“Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.” Jim Collins
Decline can be avoided.
Decline can be detected.
Decline can be reversed.
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and co-author of Built to Last, began to wonder . . . How do the mighty fall? Can decline be detected early and be avoided? How far can an organization fall before the path towards doom becomes inevitable and unshakable. How can organizations reverse this course?
Following four years of research, Collins uncovered five stages of decline:
- Hubris born of success – in this stage, people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement . . . they lose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place. This occurs when the rhetoric of success replaces the penetrating understanding and insight of how success was first achieved.
- Undisciplined pursuit of more – moving away from the ‘reason’ greatness was achieved in the first place . . . wanting more growth, more acclaim, more of whatever those in ‘power’ see as success.
- Denial of risk and peril – as external signs of peril mount, they are ignored because external results remain strong enough to ‘explain away’ this data. Those in power consider these ‘difficulties’ as temporary or cyclical or not that bad, thus believing nothing is fundamentally wrong. External factors for setback are blamed rather than accepting responsibility for ‘bad choices.’
- Grasping for salvation – in respond to the down-turn, a ‘quick fix’ is chosen instead of getting back to the disciplines that brought about greatness in the first place. ‘Saviors’ include a charismatic visionary leader, a bold but untested strategy, a radical transformation, a dramatic cultural revolution, a hoped-for blockbuster product or service, a ‘game-changing’ acquisition, or any number of other silver-bullet solutions.
- Capitulation to irrelevance or death – the longer an organization remains in stage 4 (repeatedly grasping for the ‘silver bullets,’ the more likely it will spiral downward. In response, accumulated setbacks and expensive false starts erode financial strength and individual spirit to such an extent that leaders abandon all hope of building a great future . . . death of the organization is inevitable.
There is a way out, however, and Collins offers well-founded hope. He posits, “The signature of the truly great versus the merely successful is not the absence of difficulty, but the ability to come back from setbacks, even cataclysmic catastrophes, stronger than before. Great nations can decline and recover. Great companies can fall and recover. Great social institutions can fall and recover. And great individuals can fall and recover. As long as you never get entirely knocked out of the game, there remains always hope.”
Never give in . . .