Reading: Chapter 5: Hedgehog Concept (the Three Circles)

Assignment - Deadline: Tuesday, September 2

A. Post two paragraphs inspired by one or more of the study guide questions/thoughts for the week.

B.  Post two separate comments to one or more of your colleagues reacting to their paragraphs.   

Questions – Hedgehog Concept (the Three Circles)

• How long, on average, did it take the good-to-great companies to clarify their hedgehog concepts? What implications does this have about finding your own hedgehog concept?
• Are you engaged in work that fits your own three circles: what you are passionate about, what you are genetically encoded for, what you can get paid for? Do you need to change? Which circle is hardest to get right? Why?
• Which is more important for an organization: the goal to be the best at something, or realistic understanding of what you can (and cannot) be the best at?
• Can each sub-unit and each person have a hedgehog concept?
• How is the hedgehog concept different for a nonprofit organization?

Source: “Jim Collins – Good to Great: Discussion Guide.” http://www.jimcollins.com/tools/discussion-guide.html

Reading: Chapter 4: Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith)

Assignment - Deadline: Monday, August 25

A. Post two paragraphs inspired by one or more of the study guide questions/thoughts for the week.

B.  Post two separate comments to one or more of your colleagues reacting to their paragraphs.   

Questions – Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith)

• Which side of the Stockdale Paradox is harder for you: unwavering faith or confront the brutal facts? Why?
• Think of two environments that you have been in. The first being an environment that did not confront the brutal facts and where people (and the truth) were not heard. The second being an environment that did confront the brutal facts and where people had a tremendous opportunity to be heard. What accounts for the difference between the two environments? What does the contrast teach about how to construct an environment where the truth is heard?
• Do you have any red-flag mechanisms in your life or organization? What ideas do you have for new ones?
• In leading a team, what is your questions to statements ratio?

Source: “Jim Collins – Good to Great: Discussion Guide.” http://www.jimcollins.com/tools/discussion-guide.html

Reading: Chapter 3: First Who . . . Then What

Assignment - Deadline: Monday, August 18

A. Post two paragraphs inspired by one or more of the study guide questions/thoughts for the week.

B.  Post two separate comments to one or more of your colleagues reacting to their paragraphs.   

Questions - First Who . . . Then What

• How might you tell if someone is the right person on the bus?
• How might you tell if someone is simply in the wrong seat as distinct from being the wrong person on the bus entirely?
• Think of a case where you had doubts, but your organization hired anyway. What was the outcome? Why did the organization hire anyway, and what do you learn from the situation?
• If compensation is not the primary driver for the right people on the bus, then what are the primary elements in getting and keeping the right people on the bus? What role does compensation play?

Source: “Jim Collins – Good to Great: Discussion Guide.” http://www.jimcollins.com/tools/discussion-guide.html

Reading: Chapter 2: Level 5 Leadership

Assignment - Deadline: Friday, June 20

A. Post two paragraphs inspired by one or more of the study guide questions/thoughts for the week.

B.  Post two separate comments to one or more of your colleagues reacting to their paragraphs.    

Questions - Level 5 Leadership:

• Which is harder to cultivate within yourself: humility or will?
• If Level 5 is about ambition first and foremost about the cause, the company, the work—not yourself—combined with the will to make good on that ambition, then how can each of us as individuals learn to take actions consistent with being Level 5?
• Think of a Level 5 you have known. How did he or she become Level 5? What can we learn from that person?
• Why do so few Level 5s get chosen for top spots in our organizations? What can be done to change this?

Source: “Jim Collins – Good to Great: Discussion Guide.” http://www.jimcollins.com/tools/discussion-guide.html

Reading: Chapter 1: Good is the Enemy of Great

Questions: 

What idea, concept or contention most impressed you in this chapter? How might it be applied to your current work or club/group/committee/organization position?

Assignment - Deadline: Friday, June 13

A. Post two paragraphs inspired by the study guide questions/thoughts for the week.

B.  Post two separate comments to one or more of your colleagues reacting to their paragraphs.