The following contains excerpts from the book, From Good to Great (Jim Collins).
The author begins his first chapter with the familiar colloquial proverb, ‘Good is the enemy of great.’
“In our study, what we didn’t find…larger-than-life, celebrity leaders who ride in from the outside…Ten of eleven good-to-great CEOs came from inside the company…The good-to-great companies did not focus principally on what to do to become great…paid scant attention to managing change, motivating people, or creating alignment…were not, by and large, in great industries.”
At our music school in Odessa, Texas, we encourage students to apply the principles outlined in this book.
- The Flywheel and the Doom Loop. “Those who launch revolutions, dramatic change programs, and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap from good to great. No matter how dramatic the end result, the good-to-great transformations never happened in one fell swoop…Rather, the process resembled relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.”
We encourage students in our music school in Odessa, Texas to make incremental progress on a daily basis, seeing mastery of their skill as a journey rather than a destination.
“Picture a huge, heavy flywheel- a massive metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle, about 30 feet in diameter, 2 feet thick, and weighing about 5,000 pounds. Now imagine that your task is to get the flywheel rotating on the axle as fast and long as possible. Pushing with great effort, you get the flywheel to inch forward, moving almost imperceptibly at first. You keep pushing and, after two or three hours of persistent effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You keep pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster, and with continued great effort, you move it around a second rotation. You keep pushing in a consistent direction. Three turns…four…five…six…nine…ten…it builds momentum…eleven…twelve…moving faster with each turn…twenty…thirty…fifty…a hundred. Then, at some point- breakthrough! The momentum of the thing kicks in in your favor, hurling the flywheel forward, turn after turn…whoosh!…its own heavy weight working for you…Was it the first push? The second? The fifth? The hundredth? No! It was all of them added together in an overall accumulation of effort applied in a consistent direction. Some pushes may have been bigger than others, but any single heave- no matter how large- reflects a small fraction of the entire cumulative effect upon the flywheel.”
“We’ve allowed the way transitions look from the outside to drive our perception of what they must feel like to those going through them on the inside. From the outside, they look like dramatic, almost revolutionary breakthroughs. But from the inside, they feel completely different, more like an organic development process…There was no miracle moment…Rather, it was a quiet, deliberate process of figuring out what needed to be done to create the best future results and then simply taking those steps, one after the other, turn by turn of the flywheel. After pushing on that flywheel in a consistent direction over an extended period of time, they’d inevitably hit a point of breakthrough.”
Breakthroughs happen in students’ development but are always predicated upon internal restructuring of how they perceive within themselves. In our music school in Odessa, Texas we help students grow internally so they can experience external successes in their musical and artistic journey.
“Do you know how many years Wooden coached the Bruins before his first NCAA Championship? Fifteen…Year by year, Coach Wooden built the underlying foundations, developing a recruiting system, implementing a consistent philosophy, and refining the full-court-style of play. No one paid too much attention to the quiet, soft-spoken coach and his team until- wham! – they hit breakthrough and systematically crushed every serious competitor for more than a decade…the buildup-breakthrough flywheel model is not just a luxury of circumstance.”
“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…We learned that under the right conditions, the problems of commitment, alignment, motivation, and change just melt away. They largely take care of themselves.”
At our music school in Odessa, Texas we believe that one of the most important things a teacher can and should do is give the student praise in incremental progress. This reinforces the progress they are making and fuels the desire for greater growth.
“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 capitol R…Faith in the endgame helps you live through the months or years of buildup…Ultimately, to reach breakthrough means having the discipline to make a series of good decisions consistent with your Hedgehog Concept- disciplined action, following from disciplined people who exercise disciplined thought. That’s it. That’s the essence of the breakthrough process.”
Once momentum and breakthrough in a company hits, the question arises as to how to maintain this, even in the context of a changing world.
“This notion of preserving your core ideology is a central feature of enduring great companies. The obvious question is, How do you preserve the core and yet adapt to a changing world? The answer: Embrace the key concept of preserve the core/stimulate progress…Enduring great companies preserve their core values and purpose while their business strategies and operating practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. This is the magical combination of ‘preserve the core and stimulate progress…instead of choosing A OR B, figure out how to have A AND B – purpose AND profit, continuity AND change, freedom AND responsibility, etc.’
At our music school in Odessa, Texas we value core conditioning and understanding of the basics of musical aptitude spanning centuries, so the student can successfully navigate constant changes in cultural taste.
“To remain great over time requires, on the one hand, staying squarely within the three circles while, on the other hand, being willing to change the specific manifestation of what’s inside the three circles at any given moment.”
“I am not suggesting that going from good to great is easy, or that every organization will successfully make the shift. By definition, it is not possible for everyone to be above average. But I am asserting that those who strive to turn good into great find the process no more painful or exhausting than those who settle for just letting things wallow along in mind-numbing mediocrity. Yes, turning good into great takes energy, but the building of momentum adds more energy back into the pool than it takes out. Conversely, perpetuating mediocrity is an inherently depressing process and drains much more energy out of the pool than it puts back in.”
“So, the question of Why greatness? is almost a nonsense question. If you’re engaged in work that you love and care about, for whatever reason, then the question needs no answer. The question is not why, but how…Indeed, the real question is not, ‘Why greatness?’ but ‘What work makes you feel compelled to try to create greatness?’ If you have to ask the question, ‘Why should we try to make it great? Isn’t success enough?’ then you’re probably engaged in the wrong line of work…Get involved in something that you care so much about that you want to make it the greatest it can possibly be, not because of what you will get, but just because it can be done.”
“Perhaps it is when you care deeply enough about the work in which you are engaged, and when your responsibilities line up with your own personal three circles. When all these pieces come together, not only does your work move toward greatness, but so does your life. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you’ve had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.”
At our music school in Odessa, Texas we endeavor to help the student discover what it is that they love and how they can give it away to others to enrich their communities.