Wow! What a great presentation! This is the second time I have seen Jim Collins speak. The first time was at EduCause also in Denver. Collins is the author of several influential books on what makes companies great. He again delivered this presentation. He recently put out a new book called Great by Choice. Naturally, I picked up the book.
Good is the enemy of great
According to Collins, greatness is not a function of circumstance; it is a choice. This choice begins with people. You need to place the right people in the right places. The number one leadership skill to have is the ability to pick the right people and put them in the right places. Next, you must train your people. Emergency responders and military stress that in times of chaos, they fall back on their training.
Collins then asked what the X factor of exceptional leadership was. The X factor is a combination of humility and ferocity. Using the list below, Collins explains that level 4 leaders focus on themselves, whereas level 5 leaders focus on bigger things. We suffer from a level 5 leadership deficiency. Fortunately, Collins explains we can train Level 5 leaders.
Hierarchy
- Level 1 – Highly capable individual
- Level 2 – Contributing team member
- Level 3 – Competent manager
- Level 4 – Effective leader
- Level 5 – Executive
Discipline, Creativity, and Productive Paranoia
Collins looked at different leaders and companies and developed a list of diametrically opposed characteristics that affect Level 5 leaders. One example where these characteristics were obvious was the 1911 race to the south pole. One team was successful, and all members of the other team perished.
Fanatic – Discipline
Creativity – Empirical
Paranoid – Productive
Collins explained his discoveries and stressed that companies must have the discipline to meet goals consistently, but not overextend. He calls this the 20-mile march. He adds that overreaching or overextending is dangerous and can lead to failure. What is your 20-mile march? Consistency is a must!!
Collins noted we must blend creativity and discipline. In his example of the race to the South Pole, one team used empirical data and chose dogs, whereas the other team chose ponies. The ponies froze to death. Lesson learned “Don’t do ponies… Use dogs.” Collins also stressed improving a project incrementally before investing 100%. Fire bullets first and often to see if you are hitting the mark, and then break out the cannonballs. Collins added we were creative before education beat it out of us.
Making the Most of Luck
Collins also talked about luck. Basically, what does luck have to do with success? Luck is an event: you did not cause it; it has consequences, and it has an element of surprise. Are elite companies luckier? No, they are not luckier. But as Collins points out, it is what you do with your luck. Most important luck is whose luck over what luck. It is about the relationships you make; it is about picking the right people to be in your life.
Putting Greatness Into Practice
Collins left us with a to-do list:
- Commit to building a pocket of greatness on your bus
- Get the right people on your bus
- Double your questions-to-statements ratio. Be interested.
- Confront the brutal facts. Have a brutal-facts meeting.
- Find your personal hedgehog. What are you genetically encoded for? Where can you be useful? What are you passionate about?
- Commit to a 20-mile march focused on your hedgehog. What is your 50-30-20 time distribution?
- Find your who luck.
- Start a stop-doing list.
- Creates pockets of quiet time without a mobile device. One day every two weeks with no devices.
- Core values for a lifetime.
- Set a big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG).
- Determine how to be useful.
- Make something great…family, organization, company, etc.
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If you have read Great by Choice, please share your thoughts on this book. I am getting ready to read it.
Stan, thanks for your great summary on Jim Collins’ ASTD ICE presentation. I was also in attendance, but I missed a few of the items that Jim provided us on the To-Do list. Thanks for capturing all of them. I am currently working on item three.
Glad you benefited from the post.
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