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Good to Great #7: Flywheel and the Doomloop

***This is the last post I’m going to dedicate to the 7 principles of the book Good to Great.***

The principle of the flywheel and doomloop is simple. Imagine a giant flywheel suspended on it’s axle that is about two feet thick, twenty feet in diameter, and weighing close to two tons. Getting this wheel to spin requires a great amount of effort and determination. However, once enough momentum is generated the gigantic wheel requires less effort and can spin faster and faster. The wheel gradually builds momentum until it has a breakthrough moment of continual motion with minimal effort. Great organizations follow this same pattern of buildup that creates breakthrough.

The transformation from good to great can often look like a dramatic single-event success story to those observing from the ...

November 23, 2012 Books, Good to Great No comments
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Good to Great #2: First Who, Then What

Key Points from the Book Good to Great on the Principle of First Who, Then What

  • With any team, organization, or company Good to Great found that it is more important to get the right people on board than it is to decide what they are going to do. Once you get those people on board, then you can decide where to take the organization. Yes, I know this is counter intuitive.
  • The “right people” has more to do with character and innate capabilities than knowledge, background, skills, or experience. The right people have passion and want to work hard.
  • Collins compares this to a bus. Great companies from his study focused on getting the right people on the bus, in the right seats, and then decided where to go. Not the other way around.
    The Good to Great Bus.

    The Good to Great Bus...

August 28, 2012 Books, Good to Great 4 comments
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Good to Great #1: Level 5 Leadership and Changing the World

good to great

Looking out the window to blame/credit others.

What is Good to Great Level 5 Leadership?

Level 5 leadership, as Jim Collins explains it in his book Good to Great, refers to a person who is ambitious and driven first for the cause, for the job, for the mission, and not for himself/herself. This is a direct reflection of their fanatic drive towards results, yet this type of leader simultaneously maintains a humble purpose. It is a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. For this type of leader it has nothing to do with them; greed and self-gratification are not the motives. It has everything to do with the people and organization.

An analogy used to help describe this type of leader is the window versus the mirror (see images)...

August 20, 2012 Books, Good to Great No comments
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Good to Great Preface

Good to Great: A Preface

good to great preface

My preface to Good to Great

I often find myself bringing up Jim Collins’ book Good to Great when hanging out with good friends. My wife makes fun of me, promising to buy a handful of paperback copies, getting me to write my personal testimony of the book on the title page, and then I can give them away to friends because I’m such a believer. I think I’ll save us some money and time and I’ll just write about it.good to great

So before I dig into 7 of the main principles over the next few weeks, I want to set the stage.

Upfront, this book has changed my life. It’s changed the way I think and the way I work – I’m not kidding...

August 11, 2012 Books, Good to Great No comments
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