and Interest). Hersey’s article was a call to redirect the focus from a lag measure to a lead measure. The call was answered by an editor at the publishing house Houghton Mifflin, who, after reading the article, called the illustrator Dr. Seuss and challenged him: “write me a story that first graders can’t put down.” In this book for first graders, Dr. Seuss had to use a vocabulary list of 300 “accepted” words. Dr. Seuss played around with the list of 300 words, and said, “If I find two words that rhyme and make sense to me, that’s the title.” As Dr. Seuss scanned the list, two words caught his attention: Cat and Hat. A little over a year later, on April 19, 1957, Houghton Mifflin released Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat. Using just 236 unique words, Dr. Seuss wrote a blockbuster. The book was called “the biggest event in children’s reading for centuries.” John Hersey said the book was a “masterpiece…a gift to the art of reading.” “It’s the book I’m proudest of,” Dr. Seuss said, “because [it] proved to a number of million kids that reading is not a disagreeable task.”
Musn’t Think Of Its Largeness
John Steinbeck wrote in a journal every morning before he wrote what became The Grapes of Wrath. “There are so many things to go into this book,” he writes in one entry. “An astonishing number of things. This is a huge job.” But then he catches himself, “Musn’t think of its largeness but only of the little picture.” Musn’t think of the lag measures but only of the lead measures: “just a stint every day does it.” Over and over, Steinbeck repeats: “Just a matter of doing the daily stint.” “Just a stint every day does it.” “Just worry about the day’s work.” Just worry about the lead measures.
Like Gold
Robert Greene once told me: “Above all else, focus on acquiring knowledge and skills. Knowledge and skills are like gold—a currency you will transform into something more valuable than you can imagine.” With knowledge and skills, Robert said, you become a magnet for opportunities. Focus on lead measures, Robert was saying, on the things you can control, on the influenceable leveraged actions most connected to achieving the lag measures.