Things we can't stop thinking about
I went searching for Jim Collins-related blogs to find further discussion of his ideas in practice. Sadly, when one goes looking for things, one tends to find them.
This is an exceprt from a Wharton School review of "Good to Great" I found posted in a larger review of the book at businesspundit.com:
It's actually a very nice summary of the book. And to Collins' credit, his book motivated me to rethink basic ideas about motivating employees, what defines the "right" people for my outfit, and the executive decision-making processes of our company.
While searching for this information, I also found some credulous converts like myself who never read business books, had "Good to Great" recommended to them so many times that they read it, and then couldn't stop thinking about the ideas. Collins and his team stated some compelling ideas and constructed their research carefully.
But here I am, reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "The Black Swan." Taleb is an uberskeptic and makes even more compelling arguments about the nature of unpredictable events and their impact on the world as we know it. And I got to thinking about how and why businesses succeed. It may be that Collins' ideas have some traction, and if they inspire you to work harder and make better decisions, more power to you.
There is a compelling phrase (and variants of it) that Taleb deploys in "Black Swan" - bottom-up tinkering and undirected trial and error. That's a broad concept - harder to grasp, and demanding of courage and flexibility - including the willingness to fail utterly that most of us are unwilling to accept, let alone embrace as a working paradigm.
I've often said of the theatres where I've worked - we're either going to make the right decisions at the right time and flourish, or we're going to do our best and fail. If the concept of theatre is in demand where we fail, someone else will pick it up and try again, and we'll all go look for a new job.
This is an exceprt from a Wharton School review of "Good to Great" I found posted in a larger review of the book at businesspundit.com:
Collins asks an interesting question. Unhappily, the methodology he used to formulate an answer is questionable and the answer is almost disappointing in its simplicity: Great companies become great by staying focused: focused on their products, their customers and their businesses. They aspire to higher levels of excellence, are never content to become complacent and are passionate about their products. They have leadership that is not ego-driven, and have organizational cultures that embrace constant change. That's the book.
It's actually a very nice summary of the book. And to Collins' credit, his book motivated me to rethink basic ideas about motivating employees, what defines the "right" people for my outfit, and the executive decision-making processes of our company.
While searching for this information, I also found some credulous converts like myself who never read business books, had "Good to Great" recommended to them so many times that they read it, and then couldn't stop thinking about the ideas. Collins and his team stated some compelling ideas and constructed their research carefully.
But here I am, reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "The Black Swan." Taleb is an uberskeptic and makes even more compelling arguments about the nature of unpredictable events and their impact on the world as we know it. And I got to thinking about how and why businesses succeed. It may be that Collins' ideas have some traction, and if they inspire you to work harder and make better decisions, more power to you.
There is a compelling phrase (and variants of it) that Taleb deploys in "Black Swan" - bottom-up tinkering and undirected trial and error. That's a broad concept - harder to grasp, and demanding of courage and flexibility - including the willingness to fail utterly that most of us are unwilling to accept, let alone embrace as a working paradigm.
I've often said of the theatres where I've worked - we're either going to make the right decisions at the right time and flourish, or we're going to do our best and fail. If the concept of theatre is in demand where we fail, someone else will pick it up and try again, and we'll all go look for a new job.
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