Jim Collin’s bestselling book on organizational behavior, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t” lays out some principles of companies who have gone from good to great status.
I read the book several years ago, but have rediscovered it of late. I still think Collins captured some “truths” about organizational leadership and behavior that apply directly to building movements of evangelism and discipleship.
MOVEMENTS, LIKE GREAT COMPANIES, ARE LED BY AND CULTIVATE LEVEL 5 LEADERS.
According to Collins, Level 5 Leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves. Level 5 Leaders are not charismatic, media types. Chances are you’ve never heard of them. They are humble, self-effacing and more concerned about the prosperity of the movement than their individual success.
MOVEMENTS FIRST CONSIDER WHO …THEN WHAT.
Collins claims that great companies first get great people on the bus, then decide where to drive it. According to Collins, the right people are a company’s most important asset. Movements similarly avoid the “genius leader with a thousand capable helpers” model. Instead, movements focus both on getting the right people on the team and answering the “who” questions before the “what” questions.
MOVEMENTS CONFRONT THE BRUTAL FACTS—YET NEVER LOSE FAITH.
Movements maintain an unwavering faith that they can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties. At the same time, however, well-led movements have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of their current reality – whatever that might be.
MOVEMENTS ARE LED BY HEDGEHOGS.
Isaiah Berlin’s famous essay states: The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Hedgehogs keep things focused on what Collins call the “simple, crystalline con- cept that flows from a deep understanding about the intersection of three circles”: in the first circle, good to great leaders ensure movements do what they can do best (as opposed to what they want to do best); in the second, they help movements do what they are deeply passionate about; and in the third, they help movements focus on what drives their economic engine. Economic engine, in our arena, probably refers to that which produces results.
MOVEMENTS MAINTAIN A CULTURE FULL OF SELF-DISCIPLINED PEOPLE WHO TAKE DISCIPLINED ACTION AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE MOVEMENT’S THREE CIRCLES.
Good to great leaders build a consistent system with clear constraints, but give people freedom and responsibility within the framework of that system. They hire self-disciplined people who don’t need to be managed. In other words, they manage the system, not the people. Having a disciplined culture is the opposite of having a controlled one. There is no need for hierarchy, bureaucracy, or excessive control.
LASTLY, MOVEMENTS LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY WITHOUT FALLING IN LOVE WITH IT.
Good to great leaders take a cautious approach toward technology. They always keep in focus the question of how technology can help them do even better what they already do well. They use technology as an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it.
See Jim Collins’ monograph on how this Good To Great principles directly apply to the social sectors: “Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great”