Leads, Lags, & the 9th Inning

Leads, Lags & the 9th Inning

We first have to
know where we're
going.

Lead measures, lag measures.  Among other things, the great book The Four Disciplines of Execution by Sean Covey, Chris McChesney, and Jim Huling, dives into the idea of lead and lag measures.  In an overly simplified explanation regarding goals, lag measures are "past" things that you can't influence directly in the "now."  In business, things like customer or employee satisfaction and total revenue are things that can only be measured in hindsight but are impacted in the present.  On the other side, lead measures are more predictive in nature and focus on the "now" actions that will drive future success, such as sales calls or website conversion rates.  

Then we break up
the milestones.

In the family sense and at home, some lag measures when we get there and reflect backwards might be our kids' high school grades, college choice/first job, and grandkid success.  Those are things that are among our hopes/dreams/goals/aspirations for our children and consequently should inspire our parental activities and current daily actions.  The lead measures that we can inject into those outcomes include things like reading to our kids when they're little, providing a rich, well-rounded upbringing, and so forth.  When we break down our parenting with a "I'm doing this because..." or "so that later, now" paradigm, it can help us ensure that we're building toward the future that we want to create.  

It can feel 
like magic.

Instead of having vague "hopes" for our children, we can translate those "wants" into more concrete current action steps that build upon themselves and compound over time.  Similarly, things like marital satisfaction as a lag measure can't be "wigned" in the 11th inning.  Instead, it's a byproduct, or rather, the result of a series of lead measures like showing love and respect, or going out of your way to serve your partner as a habit.  With our family finances, financial freedom comes from consistently spending less than you make and wisely investing it.  Doing the right thing, long enough over time, results in pretty great results.  

An off-road capable adult 
comes from a series of 
muddy puddles for years
...it adds up.

To say it a different way, we often win championships in the draft, the spring training camp, the pre-season selection...we count the score at the end of the Super Bowl final whistle...or the last inning of the World Series...but we win or lose in the little moments leading up.  The points we put up and the errors we avoid in the first innings often matter more than the bottom of the 9th inning, 3-2, all hinges on one-pitch heroics.  Years ago, superstar Ken Griffey was being interviewed about how he was never on the diving catch, highlight reel...his answer was...that he always made the right catch...because he'd be in the right spot at the right time that he didn't have to dive.  The point being...his early action resulted in the win...the sum of his little actions added up to major success.

Do the little things 
routinely long enough and
big results pop out.

For our families, we're not going to be successful if we try to do a massive cram session on the day before our kid heads off out of the nest to "real life."  We can't teach them how to be a kind human, use the bathroom, read, write, throw a baseball, cook chicken nuggets, or any of the other essentials of life in that last week.  The old book All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum sums up the concept.  We, as humans, or our kids, hopefully as humans, are a sum total of the lifetime of trial-and-error when they launch into life. 

It's really
that simple.

As we wrap it up, it's important to take a few moments to consider the small actions that we can compound over the years to become great.  Consider the lag measures of where you are right now...and if you're content with them.  If not, change the lead measures right now that will change your lag measures down the road.  If you're fortunate enough to be in a good spot...double down on what's working.  The old "the best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, the second best is today" means that right now we're in a first-inning situation of who we'll be in ten or twenty years...that's great news...but use it wisely.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Pick out a couple of lead/lag measures that make sense for your family...select three lead measures you can take "today" to get to the lag measures you select.
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) in terms of moving the needle today...so that you really move the needle tomorrow.  

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Lead Measures

- Leads Vs Lags