Good To Great

I read Good To Great by Jim Collins recently for a second time. It is a great book and anyone starting a church should read this book.

Below are some great thoughts from the book:

• "It is very important to grasp that Level 5 Leadership is not just about humility and modesty. It is equally about ferocious resolve, an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great."
• "First get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out where to drive it."
• "Whether someone is the "right person" has more to do with character traits and innate capabilities than with specific knowledge, background, or skills."
• "Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."
• "The good-to-great companies are more like hedgehogs - simple, dowdy creatures that know "one big thing" and stick to it. Other companies are more like foxes - crafty, cunning creatures that know many things yet lack consistency."
• ""Stop doing" lists are more important than "to do" lists."
• "Great companies respond with thoughtfulness and creativity, driven by a compulsion to turn unrealized potential into results; mediocre companies react and lurch about, motivated by fear of being left behind."
• "Sustainable transformations follow a predictable pattern of buildup and breakthrough. Like pushing on a giant, heavy flywheel, it takes a lot of effort to get the thing moving at all, but with persistent pushing in a consistent direction over a long period of time, the flywheel builds momentum, eventually hitting a point of breakthrough."
• "Why greatness? If you are 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."