Running Head: GREAT BY CHOICE

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Book Digest: Great by Choice

Collins, J. & Hansen, M. T. (2011). Great by choice: Uncertainty, chaos, and luck Why some thrive despite them all. New York, NY: HarperCollins. Annotation: Building off of Collins previous works, Collins and Hansen set out to answer the question: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? (p. 1 - 2). Using historical data from companies Collins and Hansen later identified as 10X, the authors made several surprising discoveries about how these uniquely high performing companies and their leaders maintained such strong business models in the face of adversity in comparison to less successful, peer companies. Collins and Hansen found that leaders of 10X companies are not more creative, visionary, charismatic, ambitious, blessed by luck, risk seeking, heroic, or prone to making big, bold moves (p. 18). Leaders of 10X companies do, however, possess the characteristics of 10X leadership, which is a combination of fanatic discipline, productive paranoia, empirical creativity, and Level 5 ambition (see Appendix A). Introducing the concepts of the 20 Mile March; Fire Bullets, then Cannonballs; Leading Above the Death Line; Zoom Out, Then Zoom In; and SMaC Recipes, the authors made their case for 10X leadership using stories of the successes and failures of the 10X companies as well as their less successful counterparts. In sum, Collins and Hansen illustrated that greatness happens by choice, not by chance (p. 181). Author Biography: Jim Collins is an international best-selling author, or co-author, of six books which focus on the successes and challenges of great companies and great leaders. A graduate of Stanford University for both his bachelors degree and MBA, Collins has worked as a professor and researcher of business for over 25 years. Collins currently runs a leadership laboratory in Colorado, working with aspiring 10X leaders and companies as well as researching for future publications. In 1991, Collins and his co-author, Morten Hansen, met at Stanford, where Collins was serving on the faculty. Equally distinguished, Hansen has been a professor at the Harvard Business School and is now a professor of management at the University of California, Berkeleys School of Information. Having considered co-authoring a book about thriving in chaos for several years, Collins and Hansen were compelled to complete this project in light of the constant change and uncertainty that became the reality of a post-9/11 world. Key Leadership Lessons from Great by Choice Practice Fanatic Discipline and Lead a 20 Mile March The ideas of fanatic discipline and the 20 Mile March, when boiled down to their simplest meanings, can be translated to the age-old adage of slow and steady wins the race. Or, in the words of Collins and Hansen, hitting specified performance markers with great consistency over a long period of time, and never overextending in robust times (p. 65). This lesson can be applied to higher education in several different contexts, including raising admissions standards, increasing class size, and increasing graduation rates. All too often it seems that somewhat unrealistic goals are set for functional areas by the upper administration or governing bodies. Although these goals may be achievable in the short term, what happens in the future when these goal cannot be achieved or maintained because improvement in these areas has already been tapped out? As Collins and Hansen explained, theres an inverse correlation between pursuit of maximum growth and 10X success 10X winners left growth on the table, always assuming that something bad lurked just around the corner (productive paranoia), thereby ensuring they wouldnt be caught overextended(p. 66- 67). Therefore, it is important that goals set within higher education are appropriately scaled and are not gone after all at once; instead, slow, steady, and consistent improvements should be made and maintained over a period of time to insure stability and longevity.

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Collins and Hansen called this ability to not over extend in the good times, or to not march further than 20 miles although the sun is shining, fanatic discipline, defining discipline as the consistency of action consistency with values, consistency with long-term goals, consistency with performance standards, consistency of method, consistency over time (p. 21). In other words, sometimes being dull, boring, traditional, and conservative is exactly what is needed to eventually achieve and maintain Big Hairy Audacious Goals (p. 52). Therefore, practicing fanatic discipline and committing to a 20 mile march helps organizations and individuals build confidence in their ability to perform well in chaotic times, while helping maintain stability and control. Furthermore, confidence in an individuals or teams ability can serve as a way to build morale and motivation, which in turn can boast productivity (Lussier & Hendon, 2013; e.g., we have done it before and can do it again!). Be Empirically Creative: Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs Although being fanatically disciplined is an important part of 10X leadership, leaders must balance this discipline with creativity, understanding that they are not contradicting forces and instead can amplify each other. Collins and Hansen expounded upon this using the idea of first firing test bullets to perfect your aim before wasting too much gun powder on a cannonball. The authors explained that shooting several bullets helps leaders figure out what works and thus, calibrate the cannonball. A bullet in this scenario is an empirical test [of a creative idea] aimed at learning what works and should meet three criteria: a) it should be low cost, b) it should be low risk, and c) it should not be a distraction (p. 81). These test bullets make sure that the cannonball, otherwise known as the big, creative, and potentially expensive innovation, is empirically tested and thus will be more than likely to hit the performance target. As leaders do not have the ability to predict the future, shooting bullets before cannonballs takes much of the risk or guessing out of different situations. Within higher education, this may look like implementing pilot programs of potentially bigger initiatives, e.g., first-year seminars, to make sure that they work and will be well received before investing large amounts of both time and money. Shooting bullets may also be using research studies in the field to inform our day to day practice or using assessment to tweak, fine tune, or end programs that are no longer proving effective. This idea serves to remind us that although it may be easy to get caught up in the next big thing, you should never go all in unless you have also hedged your bets with empirical validation. Create and Follow SMaC Recipes The abbreviation SMaC stands for specific, methodical, and consistent and should serve as the operating code for turning strategic concepts into reality (p. 128). A SMaC recipe is written much like a strategic plan, with its authors conducting an analysis of their successes and failures and identifying what practices have led to both, akin to a SWOT analysis (Bryson, 2011). Goals are then set and a SMaC recipe, which is a set of durable operating practices that create a replicable and consistent success formula, is written (p. 147). Although a SMaC recipe should be based on values, vision, culture, and mission as 10X leaders are values and mission driven, it is not a statement of these; instead it should be used to operationalize and clarify goals using a level of specificity that helps people keep their bearings and sustain high performance when in extreme conditions (p. 129; e.g., stay up-to-date on state policies and anticipate their local implications). SMaC recipes are especially useful as they help leaders implement structure and consistency in an otherwise out of control environment, allowing institutions and individuals to stay focused on their core goals and operate relatively independently from their external environment (Kezar, 2001).

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Although having a SMaC recipe is a good start, it is not enough; in order to be successful, a SMaC recipe must be followed with fanatic discipline and rarely be changed, as changes to a SMaC recipe are typically 2nd order, transformational changes that have huge impacts (Kezar, 2001). Dangerous administrators, who are eager to challenge the status quo thus potentially eager for change, must temper themselves from simply creating change for changes sake (Kezar, 2001). Furthermore, Collins and Hansen found that the signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change; the signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency (p. 138). When changes are necessary, they should be undertaken just with as much seriousness and consideration as changes to the US Constitution. This is because what is far more difficult than implementing change is figuring out what works, understanding why it works, grasping when to change, and knowing when not to (p. 135). Consistency is not only important when it comes to procedure, but also is important when it comes to management and supervision (Sias, 2009). Prepare for All Types of Luck Collins and Hansen were surprised to find that 10X leaders were not luckier than their less successful counterparts. What distinguished the two sets of companies, however, was what they did with the luck they got; the authors referred to this as return on luck (p. 160). While it is possible to have good outcomes from bad luck, it is all possible to have bad outcomes from good luck (see Appendix B). Although all of the characteristics of a 10X leader contribute to gaining greater returns on luck, it is productive paranoia and Luck of the Who that are of paramount importance. Productive paranoia means that a leader and his/her company are prepared for all of the what ifs and are ready to make the best of all types of luck. In the words of Collins and Hansen, it is what you do before the storm hits the decisions and disciplines and buffers and shock absorbers already in place that matter most in determining whether you maximize your good or bad luck or squander the opportunity. Collins and Hansen noted that although companies tend to focus on good luck, people luck the luck of finding the right mentor, partner, teammate, leader, friend is really the most important type of luck out there; this is because it is people who do the work that make institutions great (K. Borland, personal communication, October 31, 2013). People luck can be influenced by hiring, firing, and rearranging as necessary to get the right people on the bus and in the right seats as well as through networking. In the words of Collins and Hansen, the best way to find a strong current of good [Who] luck is to swim with great people, and to build deep enduring relationships with people for whom youd risk your life and whod risk their lives for you (p. 179). But in the end, resilience, not luck, is the signature of greatness (p. 169) and it is far better to be great than lucky (p. 176).

Great by Choice and Higher Education

Although Great by Choice focuses on the business sector, many of the lessons are applicable to higher education. With the recent advent of MOOCs and wide-reaching state funding cuts to higher education, the external environment in which institutions operate is bound to only become more uncertain, with the affordability, accessibility, and practicality of higher education only being questioned more frequently. The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) went as far as to call this a pivotal and precarious moment in which short-sighted educational choices may prove to be permanently limiting to Americans prospects (AAC&U, 2007, p. 7). It is exactly because of the chaotic and precarious nature of our times that aspiring higher education administrators should read Great by Choice; so that they can understand how to lead institutions that will not only survive but also thrive in chaos.

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References American Association of Colleges & Universities. (2007). College learning for the new global century. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.aacu.org/advocacy/leap/documents/GlobalCentury_final.pdf Bryson, J. M. (2011). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement (4 ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Kezar, A. J. (2001). Understanding and facilitating organizational change in the 21st century: Recent research and conceptualizations. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, (28)4. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Lussier, R. N. & Hendon, J. R. (2013). Human resource management: Functions, applications, skill development. Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Sias, P. M. (2009). Organizing relationships: Traditional and emerging perspectives on workplace relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Appendices Appendix A. Components of 10X Leadership

Appendix B. Return on Luck

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Appendix C. Speed and Outcomes

10X

Comparison Cases