So, how did that big, group-based, question filtering thing work out for Jim Collins and the audience at EduCause 2009?
The first question our group discussed was:
How do you know if you’ve fallen in love with your own idea?
We didn’t end up taking this question to the larger group, which is too bad, because I would have liked to have heard the answer.
It is a great good-to-great question, I think, because so much of Collins advice hinges on focus: focus on what you can do best; focus on your passions; start a stop-doing list; don’t over-reach; don’t grasp for salvation by launching a big new program; discipline, discipline, discipline! Did I say discipline!? Give me ten push-ups! (OK, I guess that last bit was more implied than said directly).
How do you keep this focus? How do you know when you’ve strayed? How do you distinguish a good idea that deserves to run, from one that you’re just a bit too much in love with?
Alas, the question never got asked. But I think the answer might have come from another part of the talk. At one of the many points that Collins discussed discipline, he discussed the careful balancing act of preserving core values and fostering change in an organization. “We preserve our values so we can change our practice.” Organizations that stay true to their core values, says Collins, will be the most effective change-makers.
Side note: Perhaps we have a chance to test Collins advice in the recent Google Moderator discussion about potential new instructional services for the UW-System. Which ideas are most in line with our core values? Which are most directly tied to improving teaching and learning? Which are most likely to help us foster the next generation of leaders and change-makers?
OK, now we switch to the questions that the break-out groups actually did ask Collins.
What keeps you motivated?
This was a question that Collins seemed to really enjoy answering. He told the story that begins the authors note for the Good to Great and the Social Sectors Monograph where an influential mentor told him “It occurs to me, Jim, that you invest too much time trying to be interesting. Why don’t you invest more time being interested.”
How does Collins act on this advice? Stay tuned for a future post on his 10 item to-do list for good-to-greaters at EduCause.
How do we deal with people decisions – it is harder in the social sector to get the right people on the bus. Sometimes it is impossible to get someone off the bus.
This was a challenging question, and it got a few chuckles from the audience. In his answer, Collins dished out a fairly quotable line: “We need to be rigorous, but not ruthless with people decisions.” Pausing only a moment to savor the alliteration, he went on to say that it is possible to get someone off the bus, when necessary, through frank, reasonable conversation.
It sounded pretty good, but I think I heard a few rumbles of doubt from those who’ve been around the block a few times with university committee work.
Shifting to the easier part of the answer – how do you get the right people on the bus in the first place, Collins advised: Look for people who, rather than saying, “I have a job” instead say that they have “sets of responsibilities.” Look for people who always do what they say they will do, people with a proven record of success.
What metrics can we use in higher ed. to measure success?
Ah yes! How do we know if we’re moving from good to great? How do we know if we’re at stage 4 of the 5 stage descent into irrelevance and woe! (Did I mention Collins’ 5 stage descent into irrelevance and woe? Not yet? OK, well there is a nice succinet summary of it at Autology that I highly recommend, both because it provides a superb list of Collins most quotable moments, and reveals the strange – but indubitable – connection between Jim Collins and Al Pacino.)
I know I was listening intently at this point – hoping, hoping, hoping for an answer. Metrics! Metrics for success in Higher Ed!
But, my notes fail me. Perhaps because this is a perennially difficult question to answer, even for Collins. There’s really nothing in my notes that’s tangible at all.
Sorry to let you down at such a crucial moment. My apologies. My only consolation is this little surprise: the last question, the one right down there on the last line, may have been the most interesting one.
How do you move from good to great in an organization more concerned with goodness than greatness?
Wow! Now that’s a good question.
Jim’s answer: Focus on building your own pockets of greatness. Strive to build a great department in a good organization.
Success comes with the decision: I’m going to build a pocket of greatness.
And, he added, as a little bonus at the end, that the greatest success stories happen when organizations hire from within their own small pockets of greatness those individuals who can make that change happen on a larger scale.
Sound advice? I think so. What do you think?
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