This book is the product of a lot of work in terms of time and debate about values.
Reassuringly it provides emphatic powerful evidence of the values of:
. honesty
. decent human behaviour
. recognition of strengths and weaknesses
. discipline through self to corporate
. despite the nature of the business

in developing great enterprises in a modern era.

The sequel of what happens to these iconic companies over the next 1/2 decade of recession will make compulsive reading

Peter Wallace

Educational Goodness to Greatness
by WTAX

Jim Collins has written a book that describes great leadership. Good to Great is a book with concepts that apply to businesses and educational institutions.

In his chapter entitled Good is the Enemy of Great, I strongly agree with Collins when he wrote, "we do not have great schools because we have settled for good schools." The goal of each school should be to produce sustained strategies for promoting high student achievement.

In Level 5 Leadership, Collins challenges that every good-to-great company began with a Level 5 leader. I agree with the idea that Level 5 leaders "set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation." Level 5 leaders do not hire leaders based on their looks. School districts should grow their own leaders and allow them to step into the positions of their predecessors.

The chapter, First Who...Then What, helped me realize that a principal can have the right people in his or her building but not in the right positions to help promote educational greatness within that building. Unlike businesses, educational systems should not resort to lay-offs. They must seek to find the appropriate opportunities for their current employees. The time, devoted to finding another placement will pay off in the long run. Finding another placement allows the principal to build on the time and training invested in that staff member.

Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Loss Faith) confirmed that great leaders maintain their vision, reality, and faith in the face of strong opposition. Therefore, the goal of principals should not be to motivate teachers. It should be to avoid de-motivating them. Teachers have passion for learning and teaching. Great principals know how to take that passion for learning and teaching to the next level to produce higher student learning and achievement.

After reading, The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles), I have decided that two of the three circles of the Hedgehog Concept can apply to education. The first is to determine "what you can be the best in the world at?" Second, you must identify what you are deeply passionate about?" These two questions will allow educators, at all levels, to use their strengths to educate others. The third circle "what drives your economic engine" is not readily discussed in education.

A Culture of Discipline supports the idea that great schools know what they can be the best in the world at, what they are deeply passionate about, and that they have a culture of discipline that produces actions that promote high student achievement.
The chapter on Technology Accelerators confirmed that great schools have carefully selected technologies within them. Schools cannot afford to have technology sitting and collecting dust. Technology must be used to accelerate learning. Schools' uses of technology will determine their level of success.

After reading The Flywheel and the Doom Loop, I am convinced that in great schools, principals, teachers, students, parents, and community members experience momentum of the flywheel when the level of collaboration increases and student achievement improves. The opposite happens in "The Doom Loop". Reacting to low student achievement without understanding leads to slowed momentum and an even lower student achievement.

Finally, the chapter, From Good to Great to Built to Last supports the idea that great schools seek to attain sustainability in high student achievement. Regardless of race, gender, or age, they are interested in providing an educational program that promotes success for all students.