Good To Great

Let’s review a great research report: Good to Great by Jim Collins**

Short summary of the research: Jim and his research team conducted their search for Good to Great companies for 5 years. The quest was to find common success factors that made the Good to Great companies great. It gave many insights. Some of them were surprising and contradicted conventional wisdom.

They found a framework that would significantly improve their position and results for almost any company and perhaps to become a Good to Great company.

This chart summarizes the framework, called the flywheel:

The other thing they discovered is the Doom Loop. This is relevant to our discussion on the key to performance and more importantly what prevents great performance.

Okey, the Flywheel takes time to build and to gain momentum. The Flywheels of Google ads and Amazon and the effects are well known by know.

The Doom Loop is a bit like the opposite.

Direct your attention to the left side of the loop: ”Reaction, without understanding”.

This is where ”The First Law of Performance*” would explain ”without understanding”. If the people involved ”Don’t know that they don’t know” it’s reasonable to believe that they would initiate new directions and programs etc, but without the understanding of the mechanics of the Flywheel.

There will be no build up and no accumulation of momentum. Leading to disappointing results.

Let’s review what we got so far:

Let’s search were performance is lost (not in the light).
I say that the common denominator is actually human perception and actions.

To alter actions we need to shift the way situations occur.

That will alter performance.

What about applying some or all of this in the network?

Let’s confront the brutal facts. The trends actually indicate a shift i.e. not just a small change.

I say STOP.

What?

Traditional selling and marketing does not work anymore.

Stop selling. Immediately.

Okey.

What now?

The closest bet would be to start selling socially***.

The first step is to listen for the way the situation occurs to your clients, potential clients and anybody involved.

This is an essential part of networking.

Yes.

The key to performance article on LinkedIn

*) The Three Laws of Performance, Rewriting the future of your organization and your life. Steve Zaffron & Dave Logan

**) Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t, Book by Jim Collins (+research team of 15 people invest 15 000 hours)

***) Social selling (involved in supertrends #3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10). Selling socially is a practical approach how to leverage relationships and earn trust in network (without over -selling).