{"id":23942,"date":"2019-09-12T05:26:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T12:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=23942"},"modified":"2019-09-12T05:26:51","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T12:26:51","slug":"cracking-the-walnut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/cracking-the-walnut\/","title":{"rendered":"Cracking the Walnut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Becomi\"\"<\/a>ng great and sustaining greatness is the theme of Jim Collins\u2019 books, Good to Great <\/em>and Good to Great in the Social Sectors <\/em>which the author describes as prequels to his previous work Built to Last. <\/em>Unfortunately, his case studies included companies such as Circuit City which filed bankruptcy just seven years after the publishing of Good to Great <\/em>and closed its doors a year later.[1]<\/a> Interestingly, Collin\u2019s work How the Mighty Fall <\/em>may be the most important read of all.<\/p>\n

Collin\u2019s has given himself to the study of business management at Stanford University for decades as a student and faculty member while also being a researcher of many well known corporations. His books on greatness and lasting sustainability take the approach of dispelling myths, which is always a refreshing idea, except there is a temptation to create new ones in their place. By creating \u201chow to\u201d concepts authors tend to date themselves often becoming irrelevant with time. Thus, the \u201ccracking the walnut\u201d metaphor was used in Beebe Nelson\u2019s review of Collin\u2019s works. \u201cRead these books the way you\u2019d eat a walnut. Crack them open, ignore the internal structure, and go for the meat.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

This \u201ccracking the walnut\u201d approach is necessary for church leaders when attempting to put Good to Great<\/em> principles into practice. Collin\u2019s work on the social sectors was a welcomed response as it gave leaders in those sectors, including church leadership more translatable concepts to consider. Attempting to utilize business principles in the church can be difficult at best and can often lead to the opposite leadership posture than Jesus intended when he defined greatness.<\/p>\n

One of the most defeating practices for many is to read books like Collins\u2019 and then experience anything but greatness especially when the internal structure takes precedent over the meat. Garvey Berger and Johnston in Simple Habits for Complex Times: Powerful Practices for Leaders <\/em>describe this era that often contributes to this defeat:<\/p>\n

No matter how good leaders are, they find themselves dealing with problems \u2013 and opportunities \u2013 more difficult or complex than anything they\u2019ve known before. Superb leaders have long known that they need to find ways to \u2018think anew and act anew,\u2019 especially as their plates become \u2018piled high with difficulty\u2019\u2026Leadership by its very definition is about taking people and ideas to new places.[3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These VUCA times, as they have been described, can cause the concepts in Collins\u2019 work to seem written for a bygone era if leaders let volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity to become overwhelming. Harvard Business Review gave a helpful perspective by defining what VUCA really means for us. Authors Bennett and Lemoine describe characteristics of these terms as follows:<\/p>\n