4^th June 2018

BACKGROUND: As ordinary people, most of us aspire to become successful – be it anything. We want to be richer, or more powerful, or perhaps someone who is admired by everyone. The bottom line is that most of us, want to contribute to good things in life. It gives great satisfaction when we see ourselves helping others. I believe almost all of us start with good and noble intentions. Many of us, however, fail in this endeavour, end up heartbroken. Most of us are good. But there are few who are great. What an individual does, culminates in organization’s habits. Therefore inculcating habits that help in becoming ‘great’, is something that can be emulated by many of us, especially those who want to accelerate their organization’s growth. Put it simply, if somehow, we are able to hone our leadership skills, then it would a cascading effect upon those associated with us.

ABOUT THE BOOK: The book Good to Great written by Jim Collins is a befitting material in this regard. The author starts with a premise that ‘good’ is the enemy of ‘great’. Most things are good but very few are great. In this book, he has delineated a process from being good to becoming great, called ‘The Flywheel’. The book is easy to read and retain comprising of approximately 300 pages. The book has nine chapters. Six of which detail out the steps in transforming from good to great. The first chapter outlines the content in a summarised form that is presented in the book. The eighth chapter describes ‘The Flywheel’, i.e. how the process manifests on the inside and the outside during transformation. Headings of chapters have been written in such a way that it is easy to remember the content given in that chapter. In order to make reading experience enriching, valuable individual’s memoirs are presented along with hardcore empirical data, validating the author’s hypothesis (or vice versa). To sum up, the book would require a five day reading for completion by a normal reader who reads almost two hours a day.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: James C. “Jim” Collins is a teacher, guide, and author on growth and sustainability of an organization. He has written numerous best-selling books on personal-organizational growth and management. Some of his other notable books are: Built to Last, Great by Choice and How the Mighty Fall.

INTERPRETATION: The book is about the process of being good to becoming great, called ‘The Flywheel’. The Flywheel, metaphorically, is big and heavy cylindrical wheel. It is rotated by people incessantly, again and again, so that it breaks its inertia, and gains momentum. Because of its own weight, the wheel that had been difficult to rotate initially is able to sustain its momentum now.  If one considers this wheel (cylindrical heavy wheel aka The Flywheel), as a system, then to those from the outside, it will appear to be a solid structure that is suddenly rotating constantly at ease. However, all those who are inside the system will definitely say that the rotation at ease has been a result of long years of hard work, sincere efforts and perseverance.  Whether it is an organization or an individual, the principle of The Flywheel remains constant upon them.

So how do we start The Flywheel from rest to bring its momentum? Well, if applied to people or organization, this process can happen when Disciplined People, Disciplined Thought and Disciplined Action coincide.

Formulaically,

Disciplined People + Disciplined Thought + Disciplined Action = The Flywheel

‘Disciplined People’ has been used literally. An individual or people in an organization become disciplined when there is a combination of two aspects: (1) Level 5 Leadership and (2) First Who Then What.

Level 5 Leadership is the highest level of leadership exhibited. It’s a combination of personal humility and professional strong will. Do not confuse a Level 5 leader as someone weak who can be rejected out rightly. A Level 5 leader is the one who is humble, down to earth, simple, sober and yet unwavering, focused, and courageous. He is a one who does not hesitate in taking bold steps, firing wrong people and doing things that matter to his organization, professionally. Yet in his personal life, he is simple and sober. His colleagues like and respect him dearly. Consider people like Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, or even Steve Jobs.

First Who Then What: An individual can move forward, and an organization can develop tremendously if they learn to team up with like-minded people or systems, first, and then decide upon the plan of actions as second. Most of the people or organization who do it another way (first framing aims-objectives and then executing it via orders upon others), fail to achieve sustained results.

While working with a Level 5 leader, the situation is entirely different. People (systems) who are like-minded hardly require motivation (hoopla). All this saves time, energy and focus. There is no need to motivate them or discipline them as they are self-motivated. So when a Level 5 leader comes in contact with like-minded people (right people), then the result becomes ‘Disciplined People’.

Formulaically,

Disciplined People = Level 5 leadership + First Who Then What

Disciplined Thought is a process which should be guided by two aspects: (1) Be Hopeful but at the Same Time Confront Brutal Facts and (2) Hedgehog Concept.

Be Hopeful but at the Same Time, Confront Brutal Facts is also referred to as Stockdale Paradox. It simply means that one should remain positive but at the same time be practical as well. It does not mean that we should only live in a falsified reality to appear hopeful. It also does not mean that one should lose one’s hope because of the problems impinging upon oneself. There has to be the inclusion of both hope and acceptance of the reality. This aspect comes out of the life-experience of Admiral Jim Stockdale, of Hoover Institution, Stanford University who was once a prisoner of Vietnam War to Vietnamese authorities. His life is an inspiring lesson to learn from and emulate upon. His book, written along with his wife Lady Sybil Stockdale, Love and War, reflecting their lives and struggles in those dark days is worth reading. Generally people can be clubbed together into three categories: (1) Who are completely shattered by catastrophic events, (2) Who bring their lives back to normal after having been shattered by catastrophe, and (3) Who come back to lives to inspire as better and stronger individuals, than they were before a catastrophe. Admiral Stockdale belongs to the category (3). In Admiral’s words, it became possible because he was hopeful but he had never lost a sight of his reality while he was tortured in the prison.

Hedgehog Concept: “Generally people behave either like foxes or like hedgehogs. Foxes pursue many ends at the same time and see the complexity. They are “scattered or diffused, moving on many levels,” says Berlin, “never integrating their thinking into one overall concept or unifying vision. Hedgehogs, on the other hand, simplify a complex world into a single 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”. In words of Professor Marvin Bressler “You want to know what separates those who make the biggest impact from all the others who are just as smart. They’re hedgehogs.” Freud and the unconscious, Darwin and natural selection, Marx and class struggle, Einstein and relativity, Adam Smith and division of labour – they were all hedgehogs. They took a complex world and simplified it. “Those who leave the biggest footprints,” says Bressler, “have thousands calling after them, ‘Good idea, but you went too far!’ “. Emulating Hedgehog behaviour is very important. It may be understood as a technique of finding the purpose in life as well, colloquially. Hedgehog Concept is an amalgamation of three aspects: (1) What am I best at (2) What am I most passionate about (3) What is beneficial to me economically.

Formulaically,

What am I best at? + What am I most passionate about? + What is beneficial to me economically? = Hedgehog Concept

Only upon the convergence of these three aspects, the Hedgehog Concept come into execution. Hedgehog concept has also been referred to as the Three Circles (of the Hedgehog Concept) in the book. A once in a lifetime opportunity becomes invalid if it is not falling upon the convergence of the three circles of the Hedgehog concept. Finding a purpose in life for an individual, and formulating decisions for an organization become easy if Hedgehog Concept is applied properly.

Thus, when we have disciplined thoughts, our decisions become better. Formulaically,

Disciplined Thought = Be Hopeful but at the Same Time Confront Brutal Facts + Hedgehog Concept

Disciplined Action is a result of fostering the (1) Culture of Discipline along with (2) Technology Accelerators.

Culture of Discipline: This happens when individual and organization surround themselves with right people and system/s. A person who is disciplined is self-motivated and does not require special directions. They are assets, as opposed to unmotivated and indisciplined people or system, which require constant rejuvenation.

Technology Accelerators: A successful person or organization merely relies upon technology to improve their performance and not let it overwhelm them.

Formulaically,

Culture of Discipline + Technology Accelerators = Disciplined Action  

CONCLUSION: An entity or an organization can transform to something ‘great’ provided they have strength and discipline to adhere to ‘The Flywheel’, as it can be commonly seen theoretically and empirically from various studies. The Flywheel is a process of becoming great. It happens when many aspects are amalgamated together. Formulaically, it is understood as:

The Flywheel	Disciplined People		Disciplined Thought		Disciplined Action
	Level 5 Leadership	First Who Then What	Stockdale Paradox	Hedgehog Concept	Culture of Discipline	Technology Accelerators

Best wishes.

(The reader may buy the book from Amazon. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others-ebook/dp/B0058DRUV6)