JIM COLLINS' GOOD TO GREAT FRAMEWORK

As I indicated in my last post, I was blown away by Jim Collins’ Good to Great Immersion workshop last week in Chicago.  I have read and reread Good to Great, How the Mighty Fall and BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0).  I use the ideas from BE 2.0 in my consulting interventions to help organisations design their core: the values and purpose that make up the foundation on which potential great organisations can be built.

What I did not appreciate is the importance of creating flywheel momentum for each individual company or organisation.  As Collins notes in “Turning the Flywheel”:

“In creating a good-to-great transformation, there’s no single defining action, no grand program, no single killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment.  Rather, it feels like turning a giant, heavy flywheel.  Pushing with great effort, you get the flywheel to inch forward. You keep pushing, and with persistent effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn.  You don’t stop.  You keep pushing.  The flywheel moves a bit faster.  Two turns ... then four ... then eight ... the flywheel builds momentum ... sixteen ... thirty-two ... moving faster ... a thousand ... ten thousand ... a hundred thousand.  Then at some point—breakthrough! The flywheel flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum.

Once you fully grasp how to create flywheel momentum in your organisation and apply that understanding with creativity and discipline, you get the power of strategic compounding. Each turn builds upon previous work as you make a series of good decisions, supremely well executed, that compound one upon another. This is how you build greatness.”

You should note however, that while the flywheel is important, it is only one element of the Good to Great framework.  As Collins notes:

“To build an enduring great organization—whether in the business or social sectors—you need disciplined people who engage in disciplined thought and take disciplined action to produce superior results and make a distinctive impact in the world.  Then you need the discipline to sustain momentum over a long period of time and to lay the foundations for lasting endurance. This forms the backbone of the framework, laid out as four basic stages:

Stage 1: Disciplined People

Stage 2: Disciplined Thought

Stage 3: Disciplined Action

Stage 4: Building to Last

Each of the four stages consists of two or three fundamental principles. The flywheel principle falls at a central point in the framework, right at the pivot point from disciplined thought into disciplined action." 

Next week we will look at Disciplined People and the importance of WHO thinking.  How do you find disciplined people?  What traits should your leadership display?  Do you have the right people in the right roles?  How do you know?