Martin Wickens

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A friend recently recommended Jim Collin’s book, “Built to Last”. 

Some of the findings of Collins and Porras are counter-intuitive, but undeniable. From a Christian perspective, not every principle follows exactly, but many of them I believe do have a correlation in church organization and leadership. 

The book identifies several key habits that distinguish visionary companies from “comparison” companies. Here are a few that stood out to me:

Clock Building, Not Time Telling: Truly great leaders don’t just “tell the time”. This refers to creating a great product or having a hit idea. Visionary leaders and companies “build a clock”. They create an organization that can prosper far beyond the tenure of any single leader or product cycle.

Core Ideology: This consists of Core Values, essential tenets, and a Core Purpose, the reason for being beyond just making money. While strategies and practices change, the core ideology remains fixed.

BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals): This is a fun phrase. These are ambitious, long-term goals that stimulate progress.

The book is well written with a massive amount of data communicated in an effective and entertaining way. 

As I said, the correlation to churches and Christian leadership is not exact, but some of the principles are helpful. 

Clock Building, Not Time Telling: God has made plain in His Word that men should train men and women should train women. The older passing down to the next generation what they have learned. Some churches do not live past a generation because while they were great at telling the time, the leaders did not build a clock. They did not plan for generational success. 

Core Ideology: Some churches struggle because while they’ve maintained a focus on God’s priorities for them, they don’t adapt their methods or meet society where it’s at. Others, in an effort to adapt and meet society, compromise their core principles, their God-given priorities and standards. Both ultimately lead to failure. Collins refers to the genius of the AND. It’s is possible to be faithful to the priorities God has set AND adapt, without compromise, to reach out community and generation with the Gospel. 

BHAGS (Big Hair Audacious Goals): God has given His church an audacious goal, nothing short of the evangelism and discipleship of the world. And there are some undeniably challenging goals under that umbrella. One danger Collins points out is when a visionary company achieves an audacious goal and then stops. Some churches and leaders achieve great things, slow down, and then stop. When men and ministries stop dreaming and setting goals it kills them both. 

And here are a few more points that stood out. 

• The vision may not have been good or moral, but they had one. Simply having a BHAG often was the only different. Not luck, ingenuity, a great product, or charismatic leadership, or opportunities. A clear, authentic, vision and goals set them apart. 
• The leader may not have been charismatic. Some people believe a lack of charisma in a leadership is a death knell. But this doesn’t have to be the case. 

A final emphasis. Leaders must train leaders and establish structures to ensure the company or people they lead thrive beyond their time with them.

I’d highly recommend this book.