Good To Great

The Greatest Economic Denominator

the social impact of learning or being exposed to learning is the greatest economic denominator of this college

Jean Madill, President, CNA

 

Unit Test? Yes (also btw here’s a Diagnostic Tool that may help with moving from good to great)

Collins states going from good to great requires discipline (disciplined people, thought and action). Taking software quality from good to great likely requires some of the same (including relative to unit testing) while progressively building increased levels of fun. To some unit testing is common sense and their answer to “Is unit testing beneficial?” would likely be a form of yes, or that increasingly it should be (e.g., may help with ensuring value that is inherent, intrinsic and pervasive… for some projects or applications you may even say it would be critical and innately part of developing capability maturity and being socially responsible).

On a slightly different note here is a Diagnostic Tool that may help each of us along our respective journeys. Perhaps it can somehow be applied to help us along our collective one too as the IT profession moves from good to great and toward truly being built to last and increasingly more so for the benefit of all.

Perhaps we all may benefit by reading and internalizing what it means to be a level 5 leader

See this page; and on it be sure to read this excerpt from Good to Great. Borrowing on words within Good to Great that were apparently once expressed by a paper industry hall of fame inductee (Darwin Smith), perhaps it is good to never stop trying to be qualified (perhaps this is something we all can more so apply to increasingly make quality and value more inherent within ourselves and our interconnected universe).

From Good to Great to Built to Last

A major launch related to the emerging global IT profession will happen in the coming year. Looking ahead more than a decade, 2020 could be a transition point, true leap year and time of more perfect vision that helps beam more value intrinsically and pervasively towards upcoming centuries.

At some juncture a future civilization (e.g., one that is perhaps even further enlightened) may look upon what we call the Dark Ages and say that 2020 was the start of the world coming out of the Gray Ages. 

Twain once conveyed the idea that a reader would have to discover their own order to a book. Perhaps this idea applies not only to readers.

From Good to Great to Built to Last. In an ironic twist, I now see Good to Great not as a sequel to Built to Last, but as more of a prequel. This book is about how to turn a good organization into one that produces sustained great results. Built to Last is about how you take a company with great results and turn it into an enduring great company of iconic stature. To make that final shift requires core values and a purpose beyond just making money combined with the key dynamic of preserve the core / stimulate progress. — Jim Collins, Good To Great

To ensure IT, and even humanity, is progressively built to last, perhaps the purpose of each person and organization must be beyond making money and inherently interconnected to a mindset for goodness that preserves and enhances core principles while increasingly inspiring trust, empowerment, collaboration, alignment and progressive excellence.

A dynamic process, progressive excellence

It may be true that as each person increasingly practices respect and humility and brings positive energy and goodness to the paths of their journey, the world overall will increasingly achieve new dimensions of greatness, new dimensions of quality, value, excellence and simplicity. As suggested within a 35 page monograph (Good To Great and The Social Sectors by Jim Collins intended to accompany the book Good To Great by the same author), it may also be true that there is value inherent to adjusting one’s balance between trying to be interesting, and investing more so in being interested. This may be particularly true for those in leadership roles (e.g., perhaps including newly elected or appointed officials). As each becomes more and more open minded, practices continual learning and active listening, and collaborates with respect and humility, it may be the world will experience dynamic increases to interdependence and trust and to the speed they can increasingly help to enable; it may be positive results throughout the world will continually bring new dimensions of greatness, joy (quality) and peace (value). Whether an everyday member of the global community, or someone who is within or soon will be within a role of great power and responsibility, perhaps keep the words within this post in mind while you do your best to have a wonderful quality of life, and perhaps in the process to in someway inspire or help with global improvements to such so the world will increasingly be a better place for all in the present and future. While it will always be important to celebrate successes, it may be it is important more so not to linger in them or to consider yourself great. It may be it is more important with each success to continue to be humble, generous and grateful… and otherwise to continually build upon great principles and encourage that they be developed equally within all. While it may be worth pursuing such things as greatness it may be that it is more important to increasingly try our best to be good to one another and to show interest more so than to try to be interesting.

Greatness is an inherently dynamic process, not an end point. The moment you think of yourself as great, your slide toward mediocrity will have already begun — Jim Collins, Good To Great and The Social Sectors

What do you think is the most important inherent quality of all great leaders and organizations? Is it that they have a roadmap, or that they ensure the bus will have the right people, principles and attitudes on board for collaborative continual improvement? What do you think inherently are the right principles and attitudes for collaborative continual improvement? What do you think are the core values that all should increasingly try to walk and talk, or to elevate and exemplify within self, organization, software, technology, information and humanity? What do you inherently believe is at the core, the center, of continually inspiring and achieving greater and greater dimensions of global progressive excellence? What do you think is needed within your organization, and within society, to evolve quality and value to the next level? How important is presence management, and do any of the 5 scenarios within the noted event relate to your organization? What do you consider to be an innately important component of interactive intelligence? What do you find works best to develop a mindset for goodness, progressive excellence and continual innovation?