Tag: Jim Collins

The Flywheel Effect

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The Flywheel Effect is a concept developed in Jim Collin’s book Good to Great. He argues that a good-to-great transformation never happen in one fell swoop. In building a great company, or social sector enterprise, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.

Rick Kettner provides a great summary of the concept here or you can watch his YouTube video below.

Please note: Rick Kettner references both Amazon and the Joe Rogan Experience when explaining the Flywheeel Effect. I am personally opposed to both companies, but I have included Kettner’s video, as I think he does an excellent job in summarizing Jim Collins’ overall concept; and it is of equal value to small businesses, artists, and not-for-profits.

Listen List: Podcast Love

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Here are a few podcast episodes that I really enjoyed. Let me know if you check them out!

Richard Schwartz began his career as a systemic family therapist and an academic. Grounded in systems thinking, Dr. Schwartz developed Internal Family Systems (IFS) in response to clients’ descriptions of various parts within themselves. He focused on the relationships among these parts and noticed that there were systemic patterns to the way they were organized across clients.

He also found that when the clients’ parts felt safe and were allowed to relax, the clients would experience spontaneously the qualities of confidence, openness, and compassion that Dr. Schwartz came to call the Self. He found that when in that state of Self, clients would know how to heal their parts. A featured speaker for national professional organizations, Dr. Schwartz has published many books and over fifty articles about IFS.

Jim Collins has introduced a range of new concepts and terms to the leadership lexicon. These include “level 5 leadership”, where leaders put the cause of their organization first, and inspired standards – rather than inspiring personality – become the motivation. He also created the “flywheel” principle of sustained momentum, demonstrating that the building of any human enterprise is not about one single defining action, or one killer innovation; instead, it is a process that resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, gradually building momentum.