Good to Great Facilitation Case Study:
Corporations and Associations

“Good to Great”, the widely-acclaimed book by Jim Collins, explores common ground shared by eleven Fortune 500 companies which successfully grew from being  “good” to being “great”.  This growth is defined as a company’s having had ten years of average to below average stock market returns followed by fifteen years of stock market returns equal to or greater than the overall market return.  To further validate their research and findings, each of these eleven companies were paired with one carefully selected comparison company. The comparison companies were in the same industry, about the same age, of similar size, and had similar or better financial results in the initial timeframe without improving results in the successive timeframe.  The bottom line:  Going from “Good to Great” also meant out-performing all of your similarly-sized and similarly-challenged competitors.   

The Findings

The research findings fly in the face of many currently accepted theories. The successful companies:

• Did not use major change programs with catchy names
• Did not need a burning platform to motivate change
• Did not get superior results through executive compensation and stock options
• Did not have a “celebrity” CEO 
• Did not use technology to surpass the competition
• Did not use layoffs and re-organizations anywhere near as often as the comparison companies did

What the research showed was that these companies:

• Had "Level 5" leaders (These are those executives who, in addition to being highly capable, a contributing team member, competent manager and effective leader, build enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will)
• Got the right people "on the bus" (participating and contributing) and the wrong people “off the bus”
• Confronted the “brutal facts” (telling the truth, what do we need to stop doing and start doing), without losing faith that we would succeed
• Were focused on a “hedgehog concept and ” strategy, which combines answers to these questions:
  • At what can we be the best in the world?
  • About what are we truly passionate?
  • What drives our economic engine?
• Fostered a “culture of discipline”, which involves and integrates disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action
• Used technology as an accelerator
• Kept building momentum (repeating and increasing the frequency of ‘what we do well’) while diminishing failure (ceasing what we do poorly)   

Facilitating Good to Great Strategy: A Corporate Success, Followed By An Association Success

Situation

We were contacted one day by a corporate executive who wanted us to facilitate “Good to Great” in his organization, with two implicit challenges:

• The CEO was not convinced yet that “Good to Great” would work
• The CEO was expecting to retire within the next 18 months; we were concerned that our efforts might die with the next CEO

To address these challenges, we met with the CEO, gave him a chance to express his concerns, answer his questions and get his input to addressing our second concern: He agreed to making continuing “Good to Great” a written condition of his successor’s being hired.  We not only liked his suggestion; we had gained his input into the process, and therefore his “buy-in” to trying to make “Good to Great” work at their company.

Objectives

In virtually every “Good to Great” situation, the objectives include, as in this case:

• Clarify and confirm the shared understanding of “what we need to do” in order to go from Good to Great
• Follow the 8 steps of the “Good to Great” process, which include:
  • Getting the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus
  • Gaining buy-in to supporting Level 5 Leadership throughout the organization
  • Confronting the brutal facts
  • Developing a plan to address and overcome the brutal facts – What do we need to stop doing, start doing and keep doing?
  • Determining a “hedgehog concept” for our organization, combining:
    • At what can we be the best in the world?
    • About what are we truly passionate?
    • What drives our economic engine?
  • Fostering a culture of discipline
  • Utilizing technology accelerators
  • Building momentum and ceasing failure

Facilitation Techniques

As in most corporate settings, we used a seven-step process:

• Interview senior executives – Understand perspectives and strategy suggestions
• Relating – Attending to each other, to ideas and to senses
• Strategizing / Brainstorming – Identify all possible strategies
• Narrowing – Everyone reduces the “brainstorm” list to the highest-potential strategies
• Selecting – Which solution strategy did we choose?
• Action Planning – Participants take responsibility for implementing strategy; before adjourning, milestone identification, reporting and accountability procedures determined
• Implementation (with follow-up support) – Scheduled procedures and steps followed; as their consultants, we provide e-mail and phone reminders, as well as facilitate 6-month and 12-month Progress Report Meetings

Results

Results were as follows:

• They successfully implemented “Good to Great” against Plan, as measured in 6-month, 12-month and 24-month reviews
• The successor CEO was chosen internally, after trying to hire someone from outside who would not agree to continue “Good to Great”; the internally-chosen CEO continued implementing “Good to Great” for the foreseeable future.  Lesson re-learned: When you involve someone in helping to understand and analyze the problem, they are highly likely to remain with you and participate in the solution.
• Three of the participating executives were so pleased with our success that they had us facilitate “Good to Great” in their professional and trade associations.

For More Information

If you are looking for a “Good to Great” facilitator,  please contact us at (617) 308-8070 or by e-mail at goodtogreat@ppiw.com.
Click here for more information on Jim Collins and his writings.