In the heroic book titled Good to Great, Jim Collins explores why some companies make the leap while others do not. Ideally, the culture of discipline is the nub of that great text. Next, there is confrontation of brutal facts and Hedgehog Concept. This putative author talks about technology accelerators, the Flywheel and Doom Loop. Then, there is Level 5 Leadership.
Right at the prolegomenon, the awesome author avers that good is the enemy of great. We do not have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We do not have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good.
All companies have a culture. Some companies have discipline. However, few companies have a culture of discipline. When people are prone to discipline, there is no need for hierarchy. When there is a disciplined thought, there is no need for bureaucracy. When there is disciplined action, there is no need for excessive control. Conglomeration of the culture of discipline with ethic of entrepreneurship, leads to a leap. There is the magical alchemy of peak performance. There must be disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action.
There is the confrontation of brutal facts without losing strength of faith. Every good-to-great company embraces Stockdale Paradox. Maintaining the will to win. We must soldier on with dogged determination, diligence and discipline. At the same time, we must brace up to confront the most brutal facts of the current reality.
Then, in determining the right people, the good-to-great companies placed heft on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialised knowledge, or work experience. Not that specific knowledge or skills are unimportant, but they viewed these traits as more teachable — or at least learnable. Whereas they believed dimensions like character, work ethics, basic intelligence, dedication to fulfilling commitments, and values are more ingrained.
The Hedgehog Concept boils down to simplicity within the three circles. Are you a hedgehog or a fox? In his excellent essay, The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin divided the world into hedgehogs and foxes. This dotes on an ancient Greek parable: the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. The fox is a cunning creature, able to devise a myriad of complex strategies for sneak attacks upon the hedgehog.
Day in and day out, the fox circles around the hedgehog’s den, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Fast, sleek, beautiful, fleet of foot and crafty — the fox looks like the sure winner. The hedgehog, on the other hand, is a dowdier creature, looking like a genetic between a porcupine and a small armadillo. He waddles along, going about his simple day, searching for lunch and taking care of his home.
In order to move from good to great, we must transcend the curse of competence. Just because something is your core business, just because you have been doing it for several years — does not necessarily mean you can be the best in the world in it. Moreover, if you cannot be the best in the world at your core business, then your core business absolutely cannot form the basis of a great company. Ostensibly, there is a replacement. With a simple and humble concept, that reflects deep understanding of the three intersecting circles.
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Consequently, good-to-great companies think differently about the integral role of technology. Somehow, they never use technology as the primary means of igniting a transformation. Conversely, they are powerful pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies. The bottom line is: Technology by itself is never a primary, root cause of either greatness or decline.
While collecting and collating content of this book, the author of this heroic book says that out of 80 per cent of the good-to-great executives they interviewed, did not even mention technology as one of the top five factors in the transition. Furthermore, in the cases where they did mention, technology, it had a median ranking of fourth, with only two executives of eighty-four interviewed ranking it number one. Technology is just an accelerator.
Of Flywheel and Doom Loop. Ideally, those who launch revolutions, dramatic change programmes and wrenching restructurings — will certainly, fail to take the giant leap from good to great. No matter how dramatic the result is, the good-to-great transformation never happened in one fell swoop. There is always no single defining action, no grand programme, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Instead, the process is about relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction. Turn upon turn.
Building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond. Good-to-great comes about by a cumulative process — step-by-step, action-by-action, decision by decision, turn by turn of the flywheel — that adds up to sustained and spectacular results.
While researching about the oeuvre of this heroic book, Jim Collins and his dream team ascertained that level 5 leaders turn good companies into great ones. Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leaders seem to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even diffident — such ilk of leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.
About the 5 levels of leadership. Level 1 leader is a highly capable individual, who makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills and good work habits. Level 2 leader is a contributing team member. S/he contributes individual capabilities to great achievement of group objectives and works effectively with others in a group setting. Level 3 leader is a competent manager, who organises people and resources towards the effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives.
Again, level 5 leader is an effective leader, who catalyses commitment to add vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards. Level 5 leader is an executive. Such a leader builds enduring greatness through paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: Modest and willful, humble and fearless.
This calibre of leaders focus on Window and Mirror Concept. They look out of the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well — and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck. At the same time, they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility never blaming bad luck when things go south.
Finally, they are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton and Caesar. Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It is not that level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is primarily for the institution, not themselves.
By Victor Ochieng
The reviewer rolls out talks and training services. vochieng.90@gmail.com.
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