Jim Collins has been a big influence on how I think about the non-profit I direct. Not going to defend or criticize the G2G, or G2G in the social sector, neither were earth shattering for me, but I will say that I found his interviews with Tim Ferris were very, very helpful.
I also had friends say they fell asleep listening to them. . .so you may not like them either.
My 2 biggest takeaways from the Collins interviews:
- Collins devotes an average of 4 hours a day to what he called creative time (studying, writing, producing). This idea has helped me to restructure how I approach my work to allocate more time to focus, and that doing things I love for extended periods of time are not an escape, but a form of work in and of themselves.
- Collins says average leadership tenure for a great company leader is 34 years, which means the leader must evolve and grow along with the company at its different stages. This is wildly different from the common idea that different people are suited for different company phases in the life-cycle. Takeaway, rather than spending my time stressing on how I can hand over my organization, I am better off focusing on how to grow it, and to grow myself through the next phases.
The flywheel monograph was also very helpful for how I think about my work, I return to it often.
