Good to Great in 2009

Good to Great
Making the Leap of Your Life

In 1994, Jim Collins and Jerry Pourous published Built to Last, which remained a national best-seller for 5 years, with more than 1 million copies in print in 13 languages. That book studied and explained how great companies like General Electric are designed from the start for long-term high performance. What the book did not explain was how mediocre firms that were not “build to last” could attain the same level of greatness. Now, after five years of intensive research, Collins has identified and studied 11 companies that have made the leap from being “just good” to being truly “great.”

In Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don’t, Collins explains the common themes found in the companies that achieved great results and sustained those results for at least 15 years. The “good to great” companies in his studies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average 700 percent over a period of at least 15 years. How to transform any business into a high-performance company . . .

“Unexpected Findings” like . . .
• Having “celebrity” leaders who ride in from the outside are negatively correlated with going from good to great. Ten of 11 “good to great” CEOs came from inside the company.
• Executive compensation had little to do with the shift from good to great.
• Charisma can be as much a liability as an asset, since the strength of your leadership personality can deter people from bringing you the brutal facts.
• You do not need to be in a great industry to produce sustained great results.
• Technology itself is never a primary root cause of either greatness or decline.
• Those inside the good-to-great companies were often unaware of the magnitude of their transformation at the time; only later, in retrospect, did it become clear.

This is a great business book, and is often recommended. But I’ve chosen this title, “Good to Great” because there seem to be so many parallels between what Collins is talking about with organizations, and what Christians, and yes, churches also experience. Listen to what Collins says in the first 63 words of his book:

“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.” (first 63 words) – Jim Collins, Good to Great, p. 1

It seems that most Christians settle for a good life, when God has given us a great purpose in a Great Commission.


To make the leap of my life from Good to G-R-E-A-T
I need to . . .

Go to GOD for my definition of greatness.

In a George Barna survey in November 2002, Americans were asked what they believe is necessary to have a successful life.
•33% said the health or wellbeing of their family, or how they raised their children, would determine their success.
•25% defined personal success in terms of tangible outcomes or accomplishments.
•25% said they had no idea what would signify they had lived a successful life.
•Only 7% said anything related to spirituality or faith would result in “success”

“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9, NIV).

God’s first criterion for greatness: OBEDIENCE

“Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19, NIV).

God’s second criterion for greatness: SERVICE

“So Jesus called them all together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, he must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be first, he must be your slave—like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people’” (Matt. 20:25-28, GNB).

So the journey in 2009 begins! It is going to be a great year because # 1 God is great!