{"id":2490,"date":"2014-09-19T04:13:17","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T04:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=2490"},"modified":"2014-09-19T04:36:05","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T04:36:05","slug":"a-foxhedgehog-on-a-mission-for-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-foxhedgehog-on-a-mission-for-god\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fox\/Hedgehog on A Mission for God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elegant, streamline, sophisticated, yet beautiful in simplicity with such creativity and realism that it transports you to a place of hopeful expectations of great things. No, it is not a visual piece of art work such that David Morgan or William A. Dyrness would write about, but no less compelling in its craftsmanship and design. I am referring to the book Good To Great<\/em> by Jim Collins. Collins and his team sculpted their work into three main section with each section having two subsections peppered with illustrations, and imagery that have become iconic business terminology and time enduring principles not just for business but for life itself.<\/p>\n

Often books are produced out of the thoughts of one or two writers inscribing their thoughts, at times brilliant, and other times, not so brilliant. I appreciate the depths of research that was conducted to produce this great work by Jim Collins. Although his name is on the book as the author, he will be quick to state that Good To Great <\/em>was undertaken by a team of 20 people working something in the order of 15,000 hours to produce the results that make up this 260 page piece of art.<\/p>\n

It is in following these consistent, deliberate, and methodical principles that if applied with both humility and tenacity could, would, and have made companies rise from good to great. Success, as a corporation would measure success, does not happen overnight. All of the 11 companies that Collins and his research team placed in the great category were not over night successes. Most of them were in \u201cthe egg\u201d for years quietly applying their strengths in a deliberate and methodical focus to the principles, that Collins and his team recognized repeatedly in great companies, until they cracked through their shell and rose to greatness. This same good to great transformation can take place in more than just businesses.<\/p>\n

Jim states, \u201cThat Good is the enemy of the great is not just a business problem. It is a human problem.\u201d[1]<\/a> Indeed truth speaks and we listen. Or do we? How many times have each of us not done the simple truths that we know we ought to live by? We ignore the truth only to realize that we have done so to our own harm and the good has become the enemy of the great? I want to be a great husband, a great father, a great leader, a great missionary, and a great disciple of Jesus. Good is just not good enough. But alas, the very things that have derailed major corporations in the public world, I have done in my own private world.<\/p>\n

Collins shares many memorable antidotes such as the flywheel vs. the doom loop, the egg, the bus, the Stockdale paradox, and the three circles. Yet it was the Hedgehog vs. the Fox illustration that captured my attention the most. For you see, I feel like I have always been a Fox. I have always been one to pursue many ends at the same time. I see the world in all its complexity and I enjoy and know many things. As the saying goes, I am a jack of all trades but a master of none. I am scattered and diffused, moving on many levels all at once.[2]<\/a> The Hedgehog on the other hand, knows one big thing. Hedgehogs \u201csimplify a complex world into a single organizing idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything.\u201d[3]<\/a> These Hedgehogs have a piercing insight that allows them to see through complexity and discern underlying patters. They see what is essential, and ignore the rest.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

As a fox I tend to be inconsistent. At least this is how I see myself. Typical of the fox, I have difficulty completing things, I possess a large library with only a few books completely read. I have half completed projects around the house, and the list could go on and on. I was bemoaning the realties of my personality knowing that a Hedgehog I was not. But my wife challenged my foxy analysis with another round of her own observations. She looked at my fox fur and gave me a different perspective. She began a list of her own, \u201cYou stayed in the leadership of a struggling church much longer than you should have, 11 \u00bd years to be exact. You have continued in pursuit of God going on 28 years this January 27th<\/sup>. You earned a BS, a M.Div., and you are now working on a D.Min. degree. You have been in ministry coming up on 25 years and involved in international missions close to 20 years. You have provided for a family of 6 having never to put our kids to bed hungry. You are an Eagle scout. And most important of all, you have been married to the same woman for 24 years this January 4th<\/sup>!\u201d With that she kissed this fox and helped me to see that indeed I do have some hedgehog in me after all. For you see, it takes one to know one. Indeed, if there has been any one successful essential that I have accomplish in my life it was in marrying this fine hedgehog of a woman. She always seems to pull the greatness out of me. What does this fox say? \u00a0Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!!!<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don\u2019t<\/em> (New York: Harper Collins, 2001), 16.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 91.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elegant, streamline, sophisticated, yet beautiful in simplicity with such creativity and realism that it transports you to a place of hopeful expectations of great things. No, it is not a visual piece of art work such that David Morgan or William A. Dyrness would write about, but no less compelling in its craftsmanship and design. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[267,2,481],"class_list":["post-2490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-collins","tag-dminlgp","tag-lgp4-2","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2491,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions\/2491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}