Issue No. 404 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting notes this from Jim Collins: “Look closely at any truly sustained great enterprise and you’ll likely find a flywheel at work, though it might be hard to discern at first.” And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and visit Issue No. 397 for my 2018 Book-of-the-Year and my Top-10 books of 2018.
2019 Wisdom From Jim Collins in Just 29 Pages!
In his 2019 hot-off-the-press mini-book, Jim Collins reminds us:
• “When you have disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy.
• When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy.
• When you have disciplined action, you don’t need excessive controls.
• When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you create a powerful mixture that correlates with great performance.”
Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great is the latest gem from over 25 years of research from Jim Collins (just 29 pages plus eight pages of helpful summaries in the appendix). The subtitle describes this must-read content: “Why Some Companies Build Momentum and Others Don’t.”
So think about this: You’ve written five powerful business books between 1994 and 2011 (plus a lesser known book in 1992). You’ve sold over 10 million copies worldwide. The assignment in 2019: boil it all down and deliver the key thought—the Big Idea—of what leaders and managers are missing. Pick from this list:
• Level 5 Leadership
• Genius of the And
• Confront the Brutal Facts
• The Hedgehog Concept
• The Flywheel
• 20 Mile March
• Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs
• Productive Paranoia
• Clock Building, Not Time Telling
• Preserve the Core/Stimulate Progress
• Return on Luck
• Superior Results
• Distinctive Impact
• Lasting Endurance
What one concept would you pick—that rises above everything else—and is your critical message for organizations today? Jim Collins picked the flywheel.
I’ve reviewed Collins’ books over the years and found leadership wisdom in every one—but even if you’re already a Jim Collins zealot—Turning the Flywheel will re-energize you. Here’s why: “No matter what your walk of life, no matter how big or small your enterprise, no matter whether it’s for-profit or nonprofit, no matter whether you’re CEO or a unit leader, the question stands, How does your flywheel turn?”
What’s a flywheel? Read Chapter 8 of Good to Great, “The Flywheel and the Doom Loop,” or read the nine-line summary in the appendix of Turning the Flywheel, including this: “…the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.” (By the way, Collins includes more than a dozen succinct summaries of his amazing body of work in just eight pages. Perfect snippets for your next 14 weekly staff meetings!)
THE BIG IDEA: “To maximize the flywheel you need to understand how your specific flywheel turns.”
Collins illustrates the uniqueness of the flywheel approach with flywheel diagrams from seven companies and nonprofits, including Ware Elementary School, located on the Fort Riley army base in Kansas. Deb Gustafson, the principal, first read the Good to Great and the Social Sectors monograph and was absolutely giddy! “When I got to the part about turning the flywheel, I was bouncing up and down out of my seat,” she said.
And note this: Jeff Bezos “…considered Amazon’s application of the flywheel concept ‘the secret sauce.’” But this caution: you need to understand how your organization’s specific flywheel turns—and the sequence of the components. Collins notes seven key steps for capturing your unique flywheel approach—plus this warning: don’t feature more than four to six components.
He includes flywheel diagrams from Amazon, Vanguard, Intel, Giro, Ware Elementary School, Ojai Music Festival, and the Cleveland Clinic. (Wow—Collins must have a love affair with Cleveland. In his first monograph, he highlights “Greatness at the Cleveland Orchestra”—one of my favorite examples for nonprofits.)
He packs all of this—and more—into just 29 pages, plus the appendix. But this is all you’re getting in this review, otherwise you wouldn’t need to buy the book. But I’ll close with this motivational pop quiz:
STAFF MEETING POP QUIZ:
1) If you’re a millennial and you’ve read a book by Jim Collins, please stand. I have a Starbucks card for you.
2) What books/insights by Jim Collins have made the greatest impact on our department or organization?
3) If you have a marked-up/heavily-read copy of any book by Jim Collins (see his six books listed in the article below), please stand: I have an Amazon card for you.
4) If you have NOT read a book by Jim Collins, but would volunteer to read and review Turning the Flywheel at our next staff meeting, please stand. I have a Chick-fil-A card for you!
5) True or False? Using the flywheel concept at Ware Elementary School, the principal and her team saw satisfactory reading levels of just 35% mushroom to 99% in just seven years. (Answer: True!)
Collins concludes on page 37 in the appendix: “Finally, I caution against ever believing that your organization has achieved ultimate greatness. Good to great is never done.”
To order from Amazon, click on the title for Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great (Why Some Companies Build Momentum and Others Don’t), by Jim Collins.
If you’re a listener (not a reader), visit Libro.fm and download the audio book, Turning the Flywheel. Listening time: just one hour and 47 minutes
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Pop Quiz-2nd Round: In groups of two, invest 15 minutes right now and nominate four to six (no more than six) components that might uniquely describe our organization’s flywheel.
2) Pick another bestselling business author (Drucker, Blanchard, Lencioni, Maxwell, or your favorite). If he or she summarized the most critical insight for leaders and managers in 2019—what would your author title the mini-book?
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You’re Fired! You’re Hired!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook
According to Jim Collins in Turning the Flywheel, in the mid-1980s, Andy Grove, president at Intel said to his CEO, “If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he would do?”
Gordon Moore gave his answer and Grove responded, “Why shouldn’t you and I walk out the door, come back and do it ourselves?”
So Grove and Moore pointed at each other and they both said, “You’re fired.” Then out in the hallway, they pointed at each other again with “You’re hired.” They returned to their offices and launched Intel on a whole new direction. Brilliant!
Have you ever fired and re-hired yourself? The Strategy Bucket includes wisdom and insights to help you re-think your outdated strategies with innovative new approaches. If you haven’t read a book by Jim Collins, delegate your reading today to a team member or board member. Here are his six books in the Good to Great Series (click here for all six on Amazon) and click below for links to my reviews:
#1. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t (2001) - Read my review.
#2. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (1994) - Order from Amazon.
#3. Good to Great and the Social Sectors (2005) - Note: This was my first review in the first issue of Your Weekly Staff Meeting, on Aug. 28, 2006.
#4. How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In (2009) - Read my review.
#5. Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (2011) - Read my review.
#6. Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great (Why Some Companies Build Momentum and Others Don’t), by Jim Collins (2019) - Order from Amazon.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. In How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins identifies five stages of decline. Stage 2 is “Undisciplined Pursuit of More.” You may need outside eyes and expertise to help you avoid the cliff. Check out the innovative ideas from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). Click here.
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