VMC with Jim Collins - What would you like to focus on? Survey

Level 5 Leadership. Level 5 leaders display a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will. They're incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organization and its purpose, not for themselves. Every good-to-great transition in our research began with Level 5 leadership.

First Who, Then What—Get the Right People on the Bus. Those who lead organizations from good to great first get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out where to drive the bus. They always think first about “who” and then about “what.” They understand that great vision without great people is irrelevant.

Genius of the AND. Builders of greatness don’t oppress themselves with the Tyranny of the OR, which pushes people to believe that things must be either A OR B, but not both. Undisciplined thinkers force debates into stark Tyranny of the OR dichotomies; disciplined thinkers expand the conversation to create Genius of the AND solutions.

Confront the Brutal Facts—The Stockdale Paradox. Productive change begins when you have the discipline to embrace the Stockdale Paradox: Retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, exercise the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

The Hedgehog Concept. A Hedgehog Concept reflects the intersection of three circles: (1) what you’re deeply passionate about, (2) what you can be the best in the world at, and (3) what best drives your economic engine. It also reflects the discipline to confront the brutal facts about what does not fit the three circles.

The Flywheel. The process of building a great company resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond. To fully harness the compounding power of the flywheel, you need to understand how your specific flywheel turns.

20 Mile March. Companies that thrive in a turbulent world self-impose rigorous performance marks to hit with relentless consistency—like walking across a gigantic continent by marching at least twenty miles a day, every day. 20 Mile March discipline correlates strongly with achieving breakthrough performance.

Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs. The ability to scale innovation—to turn small, proven ideas (bullets) into huge successes (cannonballs)— can provide big bursts of momentum. Firing bullets, then cannonballs, is a primary mechanism for expanding the scope of an organization’s Hedgehog Concept and extending its flywheel into new arenas.

Productive Paranoia. Leaders who navigate turbulence assume that conditions can unexpectedly change, violently and fast. By preparing ahead of time, building reserves, preserving a margin of safety, bounding risk, and honing their discipline in good times and bad, they handle disruptions from a position of strength and flexibility.

5 Stages of Decline. Sustaining high levels of productive paranoia helps inoculate organizations from falling into the 5 Stages of Decline that can destroy an organization. Those stages are (1) Hubris Born of Success, (2) Undisciplined Pursuit of More, (3) Denial of Risk and Peril, (4) Grasping for Salvation, and (5) Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death.

Clock Building, not Time Telling. Leaders who build enduring great companies tend to be clock builders, not time tellers. For true clock builders, success comes when the organization proves its greatness not just during one leader's tenure but also when the next generation of leadership further increases flywheel momentum.

Preserve the Core/Stimulate Progress. Visionary companies that sustain their greatness display a fundamental duality: Preserve the Core AND Stimulate Progress. They understand the difference between their core values and purpose (which almost never change) and their practices and strategies (which endlessly adapt to a changing world).