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.