{"id":25333,"date":"2021-01-26T23:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T03:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=25333"},"modified":"2026-04-24T16:32:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:32:41","slug":"lead-and-lag-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/lead-and-lag-measures\/","title":{"rendered":"Leverage Your Goals With Lead and Lag Measures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are lead and lag measures? How do they fit into the 4DX system<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead and lag measures come from 4DX Discipline 2, which is leverage. These measures help you progress on the big target or your wildly important goals<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading for more about lead and lag measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Discipline 2: Leverage<\/strong> With Lead and Lag Measures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Think of your WIG\u2019s Point A as a big heavy rock. No matter how hard your team pushes against it, it\u2019s immovable. However, if your team applies a lever, the rock shifts. The team has to move the lever a lot to move the rock a little, but the rock does move. Discipline 2 is about finding the right lever to move the WIG value from Point A to Point<\/strong> B.<\/strong> That’s where lead and lag measures come in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Point A and Point<\/strong> B values are also called lag measures<\/em>. <\/strong>Lag measures are results. Lead and lag measures go hand-in-hand. Lag tells you if you\u2019ve reached your WIG, so they\u2019re very important. However, as the name implies, the actions that produced these results have already happened, so there\u2019s nothing you can do to change them. Some examples of lag measures are revenue, profit, customer satisfaction, and body weight on a scale. (The whirlwind of daily tasks is full of lag measures.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lever in the rock example above is a lead measure<\/em><\/strong>. Lead measures quantify the actions that have the most impact on the WIG. They don’t tell you if you\u2019ve achieved the WIG. Instead, they forecast if you will<\/em> achieve the WIG. They\u2019re predictive <\/em>of the lag measure and, because the actions that drive them are ongoing, they\u2019re influenceable<\/em>. For example, if your lag measure is your body weight on a scale, as above, your lead measures are what and how much you eat, and how often you exercise. Lead and lag measures relate in this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because lead measures directly affect lag measures, the more you move your lead measure, the more your lag measures will move.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most people know that the lead measures are important. The key to Discipline 2 is measuring<\/em> lead measures.<\/strong> For example, if you\u2019re trying to lose weight, everyone knows diet and exercise are factors. However, not everyone actually measures and tracks calorie intake or time spent exercising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two critical characteristics of lead measures:<\/p>\n\n\n\n