In Good to Great, Collins argues the importance of seeing through complexity to discern the underlying patterns -- to discover what is essential, and ignore the rest. He calls this "the clarifying advantage." I find his simple model for examining what an organization can really be great at enlightening, particularly during these times when so many businesses and organizations are trying to redefine or reinvent themselves.
It's also a useful model for thinking about what really matters to us, and where we can be most successful, in our professional lives and in other activities in which we engage.
1. What Can You Be The Best At? A key to your success is understanding what your organization can be the best at, and what it cannot be the best at. It is not a plan to try to be the best at a particular thing. The challenge and the opportunity here is that What You Can Be Best At may be something that you are not even currently doing. Further, your core business may not in fact be the thing that you are best at.
2. What Drives Your Economic Engine? Great organizations work hard to gain insight into what will most effectively generate sustained and robust cash flow and profitability. In Collins' words, they discovered the single denominator -- the ONE factor -- that has the greatest impact on economic success.
3. What Are You Deeply Passionate About? You cannot manufacture passion or "motivate the team" to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passion of those around you.
The work of gaining an understanding of these three dimension and where they intersect for your organization will allow you to create strategies for maximum impact.
A few final notes. You may have been asking yourself:
What if we discover that we are not great at anything? I like the fact that Collins actually gets excited about this. Companies that reach this grim conclusion have also persevered and decided "there must be something we can be the best at and we will find it and not delude ourselves when we confront the facts of what we cannot be the best at".
What if I am not in a high-growth industry? A company does not need to be in a great industry to become a great company. What is important to success is gaining a deep understanding of the key drivers of your organization's economic engine and building your systems in accordance with this understanding.
Why should anyone care about Being Great? First, it is no harder to build something great than to build something good, it does not require more suffering than perpetuating mediocrity. It may even simplify our lives and increase our effectiveness. Second, if you are doing something you care about and you believe in its purpose, then it is hard to imagine not trying to make it great.
0 comments:
Post a Comment