From Good to Great Session 2: First Who, Then What
Quick Re-Cap:
What is the book all about?
A five year study of 11 companies which demonstrated over 15 years a cumulative stock return at or
below the general stock market, then at a certain transition point they started achieving cumulative
returns of at least three times the market over the next 15 years.
The writers chose 11 direct comparison companies each from the same sector as the good to great
companies who, at the same time, failed to make the leap.
The Black Box
Good Results
What’s
inside the
black box?
Great Results
The book is all about 6 concepts which showed up as a change variable in 100% of the Good to Great
companies and in less than 30% of the comparison companies.
There are 3 broad stages:
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
Disciplined People
Disciplined Thought
Disciplined Action
Within each of these there are two key concepts. Within ‘Disciplined People’ and the 2 concepts are:


Level 5 Leadership
First Who, Then What
So Level 5 Leadership .... in a nutshell a Level 5 Executive: Builds enduring greatness through a
paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.



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Humility + Will = Level 5
Ambition for the company
Compelling modesty
Unwavering resolve... to do what must be done
We also looked at PHILIPPIANS 2 vv1-4: Therefore if you have any encouragement from being
united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any
tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same
love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather,
in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the
interests of the others.
So this week we are looking at the second half of the “Disciplined People” strand... First Who, then
What.
I think this principle, whilst it was written for business, if applied in a wider context can be seen as
being about prioritising and being intentional about WHO see are spending time with and investing
in.
So starting with the book, the author uses an analogy of driving a bus.
What the researchers found is that the executives who ignited transformations from good to great
did NOT first figure out WHERE to drive the bus, and then get the people to take it there. They said,
in essence, “Look I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get
the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus,
then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”
1. If you begin with “Who” rather than “What” you can more easily adapt to a changing world
2. If you have the right people on the bus the problem of how to motivate and manage people
largely goes away
3. If you have the wrong people, it doesn’t matter whether you discover the right direction;
you still won’t have a great company
So I just want to break away from the book for a minute to think about a wider application of this
concept.
Now this can be applied in life terms too.
Jesus calls the first disciples (read verse on sheet: MATTHEW 9 v9 As Jesus went on from there, he
saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and
Matthew got up and followed him.). And time and time again we see this in the early part of the
gospels. Haven’t you ever wondered why Jesus didn’t interview them, or why these new disciples
weren’t more rigorous in their assessment of their new career path?
Have you ever been in a relationship with someone – who, when you met, you never dreamed
where it would go, but you just thought... “hey I can get on with/ relate to/ learn from/ love and
respect this person? Actually, I doesn’t matter where this is going at the moment, but I know I want
to go somewhere with this person.”
BREAK UP INTO DISCUSSION GROUPS:
Rigorous not Ruthless
So How do we go about choosing the right people? What is it that we should be looking for and what
practical disciplines can we apply?
“Whether someone is the ‘right person’ has more to do with character traits and innate capabilities
than with specific knowledge, background or skills.”
Perhaps you know what I’m talking about here. It is more than a resume, or a good performance at
interview.
Now, not all of us can change our current working relationships and teams. We may not be in a high
enough position within the company or we may be constrained by HR law, but we do need to be
aware of this principle anyway.
Looking at the Practical Disciplines:
1. When in Doubt, don’t hire – keep looking
If we can’t recruit people to a job, then perhaps we can help identify where people may be better
positioned. One telling quote in the book is “The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving
is to not burden them with the people who are NOT achieving.”
2. When you know you need to make a people change, act
But we MUST find godly, honest ways to make this happen.
Being godly, does not mean not making cuts, or not firing someone, or even helping someone find a
different position in the organisation… it is just THE WAY we do it.
3. Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems
Read Story from book.
At this point I just want to suggest a book which has just been published by....
Ok. Lets just break up into groups again and just look at the next questions....
Finally.
Read sheet
Rigorous debate PLUS unity behind decisions
Isn’t it interesting how, when we have the right people around us, we can trust them to deliver. This
means that we CAN take annual leave/ move onto something new without the worry and stress of
always having to come back to them and check, and double check.
READ EXODUS 18:21 – Moses
SO how can this impact our church life...
US! God chooses us first. Then HE slowly works in us in the whole ‘what are we going to do’.
So I see two areas in our personal life where we need to consciously think about our relationships:
evangelism and discipleship.