繁體中文版書名：《從A到A+的社會》

Too bad it's such a tiny book - the integration of all our social systems - when they are in fact designed to support all - is essential. Mr. Collins begins that work here. Personally, I am not sure I agree with the subtitle "Why Business Thinking Is Not The Answer" - I would have to say that current business thinking - a dominate/subjugate/dog eat dog ... - is definitely not the answer - but what if all life is like business, and a balanced, kinder model might help us lead our most vulnerable members of society - children and their young parents - to participate and prosper more fully in the "business of life"

A companion monograph for how the business centered concepts connect with social organizations. This may be a great introductory piece to ‘Good to Great’ for those who do not want/have the time to read the book as it covers all of the five concepts briefly.

An incredible sequel to Jim Collins' "Good to Great." Although many in the social sector may seek to mimic private sector thinking, this brief companion-piece highlights the unique transformations that thinking must undergo to truly be an asset.

I've read Good to Great and appreciated that there was a different monograph for the social sector. Certainly some useful insights here - nothing mind blowing.

“We must reject the idea—well-intentioned, but dead wrong—that the primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become “more like a business.”

Excellent read for anyone leading a non-profit, serving on its board, volunteering or donating to its cause.

Appreciate the author taking an extra dive into how the business principles would apply to government and nonprofits, and wish more business authors did the same.

Dense. Interesting. Took me a while to process despite just being 34 pages. I really like how research based the original ideas were. I think I’ll likely read “Good to Great”; It might fill in a few gaps, although with how much this covered in 34 pages, I’m hopeful there is not too much repetition in a longer book.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins lays out the principles and practices that make distinguish the merely good companies from the great ones. In this monograph, he applies the logic and principles in Good to Great to the social sector. Collins debunks that notion that the primary path to greatness in the social sectors it to become more like a business, by having greater discipline in planning, in governance, in allocation of resources. Collins argues that these are not concepts unique to businesses, that just like businesses, social sector agencies also need Level 5 leadership, need to pay attention to getting the right people on the bus, need to define what "great" looks like for themselves, to embrace the Hedgehog Concept and know that "one big thing" and stick to it, and turn the flywheel, slowly but surely taking steps in the right direction to gradually build momentum.

There are major differences between the business and social sectors obviously and Collins contextualises the ideas in Good to Great for the social sector in this monograph. Unlike the business sector, for a social sector organisation, "performance must be assessed relative to mission, not financial returns…the critical question is not 'How much money do we make per dollar of invested capital?' but "How effectively do we deliver on our mission and make a distinctive impact, relative to our resources?" Even if one's outputs are inherently not measurable, Collins argues that social sector organisations must separate inputs from outputs and "hold [themselves] accountable for progress in outputs, even if those outputs defy measurement…what matters is that [organisations] rigorously assemble evidence - quantitative or qualitative - to track…progress. If the evidence is primarily qualitative, think like a trial lawyer assembling the combined body of evidence. If the evidence is primarily quantitative, then think of yourself as a laboratory scientist assembling and assessing the data." To Collins, for social sector organisations to say that they cannot measure performance the same way businesses can is simply laziness and lack of discipline. "Test scores are flawed, mammograms are flawed, crime data are flawed…patient outcome data are flawed. What matters is not finding the perfect indicator, but settling upon a consistent and intelligent method of assessing your output results, and then tracking your trajectory with rigor. What do you mean by great performance? Have you established a baseline? Are you improving? If not, why not?"

On Level 5 leadership in the social sector, Collins observes that the social sector has more complex governance and diffuse power structures compared to businesses. This means that executive style leadership - while effective in the corporate world - often fails in the social sector. Social sector leaders instead need to exercise legislative leadership, where "no individual leader - not even the nominal chief executive - has enough structural power to make the most important decisions by himself or herself. Legislative leadership relies more upon persuasion, political currency, and shared interests to create the conditions for the right decisions to happen." Collins points out that it's not and either/or question but more like a spectrum where leaders have to learn to slide up and down the executive-legislative leadership scale, depending on what the situation calls for.

On getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off it), Collins acknowledged that getting the wrong people off the bus in the social sector can be more difficult than in a business. This is why early assessment mechanisms turn out to be more important than hiring mechanisms. While much is made about the inability of the social sector to pay for talent, Collins argues that lack of resources is no excuse for lack of rigor in selection; indeed, "it makes selectivity all the more vital".

On the hedgehog concept, while Good to Great spoke about the three intersecting circles of (a) what you are deeply passionate about; (b) what you can be the best in the world at; and (c) what best drives your economic engine, in the social sector, we can substitute the economic engine under (c) to a "resource engine". So how might we get resources of all types - not just money to pay the bills, but also time, emotional commitment, hands, hearts and minds - to deliver superior performance relative to our mission.

On turning the flywheel, Collins observes that this concept works very well in the business sector. As business start to deliver superior financial results, investors will start to flock to the business. However, there is no guaranteed relationship between exceptional results and sustained access to resources in the social sector, as non profit funding tends to favour programmatic funding, rather than building great organisations. He suggests that for the social sector, a key issue is brand reputation - built on tangible results and emotional share of heart - so that potential supporters believe not only in organisations' missions but also their capacity to deliver on that mission.

At the end of the monograph, Collins summarises the 4 basic stages of building a great organisation:
#1: Disciplined people - Level 5 Leadership and getting the right people on the bus and getting the wrong people of it (and the right people in the key seats)
#2: Disciplined thought - confronting the brutal facts and the hedgehog concept
#3: Disciplined action - having a culture of discipline and the flywheel
#4: Building greatness to last - clock building, not time telling, and preserving the core and stimulating progress.

This monograph comes in at just 35 pages but packs in a plenty of thought provoking material for those who work in the social sector.

Wonderful, insightful quick read.

MR recommedation

I a big fan of Collin's work. He is logical, clear, and creates memorable principles that can easy be incorporated into nearly every work situation. I think he was a bit overly optimistic about getting the right people on the bus, but overall this was a worthwhile read.

The book is more about the difference between a great for-profit business and a great non-profit business, than between good and great non-profits, even though the author states that the latter difference is much greater. I read this short monograph before I read Good to Great, and I think it would have been better to read it the other way around, because a lot of the concepts are not explained in as much detail. The information provided wasn’t particularly profound or ground-breaking to me, but it did make me think about a few characteristics of non-profits that haven’t thought about before. Nonetheless, the book was convincing and well presented, and I think many of the concepts, albeit a little abstract, are worth revisiting and applying in many business and social sector contexts.