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Posted on February 17th, 2009 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
“Clock Building, Not Time Telling. Build an organization that can endure and adapt through multiple generations of leaders and multiple product life cycles; the exact opposite of being built around a single great leader or a single great idea” (page 197).
Posted on February 17th, 2009 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
Unexpected Results
Posted on February 17th, 2009 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
“No matter how dramatic the end result, the good-to-great transformations never happened to one fell swoop. There was no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no wrenching revolution. 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” (page 165).
“we kept thinking that we’d find ‘the one big thing,’ the miracle moment that defined breakthough. we even pushed for it in our interviews. But the good-to-great executives simply could not pinpoint a single key event or moment in time that exemplified the transition. Frequently, they chafed against the whole idea of allocating points and prioritizing factors. In every good-to-great complany, at least one of the interviewees gave an unprompted admonishment, saying something along the lines of, ‘Look, you can’t dissect this thing into a series of nice little boxes and factors, or identify the moment of ‘Aha!’ or the ‘one big thing.’ It was a whole bunch of interlocking pieces that built one upon another.’ (page 168)”
“The good-to-great companies had no name for their transformations. There was no launch event, no tag line, no programmatic feel whatsoever. Some executives said that they weren’t even aware that a major transformation was under way until they were well into it. It was often more obvious to them after the fact than at the time” (page 169).
“Then it began to dawn on us: There was no miracle moment” (page 169).
“It’s important to understand that following the buildup-breakthrough flywheel model is not just a luxury of circumstance” (page 172).
“The good-to-great companies understood a simple truth: tremendous power exists in the fact of continued improvement and the delivery of results. Point to tangible accomplishments - however incremental at first - and show how these steps fit into the context of an overall concept that will work. When you do this in such a way that people see and feel the buildup of momentum, they will line up with enthusiasm” (page 174-175).
“Clearly, the good-to-great companies did get incredible commitment and alignment - they artfully managed change - but they never really spent much time thinking about it. It was utterly transparent to them. We learned that under the right conditions, the problems of commitment, alignment, motivation, and change just melt away. They largely take care of themselves” (page 176).
“The good-to-great companies tended not to publicly proclaim big goals at the outset. Rather, they began to spin the flywheel - understanding to action, step after step, turn after turn. After the flywheel built up momentum, they’d look up and say, ‘Hey, if we just keep pushing on this thing, there’s no reason we can’t accomplish X.’ ” (page 176-177).
“When you let the flywheel do the talking, you don’t need to fervently communicate your goals. People can just extrapolate from the momentum of the flywheel for themselves: ‘Hey, if we just keep doing this, look at where we can go!” (page 177).
“Instead of a quiet, deliberate process of figuring out what needed to be done and then simply doing it, the comparison companies frequently launched new programs-often with great fanfare and hoopla aimed at ‘motivating the troops’ - only to see the programs fail to produce sustained results. They sought the single defining action, the grand program, the one killer innovation, the miracle moment that would allow them to skip the arduous buildup stage and jump right to breakthrough” (page 178).
Signs that You’re In the Doom Loop
“It all starts with Level 5 leaders, who naturally gravitate toward the flywheel model. They’re less interested in flashy programs that make it look like they are Leading! with a capital L. They’re more interested in the quiet, deliberate process of pushing on the flywheel to produce Results! with a capital R.
“Getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats-these are all crucial steps in the early stages of buildup.
“Next, when you attain deep understanding about the three circles of your Hedgehog Concept and begin to push in a direction consistent with that understanding, you hit breakthrough momentum and accelerate with key accelerators, chief among them pioneering the application of technology tied directly back to your three circles. Ultimately, to reach breakthrough means having the discipline to make a series of good decisions consistent with your Hedghog Concept-disciplined action, following from disciplined people who exercise disciplined thought. That’s it” (page 184).
Posted on February 14th, 2009 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
“Twenty percent of our success is the new technology that we embrace…[but] eighty percent of our success is in the culture of our company” (page 156).
“Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure” (page 156).
“Those who turn good into great are motivated by a deep creative urge and an inner compulsion for sheer unadulterated excellence for its own sake. Those who build and perpetuate mediocrity, in contrast, are motivated more by the fear of being left behind” (page 160).
Posted on February 14th, 2009 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
Unexpected Findings
Posted on February 14th, 2009 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Good to Great, Leadership.
“Freedom is only part of the story and half the truth…That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplanted by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.” - Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (page 120).
“Most companies build their bureaucratic rules to manage the small percentage of wrong people on the bus, which in turn drives away the right people on the bus, which then increases the percentage of wrong people on the bus, which increases the need for more bureaucracy to compensate for the incompetence and lack of discipline, which then further drives the right people away, and so forth” (page 121).
“Avoid bureaucracy and hierarchy and instead create a culture of discipline. When you put these two complementary forces together - a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship - you get a magical alchemy of superior performance and sustained results” (page 122).
responsibility accounting (page 123).
Build a culture full of people who take disciplined action within the three circles, fanactically consistent with the Hedgehog Concept.
“The good-to-great companies built a consistent system with clear constraints, but they also gave people freedom and responsibility within the framework of that system. They hired self-disciplined people who didn’t need to be managed, and then managed the system, not the people” (page 125).
“In a sense, much of this book is about creating a culture of discipline. It all starts with disciplined people. The transition begins not by trying to discipline the wrong people into the right behaviors, but by getting self-disciplined people on the bus in the first place. Next we have disciplined thought. You need the discipline to confront the brutal facts of reality, while retaining resolute faith that you can and will create a patyh to greatness. Most importantly, you need the discipline to persist in the search for understanding until you get your Hedgehog Concept. Finally, we have disciplined action, the primary subject of the chapter. This order is important. The comparison companies often tried to jump right to disciplined action. But disciplined action without self-disciplined people is impossible to sustain, and disciplined action without disciplined thought is a recipe for disaster.
“Indeed, discipline by itself will not produce great results. We find plenty of organizations in history that had tremendous discipline and that marhed right into disaster, with precision and in nicely formed lines. No, the point is to first get self-disciplined people who engage in very regorous thinking, who then take disciplined action within the framework of a consistent system designed around the Hedgehog Concept” (page 126).
“People in the good-to-great companies became somewhate extreme in the fulfillment of their responsibilties, bordering en some cases on fanaticism” (page 127).
“Much of the answer to the question of ‘good to great’ lies in the discipline to do whatever it takes to become the best within carefully selected arenas and then to seek continual improvement from there” (page 128).
“Everyone whould like to be the best, but most organizations lack the discipline to figure out with egoless clarity what they can be the best at and the will to do whatever it takes to turn that potential into reality. They lack the discipline to rinse their cottage cheese” (page 128).
“It takes discipline to say ‘No, thank you’ to big opportunities. The fact that something is a ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ is irrelevant if it doesn’t fit within the three circles” (page 136).
“Most of us lead busy but undisciplined lives. We have ever-expanding ‘todo’ lists, thrying to build momentum by doing, doing, doing - and doing more. And it rarely works. Those who built the good-to-great companies, however, made as much use of ’stop doing’ lists as ‘to do’ lists. They displayed a remarkable discipline to unplug all sorts of extraneous junk” (page 139).
“In a good-to-great transformation, budgeting is a discipline to decide which arenas should be fully funded and which should not be funded at all. In other words, the budget process is no about figuring out how much each activity gets, but about determining which activities best support the Hedgehog Concept and should be fully strengthened and which should be eliminated entirely” (page 140).
Posted on November 5th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Good to Great, Leadership.
Three Circles of the Hedgehog Concept
Unexpected Findings
Posted on August 29th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
“Hedgehogs, on the other hand, simplify a complex world into a single organizing idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything. It doesn’t matter how complex the world, a hedgehog reduces all challenges and dilemmas to simple-indeed almost simplistic - hedgehog ideas. For a hedgehog, anything that does not somehow relate to the hedgehog idea holds no relevance” (page 91).
“No, the hedgehogs aren’t simpletons; they have a piercing insight that allows them to see through complexity and discern underlying patterns. Hedgehogs see what is essential, and ignore the rest” (page 91).
“Those who built the good-to-great companies were, to one degree or another, hedgehogs. They used 4their hedgehog nature to drive toward what we came to call a Hedghog Concept for their companies. Those who lead the comparison companies tended to be foxes, never gaining the clarifying advantage of a Hedgehog Concept, being instead scattered, diffused, and inconsistent” (page 92).
“In a world overrun by management faddists, brilliant visionaries, ranting futureists, fearmongers, motivational gurus, and all the rest, it’s refreshing to see a company succeed so brilliantly by taking one simple concept and just doing it with excellence and imagination. Becoming the best in the world at convenient drugstores, steadily increasing profit per customer visit-what could be more obvious and straightfoward?” (page 93).
“More precisely, a Hedgehog Concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles:
“Suppose you were able to construct a work life that meets the following three tests. First, you are doing work for which you have a genetic or God-given talent, and perhaps you could become one of the best in the world in applying that talent…Second, you are well paid for what you do…Third, you are doing work you are passionate about and absolutely love to do, enjoying the actual process for its own sake” (page 96).
“A Hedgehog Concept is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best. It is an understanding of what you can be the best at” (page 98).
“Just because something is your core business-just because you’ve been doing it for years or perhaps even decades-does not necessarily mean that you can be the best in the world at it. And if you cannot be the best in the world at your core business, then your core business cannot form the basis of your Hedgehog Concept” (page 99).
“The Hedgehog Concept requires a severe standard of excellence. It’s not just about building on strength and competence, but about understanding what your organization truly has the potential to be the very best at and sticking to it” (page 100).
“To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. It requires the discipline to say, “Just because we are good at it-just because we’re making money and generating growth-doesn’t necessarily mean we can become the best at it.” The good-to-great companies understood that doing what you are good at will only make you good; focusing solely on what you can potentially do better than any other organization is the only path to greatness” (page 100).
“Our study clearly shows that a company does not need to be in a great industry to become a great copany. Each good-to-great company built a fabulous economic engine, regardless of the industry. They were able to do this because they attained profound insights into their economics” (page 104).
“But throughout the good-to-great companies, passion became a key part of the Hedgehog Concept. You can’t manufacture passion or “motivate” people to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passions of those around you” (page 109).
“The good-to-great companies did not say, ‘Okay, folks, let’s get passionate about what we do.’ Sensibly, they went the other way entirely: We should only do those things that we can get passionate about” (page 109).
“What’s so striking about the comparison companies is that - for all their change programs, frantic gesticulations, and charismtic leaders-they rarely emerged from the fog. They would try to run, making bad decisions at forks in the read, and then have to reverse course later. Or they would veer off the trail entirely, banging into trees and tumbling down ravines. (Oh, but they were sure doing it with speed and panache!)
“For the comparison companies, the exact same world that had become so simple and clear to the good-to-great companies remained complex and shrouded in mist. Why? For two reasons. First, the comparison companies never asked the right questions, the questions prompted by the three circles. Second, they set their goals and strategies more from bravado than from understanding.
“Nowhere is this more evident than in the comparison companies’ mindless pursuit of growth: Over two thirds of the comparison companies displayed an obsession with growth without the benefit of a Hedgehog Concept. Statements such as ‘We’ve been a growth at any price company’ and ‘Betting that size equals success’ pepper the materials on the comparison companies. In contrast, not one of the good-to-great companies focused obsessively on growth. Yet they created sustained, profitable growth far greater than the comparison companies that made growth their mantra” (page 111).
“If you have the right Hedgehog Concept and make decisions relentlessly consistendt with it, you will create such momentum that your main problem will not be how to grow, but how not to grow too fast” (page 112).
“The Hedgehog Concept is the turning point in the journey from good to great. In most cases, the transition date follows within a few years of the Hedgehog Concept” (page 112).
Posted on August 29th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
Posted on August 29th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
“There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away” (page 65, taken from Winston S. Churchill).
“The good-to-great companies displayed two distinctive forms of disciplined thought. The first, and the topic of this chapter, is that they infused the entire process with the brutal facts of reality. (The second is that they developed a simple, yet deeply insightful, frame of reference for all decisions.) When you start with an honest and diligent effort to determine the truth of the situation, the right decisions often become self-evident” (page 70).
“You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts” (page 70).
“The moment a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse. This is one of the key reasons why less charismatic leaders often produce better lang-term results than their more charismatic counterparts” (page 72).
“Indeed, for those of you with a strong, charismatic personality, it is worthwhile to consider the idea that charisma can be as much a liability as an asset. Your strength of personality can sow the seeds of problems, when people filter the brutal facts from you. You can overcome the liabilities of having charisma, but it does require conscious attention” (page 73).
A Climate Where the Truth is Heard
“Leading from good to great does not mean coming up with the answers and then motivating everyone to follow your messianic vision. It means having the humility to grasp the fact that you do not yet understand enough to have the answers and then to ask the questions that will lead to the best possible insights.
“Life is unfair - sometimes to our advantage, sometimes to our disadvantage. We will all experience disappointments and crushing events somewhere along the way, setbacks for which there is no “reason,” no one to blame. It might be disease; it might be injury; it might be an accident; it might be losing a loved one; it might be getting swept away in a political shake-up; it might be getting shot down over Vietnam and thrown into a POW camp for eight years. What separates people, Stockdale taught me, is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life. In wrestling with life’s challenges, the Stockdale Paradox (you must retain faith that you will prevail in the end and you must also confront the most brutal facts of your current reality) has proved powerful for coming back from difficultites not weakened, but stronger - not just for me, but for all those who’ve learned the lesson and tried to apply it” (page 86).
“The good-to-great leaders were able to strip away so much noise and clutter and just focus on the few things that would hae the greatest impact. They were able to do so in large part because they operated from both sides of the Stockdale Paradox, never letting one side overshadow the other. If you are able to adopt this dual pattern, you will dramatically increase the odds of making a series of good decisions and ultimately discovering a simple, yet deeply insightful, concept for making the really big choices. And once you have that simple, unifying concept, you will be very close to making a sustained transition to breakthrough results” (page 87).
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