On my trip to Florida this week, I had the chance to read the newest book from Jim Collins. How the Mighty Fall is a quick read with some pretty insightful thoughts that have application not only for business leaders, but also for leaders in the church. Here are some of the key thoughts that grabbed my attention:
- “When you are at the top of the world,…the best player in your game, your very power and success might cover up the fact that you’re already on the path to decline.”
- “When an organization grows beyond its ability to fill its key seats with the right people, it has set itself up for a fall.”
- “Organizational decline is largely self-inflicted.”
- “A core business that meets a fundamental human need – and one at which you’ve become the best in the world – rarely becomes obsolete.”
- “When institutions fail to distinguish between current practices and the enduring principles of their success, and mistakenly fossilize around their practices, they’ve set themselves up for decline.”
- “Innovation can fuel growth, but frenetic innovation – growth that erodes consistent tactical excellence – can just as easily send a company cascading through the stages of decline.”
- “If a great company consistently grows revenues faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth, it will not simply stagnate; it will fall.”
- “When bureaucratic rules erode an ethic of freedom and responsibility within a framework of core values and demanding standards, you’ve become infected with the disease of mediocrity.”
- “Every person in a key seat should be able to respond to the question “What do you do?” not with a job title, but with a statement of personal responsibility.
- “The best leaders we’ve studied had a peculiar genius for seeing themselves as not all that important, recognizing the need to build an executive team and to craft a culture based on core values that do not depend upon a single heroic leader.”
- “Those in power blame other people or external factors – or otherwise explain away the data – rather than confront the frightening reality that the enterprise may be in serious trouble.”
- “Whenever people begin to confuse the nobility of their cause with the goodness and wisdom of their actions, …they can perhaps more easily lead themselves astray. Bad decisions made with good intentions are still bad decisions.”
Is it just me, or is it pretty easy to see a correlation between these thoughts from Jim Collins and the decline of once-great churches and denominations? Without mentioning names, have you seen “the mighty fall” in your experiences? Were some of these factors part of the decline?
If you’re interested in reading more, you can pick up How the Mighty Fall using my Amazon link.
Wow, I am witnessing it currently. Some leaders exist in an alternate reality. And, I’ve witnessed the attitude against certain facts & figures / research data. Even though problems have been seen by internal staff & church members and external consultants, some leaders choose to ignore the facts. But, as we all know, facts are stubborn my friend…
Great post…great book. Major correlation to churches. In the last 10 yrs I’ve worked in 2 of those once-great churches and reading this book was like having multiple flashbacks to staff meetings / retreats where we debated the direction of that specific church…hits home. Many have chosen a path and are now in stage 5.
Tony, I think we’ve seen these principles in play with most mainline Protestant denominations, especially the failure to distinguish between current practices and enduring principles and the “bureaucratic rules” vs. “framework of core values” bullet point (above).
A church that I looked to for many years for leadership coaching and encouragement has deeply damaged itself by believing the “heroic leader” myth. This challenge is a key growing edge for our church, too. As a successor to a perceived “heroic leader,” I’ve seen this issue at play in my own world in vivid technicolor.
I’m personally convicted by the warning not to explain away data or invoke external factors when facing tough news. It’s a guarantee that I’ll be working on that one.
““When bureaucratic rules erode an ethic of freedom and responsibility within a framework of core values and demanding standards, you’ve become infected with the disease of mediocrity.”
Perhaps you might add governmental leaders to the list of those who would benefit from the book.
[...] How The Mighty Fall [...]
Thanks for sharing these excerpts from the Book Tony, I look forward to picking it up. The last line is gold “…Bad decisions with good intentions are still bad decisions” WOW.
my high school football coach used to say that you have to work harder when you are on the top, ’cause everyone wants a piece of you.
when i worked for enterprise rent a car in their heyday, we had to know our competitors as well as ourselves
“Those in power blame other people or external factors – or otherwise explain away the data – rather than confront the frightening reality that the enterprise may be in serious trouble.”
That has to be the quote that gripped me the most. When you taste success it’s got to be very easy to explain things away. When I was 20 and new in ministry I thought I knew everything and that was my major flaw back then (among other things). But sometimes I catch myself acting 20 all over again when I think I know all of the answers.
Can’t wait to read this book!
I have seen this first hand and it is sad to watch but when you are a part of the organization you do not see it but when you step away you see it clearly.
Thanks for sharing it!
Great post Tony. Here’s a link to a thumbnail sketch I did of the echoes you mention between Collins’ businesses and churches.
http://wvanderbloemen.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/how-the-mighty-fall-and-how-to-avoid-it/