Jim Collins says in his book Good to Great that great organizations maintain a culture of discipline. This culture consists of self-disciplined people who take disciplined action consistent with their specific hedgehog concept (see earlier post about a hedgehog concept). Self-mastery frees you to focus on supporting others – you’re not busy screwing up and putting yourself back together. These type of people do not need to be taught fundamental concepts like honesty, integrity, or hard work – they bring it to the table. A culture of discipline a perfect example of having the right people on the bus. A culture of discipline is at the heart of the previous Good to Great principle First Who, Then What where I wrote about the need to focus more on a person’s character than their resume when hiring or putting together a team.
Collins also says ineffective bureaucratic organizations are often the result of a lack of discipline. Bureaucracies are the result of having the wrong people on the bus, because if you have the right people on the bus and get the wrong people off you don’t need bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is often a tool to mitigate a lack of self-discipline.
After putting self-disciplined people together, then are then free to engage in disciplined thought and then apply that to disciplined action in support of a mission. These people are fanatically diligent and seem boorish from the outside due to their focused ambition, but there is a unique duality to people within a disciplined culture. While they may seem constrained due to their adherence to a consistent self-discipline, it is exactly this consistency to discipline that creates freedom. Diligence to self-discipline creates freedom because it leads to consistent achievement and reduces time spent making and fixing mistakes. So while diligently disciplined people may appear constrained and boring, their discipline provides freedom from constantly correcting mistakes or compensating for failure, which frees them to pursue other opportunities.
The most important task to create a culture of discipline is a fanatical adherence to a hedgehog concept and more importantly, a resistance to any opportunities that fall outside that concept. If an opportunity does not apply to the hedgehog concept, people with a disciplined culture will not apply resources no matter how tempting the opportunity. In this sense, a “do not do” list is just as important as a “to do” list because it keeps an organization from chasing shiny objects that look like great opportunities but a really distractions.
She Calls Me a List Man and They Called Me a Nazi – My Good to Great
Not long after being married, my wife and some in her family laughingly called me a List Man. I make lists for everything and expect my wife to do the same. We have to go to Costco? Where’s your list? The last thing I want to do is walk down every aisle! The point is, my wife expressed her appreciation for my organizational discipline towards most things in my life and the list was a way to make fun of me because it is a kind of compulsive behavior now.
104 agendas accounting for every hour I spent as a missionary.
Looking back on my life I realize where I developed organizational discipline. As a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I received time management training. I was accountable for every hour of every day for two years, I even saved the pocket-sized agendas I carried with me to remind me of that time. At the end of every day I sat down, planned the next day, and made a list of the things that needed to be accomplished. This was a significant life-changing event that now affects every aspect of my life and helped me develop a personal culture of discipline.
Upstanding Youth
One example of how this self-discipline has influenced other aspects of my life is with my band Upstanding Youth. I’ve had the amazing fortune to be a part of this band for over a decade and play music with great friends. In the beginning my band mates trusted me to be the front man, spokesman, singer/guitar player, and many other leader type responsibilities. I always felt a part of my job was to run and manage our practice time. So when we’d practice we were never allowed to waste time. As a result, I often overlooked the value of just being together as friends and tried to focus all of our time on work to accomplish what I considered results – more gigs, recordings, musical skill, and money. One night in the recording studio we were all joking about how strict I am, like a nazi. We all thought it was funny because I can be fanatically ambitious and expect a lot from others when it comes to things I care about and we have been together as a band for so long that my characteristics and tendencies are no secret. It has been great to be surrounded by band mates that have shared in this passion. I’d like to think that a portion of Upstanding Youth’s success can be attributed to the culture of consistent discipline that we cultivated among ourselves.
Questions: What are some effective ways to cultivate a culture of discipline if you don’t have one? In what ways do you see connections from the principle of creating a culture of discipline to other areas of life like personal relationships, parenting, community, national, and international?
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