From Good to Great: what healthcare leaders can take from a business book.

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2 Apr

A book that has been on my reading list for some time - Good to Great by Jim Collins. I see it recommended on many of the 'must read' book lists for businesses and leaders. Such as here and here (worth checking the lists out for other recommendations). It was first brought to my attention several years ago when I listened to a healthcare CEO who compared reading about leadership as essential for leaders to reading anatomy books for surgeons. This comment made my reading different, and I haven't looked back. Good to Great is still on his recommended reading list.

Good to Great results from 5 years of research looking at why and how some companies leapt from good to great. Taking into account circumstances and comparing with similar industries it points to the conclusion that great companies become great through discipline and choice.

I will admit I put off starting this book for far too long. Flipping through the pages I saw charts and comments on stock prices and lots of numbers. I thought it was going to be all facts and figures and charts that I wouldn't understand. Oh how wrong I was.

Maybe because I started with this assumption and maybe just because it is - but once I started I was blown away by how readable and interesting this book was. I could instantly see correlations as to how the concepts discussed relate not only to healthcare delivery but to me as an individual.

The book covers 7 concepts that flow from 3 broad stages:

Disciplined People - Disciplined Thought - Disciplined Action

Level 5 Leadership
First Who... Then What
Confront the Brutal Facts
The Hedgehog concept
A Culture of Discipline
Technology Accelerators
The Flywheel and the Doom Loop

Each chapter covers a concept and from the research base offers a clear explanation of the concept and the rationale as to why it is a factor for moving from good to great.

To get an overview of these concepts the best place I can point you (other than reading the book itself) is to Jim Collin's website. It is a gold mine of resources, articles, videos and extracts that cover not only this book but his other books as well. A quick link here will take you to all the concepts that he discusses.

'Those who build great organizations make sure they have the right people on the bus and the right people in the key seats before they figure out where to drive the bus'

I'm not sure if you have come across the phrase 'on the bus' or reference to bus journeys when talking about leadership, business and change management. I first came across this phrase shortly after I started as a charge nurse. When talking to some of my senior staff I wanted to know if they were on the bus with me - in that were they with me and the idea that we were now travelling in a different direction previously. I received a fabulous reply that sticks with me every day - yes they say, we are on the bus but the bus is moving just a bit too fast.

When exploring the concept - First Who…Then What - the talk of the bus is making sure the right people are on the bus first, and the wrong people are off the bus - before you make the direction of travel clear. The idea is that with the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off it) they will be able to adapt to whatever direction the bus needs to go in.

When reading this chapter I thought of the great opportunities you have when recruiting new staff, this concept can bring a new perspective for you when you are looking for your next team member and during the recruitment process.

Getting the wrong people off the bus is not as severe as it sounds but does require prompt action. A great lesson for me was to consider whether this is the right job for the person before getting them out of (or worse watching them leave) the organisation totally.

What I like about the chapters and the layout of the book are the practical steps that help define each concept.

For example - First Who...Then What - the practical disciplines are: