{"id":2497,"date":"2014-09-19T07:39:36","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T07:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=2497"},"modified":"2014-09-19T07:40:55","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T07:40:55","slug":"god-saw-all-that-he-had-made-and-it-was-very-good-and-he-hoped-we-might-even-make-it-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/god-saw-all-that-he-had-made-and-it-was-very-good-and-he-hoped-we-might-even-make-it-great\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGod Saw All that He Had Made and It Was Very Good.\u201d \u2026And He Hoped We Might Even Make It Great. ;)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Collins\u2019 Good To Great<\/em> book has quickly become a classic\u2026and for good reason. In this work, Collins coalesces ideas that have been floating around for a long time and places them into a narrative that is graspable and implementable.<\/p>\n

Collins offers 6 major concepts in his text organized under three general categories. First he discusses \u201cLevel 5 Leadership\u201d and \u201cFirst Who\u2026Then What\u201d as part of the \u201cDisciplined People\u201d category. Next he discusses \u201cConfront the Brutal Facts\u201d and the \u201cHedgehog Concept\u201d in the \u201cDisciplined Thought\u201d category. Finally, he covers the \u201cCulture of Discipline\u201d and \u201cTechnology Accelerators\u201d concepts as part of the \u201cDisciplined Action\u201d category.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

I will offer just some quick thoughts on a number of the concepts in this reflection.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s almost impossible to begin a reflection on this text without reference to the reflection that begins the text, \u201cGood is the enemy of great.\u201d[2]<\/a> I think this is relatively obvious for everyone once they see it, but how easy it is to get sucked into this vortex. So many things drive us to become content with lowest common denominator status quo. All kinds of systems and rules are set-up to make it extraordinarily difficult to move beyond such a state. This is why Collins book is particularly important. The book offers both the imagination and affirmation needed to give people a fighting chance to improve the way they engage with the surrounding world.<\/p>\n

Collins\u2019 Level 5 leaders are without a doubt absolutely vital to organizational success. He notes that these are leaders who are generally self-effacing, responsible, deeply believe in the work their organization is about and are committed to its success in the form of doggedly seeking and sustaining results. They are doubly vital for also avoiding any number of personality headaches along the way.[3]<\/a> Unfortunately, it seems that American sports franchises often do not take Collins\u2019 research to heart. As a result, we read flabbergasting stories from this sector of society on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

I am a people person. In fact, I have a statement that I often use, \u201calways people before principle unless people are your first principle.\u201d Thus, you can imagine that I find Collins\u2019 \u201cFirst Who\u2026Then What\u201d concept very important. This concept basically notes that you can have some of the greatest ideas in the world, but if you don\u2019t have buy-in from people capable of implementing such vision, you\u2019re at best going to be relegated to being \u201cgood\u201d and may well fail completely. Contrastingly, this extended description from Collins offers a much more positive alternative option,<\/p>\n

Members of the good to great teams tended to become and remain friends for life. In many cases, they are still in close contact with each other years or decades after working together\u2026They enjoyed each others company and actually looked forward to meetings. A number of the executives characterized their years on the good-to-great teams as the high point of their lives. Their experiences went beyond just mutual respect (which they certainly had), to lasting comradeship\u2026Adherence to the idea of \u201cfirst who\u201d might be the closest link between a great company and a great life. The people we interviewed fro the good-to-great companies clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

So, I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m fully on-board with this. Seems to be a pretty idyllic (and yet, realistic!) worklife vision.<\/p>\n

I love the holistic, integrative conceptualization of the \u201cHedgehog Concept\u201d combining personal passion, organization ability, and economic capacity.[5]<\/a> It makes complete sense that a company cannot pursue a Hedgehog orientation if it has not already committed itself to being a \u201cFirst Who\u2026\u201d company. There is energy and synergy that arises in a team when the people who are part of it recognize the \u201cpotential\u201d that is available for accomplishing the goals set before them.<\/p>\n

This naturally leads into Collins\u2019 \u201cCulture of Discipline.\u201d Discipline is a word with such negative connotations in our language and culture that \u2013 as good as this chapter and concept is \u2013 it is difficult for Collins to redeem the term. Richard Foster\u2019s Celebration of Discipline<\/em> text at various times and places has weathered some of the same cultural blow-back resulting from previous negative application of the idea of discipline in many quarters. People would think, \u201cIs discipline necessary? Sure. A celebration of it? That\u2019s just sadistic.\u201d Of course, Collins is talking about adherence to a thoughtfully responsible path made up of practices created through connection with the Hedgehog Concept that stands the best chance of maximizing strengths of a company\u2019s ability.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps another way of terming the process might be to use the Buddhist terminology of \u201cpaying attention\u201d or of \u201cbeing awake.\u201d Persevering in following a dynamic vision has the promise of greatness in it.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, employing all of the concepts that Collins writes about leads to a flywheel effect. Momentum builds slowly, but once inertia has been overcome through consistent and persistent small steps a strong, sustainable force is created that takes less energy to continue as it reaches capacity.[7]<\/a> This is an exciting stage for any organization. Let\u2019s all be the kind of leaders and personnel to get ourselves to this point and keep ourselves there once we\u2019ve attained it.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap\u2026and Others Don\u2019t<\/em> (New York: HarperBusiness, 2001), 12-13.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 1.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 39-40.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 62.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid., 118.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid., 142-143.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid., 186-187.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim Collins\u2019 Good To Great book has quickly become a classic\u2026and for good reason. In this work, Collins coalesces ideas that have been floating around for a long time and places them into a narrative that is graspable and implementable. Collins offers 6 major concepts in his text organized under three general categories. First he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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":[267,518,514,511,516,513,519,517,282,515,507,508,509,510,512],"class_list":["post-2497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-collins","tag-confrontthebrutal","tag-cultureofdiscipline","tag-disciplinedaction","tag-disciplinedpeople","tag-disciplinedthought","tag-doomloop","tag-firstwhothenwhat","tag-flywheel","tag-goodistheenemyofgreat","tag-goodtogreat","tag-hedgehogconcept","tag-jimcollins","tag-levelfiveleader","tag-technologyaccelerators","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497","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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2498,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions\/2498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}