Wildly Important Goal (WIG)
Definition
A Wildly Important Goal (WIG) is the one goal a team commits to achieving above all others in a given period, written as a single measure moving from a defined starting point to a defined finish line by a defined date. It is the first discipline of the 4 Disciplines of Execution, the method set out by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling of FranklinCovey.
The canonical form is 'from X to Y by when', which forces a baseline, a target and a deadline into one sentence. 4DX limits a team to one or two WIGs at a time, on the argument that execution quality falls sharply as the number of competing goals rises. Everything else the team does still has to happen — it simply carries on at its current standard rather than being improved this period. A company WIG only becomes actionable once each team beneath it has named the battle it will fight.
The discipline is harder to hold than to state. Organizations often approve one WIG per department, which quietly restores the crowded list the discipline was meant to remove, and a WIG defined only at company level leaves individual teams unable to say what they personally change on Monday. Choosing a single goal also means publicly deciding what will not improve this period, which is the part most leadership teams find uncomfortable.
Example
From 62% on-time delivery to 90% on-time delivery by 31 December. The metric, the starting point and the date are all stated, so on 1 December the team can tell whether it is on pace without asking anyone.
See also: 4DX software