Global Leadership Summit – Jim Collins

Jim Collins is the author of ‘Good to Great’, a book that I desperately want to read.

Here are some notes that I took from his session called, ‘Never, Ever, Give Up’.

God is the enemy of Great.
Greatness is not a matter of circumstance, but of conscious choice and discipline.
No company, organization, or person is immune to falling.  The mighty fall through a series of stages that are largely self-inflicted.
You can be sick on the inside, but still look strong on the outside.

Stage 1 – Outrageous Arrogance
Bad decisions taken with good intentions are still bad decisions.
Stage 2 – Undisciplined Pursuit of More.
If you allow growth to edxceed your ability to have fantastic people in all of the important seats, you will fall.
Get the right people on the bus and then figure out where to go.
Stage 3 – Denial of risk and peril.
You must never ever confuse faith and facts.
Stage 4 – Grasping for Salvation.
Greatness is never a simple event or a silver bullet.  It is a cumulative process.
Stage 5 – Capitulation
Its over.  No turning back.

18 companies that were strong in 1989 and are still strong today.  Why?
They have a reason to endure.
They will not compromise their core values.
Purpose must be rooted in core values.

The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.
There must be a balance of preserving the core values and stimulating progress.
Hold the core values constant and make way for change.

To Do List

• Do your diagnostics at jimcollins.com
• Count your blessings literally in a spreadsheet.
• What is your questions to statements ratio and can you double it in the next year?
• How many key seats do you have on your bus?
• Do your leadership team diagnostics.
• With that team – in your next meeting create an inventory of the brutal facts.
• Make a stop doing list.
• Define results and show clicks on the flywheel milestones.
• Double your reach to young people by changing practices and keeping core goals.
• Take time to set Big Hairy Audacious Goals.

To be truly useful, you can never, ever give up.

This session may have stuck with me more than any other from the Summit.  That is hard to judge though because there was so much good stuff.  As I apply these principles to how I lead my family, I realize that because it is my family, I already have a great reason to endure.  I don’t see failure as an option because your family will always be your family.  The flywheel principle he discussed is what has really been sticking in my brain.  I should be more about making small steps of progress towards our family goals instead of trying to get there all in one shot.  The flywheel gets pushed a little bit at a time.  If you are consistently making progress, the flywheel continues to spin.  If you are inconsistent then the wheel stops periodically and you lose momentum.  I so often fail at being consistent.  This is something that I need to do better at.  It will help me to celebrate the small steps and focus on taking little bites.