JimCollins

At today’s CIO lunch we heard a great presentation by Jim Collins, author of Built to Last, Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall. He touched on all his books but focused the talk today on the five stages of decline in How the Mighty Fall and a 10 item “To Do” list to help you prevent the fall. 

The stages of decline are:

  1. Hubris Born of Success
  2. Undisciplined Pursuit of More
  3. Denial of Risk and Peril
  4. Grasping for Salvation
  5. Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

Quoting his ideas from Good to Great he mentioned that the reason we don’t have greatness in more places is because overall things are good – suggesting the secret to mediocrity is inconsistency. “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline,” said Collins.

If you don’t want to be one of the mighty who falls, Collins suggests the following 10 item “To Do” list:

  1. Go to www.jimcollins.com and use the free Good to Great diagnostic tool.
  2. Begin tracking the key roles in your organization.
  3. Build a personal board of directors to provide a consistent team of people who have the same set of values as you do, and check in with them.
  4. “Get the right young people in your presence” and let them challenge you.
  5. Turn off all your electronic gadgets! Find “pockets of quietude and whitespace” – block time for no distractions so you can just think.
  6. Ask more questions.  Determine your questions to statements ratio and then double it.
  7. Start making a “Stop Doing” list – listing the things you need to stop doing.
  8. “Abandon titles from your thinking and simply claim what you are responsible for.”
  9. Determine your maximum risk level - what will sink you – so you will know when you approach it.
  10. Determine your 10 to 20 year BHAG – “Big Hair Audacious Goal” – use vivid descriptions.

TAGS: , CIOs, Leadership, Jim Collins