Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

by Jim Collins

So, then, how might you go about capturing your own flywheel? At our management lab, we’ve developed a basic process, refined during Socratic-dialogue sessions with a wide range of organizations. Here are the essential steps: Create a list of significant replicable successes your enterprise has achieved. This should include new initiatives and offerings that have far exceeded expectations. Compile a list of failures and disappointments. This should include new initiatives and offerings by your enterprise that have failed outright or fell far below expectations. Compare the successes to the disappointments and ask, “What do these successes and disappointments tell us about the possible components of our flywheel?” Using the components you’ve identified (keeping it to four to six), sketch the flywheel. Where does the flywheel start—what’s the top of the loop? What follows next? And next after that? You should be able to explain why each component follows from the prior component. Outline the path back to the top of the loop. You should be able to explain how this loop cycles back upon itself to accelerate momentum. If you have more than six components, you’re making it too complicated; consolidate and simplify to capture the essence of the flywheel. Test the flywheel against your list of successes and disappointments. Does your empirical experience validate it? Tweak the diagram until you can explain your biggest replicable successes as outcomes arising directly from the fly...