Jim Collins on Building a Great Church

Jim is the author of Good to Great and Built to Last, and spoke to the Catalyst crowd of 12,400 leaders on Thursday morning:

·         Not all time in life is equal.

·         Good is the enemy of great.

·         Greatness is not a function of your circumstances; or good luck; it is a function of a choice.

·         Within every organization or company that is great…you will find a culture of discipline.

·         Most overnight successes are really about twenty years in the making.

·         It took 7 years for Sam Walton to open his 2^nd store. It took Starbucks 13 years before they had 5 stores.

·         How do the great typically fall? It’s not through complacency. It is typically over-reaching that derails great organizations. Going too far, too fast.

·         A great organization is more likely to die of indigestion of too many opportunities rather than starvation of not enough opportunities.

·         #1 sign of over-reaching and the start of decline: When you grow beyond your ability to have the right people in the right seats on the bus.

·         It is the undisciplined pursuit of more that will kill an organization.

·         We need to spend more time on who and less on what. If you have the right who, they will figure out the right what.

·         The people who do well in difficult, unpredictable situations are never any better at predicting the future than anyone else.

·         We are in turbulent times. The years 1945-2000 were an anomaly. The convergence of stability and prosperity. It is unlikely we’ll see this again in our lifetimes.

·         The greatest CEO’s from the greatest companies in history had one distinctive characteristic that separate them from other leaders. The trait is humility.

·         If it is about you…you will not build something great. And only you know if you are all about you.

·         If you make your church dependent on your powerful personality…you are being irresponsible.

·         It may take 30 years to build a reputation. It only takes 30 seconds to destroy it.

·         Every generation needs to determine their own practices to passionately adhere to the values that cross through all generations.

·         Go to www.jimcollins.com and download (for free) the diagnostic tool to help your team figure out how you are doing with the good to great principles.

·         Plan “white space days” – plan them months in advance, schedule nothing, turn off all electronics. Just think.

·         The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve probably made a hiring mistake.

·         If there is anyone who you secretly would be happy if they resigned—you need to let them go.

·         Everyone on your team should be able to articulate their role and not have a title.