Collins, Good to Great – Reading Reflection

Principles

In “Good to Great”, Jim Collins presents varied key insights, principles as well as concepts. This paper explores some of the principles and how they can be actualized in corporate, as well as personal, realms. First, the author makes it clear settling for and getting comfortable with what is good impedes the attainment of what is great. That is precisely the reason why there are limited instances in which greatness is achieved but there is plenty of what is deemed good. There are no great institutions where people have good institutions. There are no great governments where people are contend with having good governments. To realize greatness, one should be ready to lose sight of what is good.
Second, one can realize all what he or she sets out to realize in own life if she or he does not focus on where the related credit goes. That means that the person should marry marked professional motivation to achieve with marked personal humility so as not to train own eyes on who gets the credit. Collins characterizes such people as being level 5 leaders. One can realize all what he or she sets out to realize in own life if she or he does not focus on where the related credit goes by being self-effacing and diffident.
Third, to achieve a specific goal, the right team should be assembled and the wrong people should be forced to steer clear of the related processes. When set for the achievement of a given goal, one should not imagine that he or she wait for all people. He or she should know that some will be on the processes and others must remain off the processes. Fourth, to realize greatness, individuals and corporate entities should infuse all their processes with naked reality facts. As well, they ought to develop straightforward but insightful reference frames for their decisions.

Application and Implementation of the Principles

It is one thing having the principles explored above and another thing applying and implementing them. The principle that settling for and getting comfortable with what is good impedes the attainment of what is great can be actualized by cracking the specific codes on the concern of moving away from the comfort that comes with what is good towards the discomfort of attaining greatness. That way, “good companies might become great companies”. The principle that one can realize all what he or she sets out to realize in own life if she or he does not focus on where the related credit goes can be actualized in corporate, as well as personal, realms by equipping leaders with level 5 leadership attributed via training. The attributes include being “modest and willful, humble and fearless”.
To actualize the principle that to achieve a specific goal, the right team should be assembled and the wrong people should be forced to steer clear of the related processes, one has to develop a culture that is rigorous to last long. The culture should so rigorous that one should expect staff members and other stakeholders to be taken off employment or related engagement without fuss as the extant exigencies demand devoid of attentive considerations. Lastly, to actualize the principle that to realize greatness, individuals and corporate entities should infuse all their processes with naked reality facts and develop straightforward but insightful reference frames for their decisions, the individuals and entities should engage in continuous self-appraisals rather than blame games. Self-appraisal means that every “ugly mistake” is brought to light and addressed in ways that makes its recurrence impossible.

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