Jim Collins Drucker Day Keynote
Summary
TLDRThe speaker pays tribute to Peter Drucker's legacy, emphasizing his belief in the power of effective management and leadership to uphold a free society. Highlighting Drucker's impact on enduring companies and the importance of self-managed organizations, the speaker reflects on the role of 'level five' leaders and the need for individuals to find their personal 'three circles' of passion, talent, and contribution. Addressing the younger generation, the speaker urges them to prepare for instability, embrace values, and strive for self-actualization, ultimately encouraging everyone to be useful in their endeavors.
Takeaways
- 😀 The speaker emphasizes the importance of being passionate and being among friends and role models, highlighting the influence of individuals like Peter Drucker on his life and work.
- 💑 The speaker shares personal anecdotes about his own marriage, illustrating the concept of a role model in relationships and the significance of enduring commitments.
- 🏫 The speaker praises the Claremont Graduate School and the Drucker Institute for their role in fostering important conversations and the legacy of Peter Drucker, who contributed significantly to the triumph of freedom and free societies.
- 🛠️ The speaker discusses the critical role of management in effective organizations, distinguishing between leadership and management, and argues that effective management is essential for the functioning of democratic systems.
- 🌐 The speaker warns against the potential decline of freedom and the need for self-managed organizations to ensure the continuation of free societies, referencing historical examples to emphasize the non-inevitable nature of freedom.
- 🔍 The speaker shares insights from his research into what makes enduring great companies, attributing their success to the application of timeless principles and effective management practices influenced by Drucker's work.
- 🤔 The speaker poses questions about the future, such as how to build legions of level five leaders and prepare for future instability, encouraging a forward-looking perspective based on timeless principles.
- 💼 The speaker introduces the concept of the 'three circles' of personal effectiveness: passion, ability, and contribution, and challenges individuals to find the intersection of these areas in their lives.
- 👴 The speaker addresses the misconception that work ends at a certain age, using Drucker's own prolific writing career as an example of lifelong contribution and the potential for ongoing impact.
- 📝 The speaker provides actionable advice for personal development, such as building a personal board of directors, turning off electronic gadgets to think, and focusing on questions rather than statements to foster learning and growth.
- 🏆 The speaker concludes with a call to action, urging everyone to go out and make themselves useful as a way to honor Peter Drucker's legacy and to contribute positively to society.
Q & A
What is the significance of the Claremont environment and the Drucker School in the context of the speaker's speech?
-The Claremont environment and the Drucker School are significant as they represent a place for important conversations and a hub for academics and thinking, which the speaker highly values. The speaker sees the school as playing an important role in shaping the world of ideas and academics, much like Peter Drucker's legacy.
How does the speaker describe the role of management in a free society?
-The speaker describes management as a critical function in a free society, emphasizing that high-performing and self-managed organizations are essential for democracy to function effectively. He suggests that the relationship between well-managed individual organizations and the inherent inconsistency of democracy allows for a workable combination that supports freedom.
What is the speaker's view on the balance between leadership and management?
-The speaker believes that while leadership is important, effective management is equally crucial. He warns that charismatic leadership without effective management can be not only ineffective but also dangerous, highlighting Drucker's teachings on the importance of both aspects.
How does the speaker relate the concept of 'Built to Last' to Peter Drucker's influence?
-The speaker relates 'Built to Last' to Drucker's influence by explaining that the enduring principles and values found in companies that were successful over time were often influenced by Drucker's teachings. The speaker's research found that companies with 'intellectual fingerprints' of Drucker's work at pivotal stages were more likely to become great and remain so.
What is the 'Level Five Leader' concept mentioned by the speaker, and why is it important?
-The 'Level Five Leader' concept refers to a leader who combines a deep personal humility with professional will. These leaders are ambitious, but their ambition is channeled into something bigger than themselves. The speaker considers this type of leadership crucial for building great organizations and societies.
What does the speaker suggest as a method for young people to prepare for future challenges?
-The speaker suggests that young people should embrace the 'Stockdale Paradox,' which involves maintaining unwavering faith in their ability to prevail while also confronting the brutal facts of reality. This mindset will help them navigate through the expected instability and uncertainty in the future.
How does the speaker define the 'Three Circles of personal Hedgehog' concept?
-The 'Three Circles of personal Hedgehog' concept involves finding the intersection of what you are passionate about, what you can be the best at, and what drives your economic engine. The speaker encourages individuals to focus their energies at this intersection to achieve personal fulfillment and societal contribution.
What is the 'Stockdale Paradox' and how did Admiral Stockdale explain its importance?
-The 'Stockdale Paradox' is a concept that balances unwavering faith in eventual success with the discipline to face the harshest facts of the current reality. Admiral Stockdale explained its importance as a means to endure and prevail in the face of great difficulty, as he did during his time as a prisoner of war.
What advice does the speaker give for building a 'personal board of directors'?
-The speaker advises selecting individuals for one's personal board of directors based on their character rather than their accomplishments. These should be people whose opinions you value and whose judgment you respect, even if they are not aware they are on your board.
How does the speaker emphasize the importance of values in building enduring success?
-The speaker emphasizes the importance of values by stating that enduring success is built on a rock-solid set of core values that are not open for negotiation. He cites research showing that companies and individuals who adhere to their values are more likely to build something great.
What is the speaker's view on the role of age in one's capacity to contribute meaningfully to society?
-The speaker challenges the notion that age limits one's capacity to contribute, pointing out that Peter Drucker's most significant works came after the age of 65. He suggests that reaching 65 should be seen as the beginning of the most productive phase of life, rather than the end.
What final advice does the speaker offer to the audience, particularly the younger generation?
-The speaker's final advice is to focus on being useful, as per Drucker's influence. He encourages the audience to apply the disciplines of management to amplify their leadership and personal impact, thereby making a significant difference in the world.
Outlines
🤝 Embracing the Legacy of Peter Drucker
The speaker expresses gratitude for being among esteemed company and friends, highlighting the influence of Peter Drucker on his life and work. He discusses the importance of role models, the significance of marriage as a model of relationship, and the privilege of contributing to the legacy of Drucker's emphasis on conversation and the timeless principles of effective management. The speaker also reflects on the role of management in upholding freedom and democracy, suggesting that Drucker's ideas on self-managed organizations are crucial to the functioning of a democratic society.
📚 The Intersection of Leadership and Management
This paragraph delves into the critical role of management and its often-underappreciated importance in the success of organizations. The speaker challenges the modern tendency to idolize leadership at the expense of management, emphasizing that effective management is essential for the success and safety of organizations. He discusses the historical context of totalitarian states and the imperative of self-management for the triumph of freedom, drawing on his research into enduring companies and their adherence to Drucker's principles.
🔬 The Empirical Approach to Enduring Success
The speaker outlines the empirical approach of Peter Drucker, who emphasized observing reality to derive insights and theories. He discusses the importance of starting with results and asking why they work, as well as the courage to ask audacious questions. The speaker also highlights Drucker's unique blend of practicality and big-picture thinking, which has influenced his own approach to ideas and research.
🌟 The Role of Level Five Leadership
The speaker introduces the concept of Level Five Leadership, which is characterized by a combination of personal humility and professional will. He discusses the findings from his research on enduring great companies, emphasizing that the leaders of these companies were not just ambitious but channeled their ambition into something larger than themselves. The speaker also raises concerns about the direction society is taking and the potential dominance of self-ambitious individuals over those who are ambitious for the greater good.
🏫 Cultivating Greatness in Education
In this paragraph, the speaker discusses the importance of having Level Five leaders in education, using the example of schools in challenging environments that have managed to excel. He argues for the necessity of such leaders in driving educational excellence and criticizes the idea that increased budgets alone can solve educational challenges. The speaker calls for a West Point-like institution for education to cultivate Level Five leaders.
⛰ Preparing for the Challenges of Instability
The speaker addresses the need to prepare for a future that may be characterized by instability and uncertainty, likening it to climbing at high altitudes where conditions are harsh and unpredictable. He contrasts the recent period of global stability and prosperity with the historical norm of instability and suggests that the younger generation, which has grown up during this anomaly, must learn to adapt and thrive in more challenging conditions.
🤔 The Stockdale Paradox and Facing Adversity
The speaker introduces the Stockdale Paradox, a concept based on the experiences of Admiral Stockdale during his time as a prisoner of war. The paradox involves maintaining unwavering faith in eventual success while simultaneously confronting the harsh reality of the situation. The speaker emphasizes the importance of this mindset in dealing with great difficulties and suggests it as a guiding principle for the upcoming generation.
🔑 The Power of Core Values and Self-Management
The speaker discusses the importance of core values and self-management in building enduring success, drawing on examples from his research into companies that have thrived over time. He argues that values are not soft but rather the foundation for resilience and success in the face of adversity. The speaker also asserts that individual and organizational destiny largely lies in our own hands, shaped by our disciplines and choices.
🔄 The Three Circles of Personal Fulfillment
The speaker explores the concept of the 'Three Circles of Personal Hedgehog Concept,' which involves finding the intersection of what one is passionate about, what one can be best at, and what drives one's economic engine. He encourages individuals, especially the younger generation, to discover and pursue these intersections to achieve fulfillment and contribute meaningfully to society.
👴 Redefining the Meaning of Success at 65
The speaker challenges the notion that work and contribution end at a certain age, using Peter Drucker's prolific writing career as an example. He suggests that reaching 65 should be seen as the beginning of a new phase of work, where one's best efforts are yet to come, rather than the culmination of a career.
📘 The Art of Being Useful: A Tribute to Peter Drucker
In the concluding paragraph, the speaker reflects on a personal encounter with Peter Drucker and the profound advice he received about focusing on being useful rather than merely successful. He encourages the audience to honor Drucker's legacy by applying his teachings to amplify their impact through disciplined management and leadership, thereby making a significant difference in the world.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Passion
💡Role Model
💡Management
💡Leadership
💡Institute
💡Freedom
💡Empirical
💡Values
💡Conversations
💡Legacy
💡Usefulness
Highlights
Passionate presence and commitment among influential friends and colleagues.
Applauding the remarkable work of The Institute and its role in shaping academic conversations.
The importance of the Claremont environment in fostering critical thinking and academic discussions.
Honoring Peter Drucker not by reflecting on his past but by looking ahead with timeless principles.
Peter Drucker's significant contribution to the triumph of freedom and free society.
The role of management as a critical function for the functioning of a free society.
The balance between leadership and management for effective organizational performance.
The necessity for self-managed organizations to support the inherent inconsistency of democratic systems.
Drucker's legacy in shaping the ethos of institutions focused on conversations and important topics.
The empirical approach of Drucker in deriving insights from practical observations.
The concept of 'Built to Last' and its connection to Drucker's principles of management.
The importance of enduring values for organizations to prevail through economic crises.
The Stockdale Paradox as a method for dealing with great difficulty and uncertainty.
The need for individuals to find their personal 'Three Circles' of passion, ability, and contribution.
The significance of self-actualization as described by Maslow and its relation to Drucker's teachings.
The potential impact of increasing the percentage of people living within their 'Three Circles'.
The advice for young people to build a personal board of directors and focus on character.
Encouraging the next generation to embrace the challenge of instability and uncertainty.
The importance of being 'useful' as a guiding principle for life and work, as emphasized by Drucker.
Transcripts
I'm here and I'm very much alive
um I
am uh really very uh passionate to be
here uh with you and to be really among
friends friends like uh Bob Buford and
John Bachman uh with Rick wartzman and
Ira Jackson and the wonderful things
they're doing with the school and The
Institute uh which I applaud and I
expect remarkable things to come uh with
friends from The Faculty uh and also uh
to be among a uh a kind of a a role
model friend from afar which is uh Dora
strucker and uh it's interesting because
I was talking with my wife Joanne on the
phone uh this morning about uh chatting
briefly last night with with Doris and
we were just talking about how we always
looked at I've always looked at of
course uh Peter as a great role model uh
but I also uh always have admired uh
their marriage their relationship also
as a role model and we were saying yeah
you know if you look at that kind of a
role model we've been married now 29
years um and we got engaged 4 days after
our first date and uh and we were saying
with that role model in mind uh 29 years
is really nothing other than just a nice
start so uh it's also really a priv to
be here in the uh environment of
Claremont uh in the drer school because
I actually think that that that there it
plays a very important role role in the
world of thinking and of academics and
this idea of it being a place for
conversations right a place for
conversations and a place for
conversations on important topics that
matter and of course we know that that's
exactly how Peter director interacted
was through that constant series of
conversations and the idea of having
that as an entire ethos of an
institution and I think that's a very
important Legacy of uh both Peter Ducker
and uh of the
institution and so it is a a privilege
uh to try to contribute to that in some
small way uh here
today I have been asked to uh honor
Peter uh not by Looking Back and
articulating all the ways in which he
was a great man and of course he was a
great
man uh but by looking ahead a bit at our
changing world uh and perhaps uh through
that lens building upon some Timeless
principles but before I do that I would
like to set a context a bit and to to
shine a a light uh on Peter through my
own
lens uh Bob Buford mentioned something
in his comments and I and I've reflected
on this a lot and I believe it is
true the idea that uh Peter duer
contributed more to the Triumph of
freedom and free Society over
totalitarianism as anyone in the 20th
century including perhaps Winston
Churchill and that may sound like an
audacious statement but as I think about
it it it has to be true right there are
two ways to change the world The Sword
and the
pen and those who use the pen rewire the
brains of those who wield the swords
there are people of ideas and people of
of action and Peter chose the
pen and really for for free Society to
function uh we absolutely must
have high- performing and self-managed
organizations spread throughout society
and it's really actually the reason why
we're able to have this great melee
called democracy what was it that
Churchill said is absolutely the most
hideous awful uh completely
irrational inefficient form of
government ever devised except for all
the
others he also said about us Americans
of course we'll always do the right
thing after we've tried everything
else but if you think about it that
there's a n a natural
inconsistency in in Democratic systems
and nothing great happens in the context
of inconsistency so what's the solution
to that the solution to that is that
spread throughout and people like city
managers and people in nonprofits and
people in business corporations and
people in organizations they are the
ones who lead and manage in a way that
produce the consistency that produce
Real Results and it is only the
relationship between those two between
the consistent well-managed individual
organizations that might now be creating
movements with the kind of inherent
inconsistency of democracy which allows
us to have freedom that we get a
workable combination and of course
Rucker gave us the language the metaphor
the lens the understanding of the role
of management as the critical
function has become fashionable in uh
recent years to um Revere the idea of
leadership which I think is great but to
kind of implicitly denigrate the idea of
management and and the idea behind uh
you'll have people who will kind of
think of it is that the leaders are the
ones who are cool right the leaders are
the ones who we all want to be the
leaders we want to have the black
leather jacket and the and the cool
sunglasses and we want to lead and we
want to be you know charismatic and we
want to be all these things and kind of
the managers like you know well that's
just
management and management is sort of uh
more mundane and pedestrian and and that
nothing could be further from the
truth leadership without effective
management and especially as Rick Warren
mentioned last night charismatic
leadership without effective management
is not only ineffective it is
dangerous but of course Dr knew this and
pointed it out more than 60 years
ago and if we think that the world is
permanently and irrevocably beyond the
reach of totalitarian
dictators that freedom will always
Triumph never with a step
backward I would simply remind us of our
history it is not on our
side most of the world's most dangerous
and Powerful totalitarian States came
long after 500 BCE
Greece which was the birth prace of the
notion of the Republic and the
democracy and look what happened in
between there is no law that says it is
an inevitable march to free
society and I believe that free Freedom
wins as Ducker taught
us in direct proportion to our ability
to
self-manage if we deliver
organizations that deliver results
throughout
Society in my own first encounter with
uh ducker's contribution uh it really
came through a research lens and my
colleague Jerry poris and I were engaged
in a research project at Stanford where
we were trying trying to understand what
separated truly enduring great companies
from others over long periods of time
and we were going back into historical
archives uh so for example of companies
like hulet Packard and MC and Motorola
and Johnson and Johnson and General
Electric and and we were studying these
companies over the long course of their
evolution and so you'd be going through
boxes of archived material at places
like HP and you actually have David
Packard's original typewritten notes
from the very very first meeting August
23rd 1937 at 2 p.m. in the afternoon
when he and Bill huet got together to
form huet Packard by the way there's a
very interesting little side note on
that it's very fun um they didn't know
what they were going to make which I've
always just loved uh they uh uh they get
together and say we decided to form a
company in the radio electronics and
electrical engineering field very
broadly defined and then it goes on to
say the question of what we will Design
manufacture and sell however was
postponed and this is the founding of
the company but if you think of it it's
it was a very drer like approach because
what they essentially were saying is our
ultimate contribution our ultimate
product is not going to be a calculator
or an
oscillator it's going to be an
organization that has
values and if we build the right
organization with values it will do
remarkable things but that is our
creation not a product not a spe though
all that stuff
changes and as we started looking inside
these organizations and we were studying
them and I I was not particularly
familiar with ducker's work as in in
depth kept coming across these notes and
I kept picture like David Packard
standing up in the early formative days
of
HP waving a practice of management and
giving a sermon to all of the people
about what you're going to do if you go
back and you look at the original
statement of hulet Packard objectives
written by David
Packard in 195 7 before they went public
CU he said we're going to have pressures
of the markets if we go public so what
we have to do is we have to be very
clear what we are before we hit that
pressure writes down what later became
the basis of the HP way but was really
what he called these 10 objectives
objectives where's the word objectives
come from right from duer right he
writes them down and if you read those
10
points they are straight out of the
practice of
management it should not have been the
hulet Packard company it should have
been the hulet Packard Drucker company
HPD and this was true across many of the
companies that we
studied and want I realize is there was
these intellectual fingerprints at
pivotal stages of these Enterprises and
as we were struggling with what to name
the book that came out of this U we
tossed aside
125 titles in frustration our publisher
was going nuts cuz we just kept vetoing
all of our titles finally I just blurred
it out one day why don't we just name it
drer was right and we're
done and we ended up calling it uh built
to last which of course uh he
was the interesting thing we talk about
this question of Drucker now more than
ever um I don't believe that that is
just a slogan in any
way it is an empirical fact from our
research this is not a perspective it's
not a philosop it is an empirical fact
that if you look systematically at those
that became great in contrast to those
that do not and you look at those that
were great that lost it that fell and
you ask the question two
choices those that get those get in uh
those that fall fall a because they fail
to learn the new stuff as it comes
along or
B because they fail to implement with
excellent the Timeless principles we
already know to be
true the answer is very clearly
be it is very hard to argue that the
financial crisis we went through is
because all of the financial
institutions were adhering to
fundamental sound disciplined
management
I believe that Peter's impact and others
may have different views this is just my
peculiar lens derives not just from the
specific
ideas but from his approach to ideas an
approach that has had a huge influence
on the way I like to think about ideas
and others have had to think about ideas
and I think this Approach at least the
the part that H kind of jumped out at me
has four parts to
it the first is a number one he was
deeply
empirical and what I mean by empirical
is not necessarily quantitative data
what I mean is you go out and you look
as he always talked about look out the
window see what's actually out there
don't try to think what the world should
be look at what the world actually is
and based upon that empirical
observation then to derive insights you
look out there then derive Theory rather
than deriving Theory and looking out and
trying to make the world fit your
theory I think this is why he always
loved to interact with people Bob told
the story last night about meeting with
the uh early mega church leaders they
weren't called that at that time and
it's because I think that's where he was
getting empirical evidence and and when
I asked him I said why do you consult
why do you work with companies you he
said that's my laboratory
right that's
empirical hands on number
two oh and by the way on the empirical
if you look at the the other great
thinkers like Darwin they were also
empirical I mean you read pages and
pages and pages about pigeons but from
which comes a single elegant
idea that was ducker's approach as well
number two he started first and always
with results asking a simple question
question what actually works and then
asking the question why does it work I
recall a conversation I had with a
faculty member uh when I was teaching at
Stanford and uh we were discussing
people that had influenced our thinking
and I said well I really admire Peter
Ducker and his faculty member had an
absolutely remarkable response which was
he kind of wrinkled his nose in this
kind of disdainful response and a drer
oh but he's so practical
I think Peter drer would have loved
that he's so
practical but it's it was never just
kind of the details of the moment if you
pick up a copy of concept of the
corporation you don't go into it and say
this is a how-to book on build how to
build a corporation it was by going into
the real empirical and the real
practical aspects of things but then
zooming way out and asking the big
question
what is the role of the corporation in
the evolution of society at this stage
of human
history so you get this wonderful blend
of practical and very big questions
which brings me to the third aspect of
his
approach he had the courage to ask the
audacious
questions I remember a conversation I
had with uh uh another role model and
person I admired greatly John Gardner uh
who wrote self-renewal and leadership
and Secretary of health education and
Welfare in the Johnson Administration
and John Gardner um when I was talking
with him about do I want to do a a full
traditional academic career and end up
doing a type of research that would lead
me into that kind of normal path he said
that would be fine it' be a good use of
your brain
but be aware of what has tended to
happen Beware of the tendency to answer
questions of increasing irrelevance
with increasing
precision and I believe that the what
what duer had the courage to do was to
say you know not all important questions
can be answered with increasing
Precision but it doesn't prevent you
from in the end being
right on his approach was to ask
increase questions of increasing
significance with increasing empirical
rigor
and I believe that my own view is there
was one overwriting
question which is how do we make Society
not only more
productive but more productive and more
Humane and then finally the great
signature of it all and I'll return to
this at the end because I'm going to go
to the questions aspect here is that
everything was infused with a a
tremendous compassion and deep concern
for the well-being of the
individual you know if you built
companies that destroyed
people if you built well-managed
organizations and destroyed human beings
in the process this would be a
failure and I'm going to return to the
individual aspect here maybe towards the
end uh shy hands how many young people
do we have here I have to be careful I
find young I keep changing that as I go
along but just for okay I'm not going to
say young or old but how many are under
the age of 30 in this room wonderful at
the end you and I are going to have a
little chat at least for a bit I have
some thoughts for you I've
brought okay so what I would like to do
is to um uh spend a few
minutes in this notion of looking
forward teeing up some
questions I don't know if I have real
good answers for these questions but
what might be questions that I don't
know if Peter would ask them today or
not but they're questions that occur to
me as we look
forward I'm going to suggest three or
four of them depending on my
time and uh I brought about 10 but we'll
have enough time for three or
four the first question that occurs to
me is how do we build
Legions
of level five
leaders
and as as we have engaged in our
research uh what we do is we're always
comparing those that did something
exceptional and built a great company in
contrast to others that did
not and I had always at the very
beginning of that process discounted the
role of the individual leader it always
struck me as a great plug figure right
it basically said when we said it's all
leadership we basically were saying
we're ignorant because what we say is
well we believe the answer is leadership
if something was successful it must have
been great leadership we went in a
circle what did we learn and so I said
to the good to Great research team as
we're embarking on the research we will
not have a leadership answer in good to
Great which is of course highly
conducive to their freedom of thought
and uh I have this strange genetic need
to surround myself with young people who
really don't care what I think and uh as
the great uh Professor Hal levit uh used
to like to say the the um the best
students are those who never quite beli
they're professors
so one day I walked into the research
team meeting the whole team had joined
hands and I thought well that's a little
different what's up and they said today
Jim is the day we've decided to tell you
that you are wrong what about about this
anti- leadership bias that you have see
if we look at the companies that really
made these good to Great Leaf you can't
take the leaders out of the equation I
mean to remove cork Walgreen from the
Walgreens story or Coleman mockler from
the Gillette story or dick from
the Wells Fargo story is to ignore the
data you tell us to pay attention to the
data not to you we invoke that here
today you are
wrong and I and I pushed back and I said
yes but what about the comparison
companies the companies that didn't make
it they also had leaders they had
leadership would anyone on the team like
to argue that leak coko was not a
leader Chrysler is a comparison company
anybody want to argue that Jack eard of
eard was not a leader but eard was a
comparison company you cannot say that
the differential was leadership they
both had leadership it's like an
equation numerator denominator crosses
out goes away wrote it on the Whiteboard
sat down and said let's go do something
useful and the team their hands
tightened and they said we thought you
would say that that and we did our
homework and this is when the research
team had a really
remarkable
empirical observation that led to an
Insight yes both sets of companies had
leaders but the good to great leaders
were different than the
comparisons they wore they had different
cloth
and this is where we had this Insight of
the level five leader that that
leadership is a Ser a hierarchy of
capabilities and level one is about
individual capabilities level two is
about your ability to play well with
others right team capabilities level
three is good competent effective
management level four is then to blend
that with the ability to set Direction
and to lead but there is a level that
ties them all
together and the five the signature of
the
five was their
humility I mean this was an empirical
observation that what separated the
truly exceptional the true great winners
who did this was not their great animist
it was their
humility defined really as an ability to
channel their
ambition into something bigger than
themselves and it wasn't about them so
really interesting talking to Rick
Warren last night the first line of his
book right it's not about you well
that's a that's a a a religious book
we're doing an empirical
study drawing upon thousands of years of
combined historical and statistical were
selecting based on stock
returns we find the same sentence they
understood it's not about
you when I look at some of the people
who have been associated with this event
people like Bob Buford and John Bachman
and Francis hesslein and Rick Warren
andosan
Toyota what do they all share in common
they are exemplars of the fact that
they're they are incredibly
ambitious but not for
themselves and this is the
five I worry and my question is which
way are we going as a
society are we going down to where
increasingly it's going to be those who
are ambitious primarily for
themselves who will be the dominant
strain or will it be the level fives who
will be the dominant
strain if it's the for former we go the
way of
Rome
so we don't have a
choice and when you look inside as we've
had the privilege to do at even
difficult things like education where we
had the privilege to study what
separated schools the center for future
of Arizona did this I just happened to
be sort of the thesis adviser looking at
schools in poor Latino neighborhoods
public schools with all of the
constraints of public schools and yet
some managed to to beat the odds and to
overperform and to deliver outstanding
educational results for those kids and
you compare them to other schools that
are in the exact same circumstances with
the exact same constraints and the exact
same teachers unions and the exact same
limited budgets and the same kinds of
communities who don't overperform the
answer cannot be their
circumstances and what was really
different was that in every one of those
schools there was a level five leader
like Julie Tate Peach who took
responsibility to make her school in
Yuma Arizona a pocket of greatness that
would deliver outstanding results and I
got into an argument with a senator of
the United States of America at a
session I had a privilege to do with a
group of senators about education and it
was an argument back and forth and the
senator was arguing the most important
thing is to increase the budget and my
response is if you increase the budget
three-fold but you don't have an army of
Julie tap peaches it doesn't
matter
how do we have a West Point for
Education how do we have level five
leaders deployed into those principles
that's how we make it work and how do we
build armies and of course that's what
Claremont is all about now let me give
you a hopeful side because I think
there's a lot of dark side of this it's
pretty hard to argue that what we've
watched in the last year is principally
played out because of people who weren't
ambitious for
themselves
I'm deeply uh I have great faith in our
self-corrective
ability and perhaps we don't even just
have level five leaders but this Young
Generation coming
up as a chief of staff of the army said
to me at a session at West Point this is
the most inspired and inspiring
generation to come through West Point
since
1945 I should get out of the way let
them lead
maybe we have a level five generation in
the
making and the sooner we can get that
level five generation into positions of
responsibility and power the better off
I believe we will
be so my friends who are under 30 we'll
get out of your
way but there's a
challenge an
issue
and what I worry about for this upand
cominging generation what I worry about
for this wonderfully idealistic
collaborative inspired
generation is that they grew up in a
historical
anomaly how many times in human
history do we have the
combination of global
stability which was provided by having
two superpowers and then
one and almost unbroken Prosperity at
the same
time this is not the normal mode of
History 200 200 ad Rome 500 BCE Greece
2,000 BCE Egypt I we can go through a
few in history but it's not the norm the
norm is usually
instability and unbroken Prosperity is
not also the norm so they grew up in
kind of an artificial
time and so my next question is how do
we
prepare ourselves and how does the Young
Generation prepare itself for the coming
the Ferocious instability that is about
to descend upon
us
I'd like you to
picture uh s waking up at below Mount
Everest at base camp and a big storm
comes blasting through the valley and
you can hunker down in your tent and
when the storm clears you can emerge and
you can go climbing
again but what
happens uh if instead of being in the
Safety and Security the
stability and prosperity base camp you
wake up as a vulnerable little speck at
27,000 ft on the side of the mountain
where the storms are bigger and
faster everything more uncertain
everything more out of control there
there you are not prepared there you are
not psychologically prepared you are not
physically prepared there you might be
in real
trouble and what we have just been going
through might be more of a wakeup call
that we're at 27,000
ft and we're very unlikely to be able to
go back to the nice safe stability of
base camp we're up on the
mountain and if in fact the last 30
years were the
anomaly then we're going to be on that
mountain now I'm confident Prosperity
will return it's what we know how to
do I'm not at all confident that
stability is going to
return
and speaking as an American and I know
not everyone in this room is American
um this is where I think we are
particularly exposed to the competitors
from outside our outside the United
States when I meet with my friends from
say Russia I had a group come to my
laboratory from Russia they're in their
late 30s early 40s running this giant
company in
Russia and you realize that in their
late teens or
20s they woke up one morning and their
entire world had
evaporated the tenants that they had
grown up with
gone the economy doesn't work the entire
social system overcome now they've had
to learn how to operate in this other
mode and what you realize when we were
talking about the economic crisis they
said oh we don't worry that much about
the economic crisis we have a different
we just call it New Economic
conditions and I talked to my friends
from
Brazil who grew up with things like 30%
a month inflation at times where you
always make sure that you take a cab not
a
bus because you
see you pay for the cab ride at the end
and inflation helps you over the course
of the
ride
or my friends from Argentina who say in
Argentina even the past is
unpredictable here's my
point people in India Brazil Russia
emerging
Africa they've already been climbing at
27,000 ft and they know how to do
it
and we are going to have to learn how to
do
it now in speaking to our young folks on
this I would like to give you a way of
thinking that has been enormously
helpful to me that came from the good to
Great research for dealing with great
difficulty and it was what we came to
call the Stockdale
Paradox and the Stockdale paradox
was taught to us by when we were doing
the good to Great research we trying to
make sense of the CEOs when and in doing
that I just by chance happened to get to
know Admiral Jim Stockdale who was the
highest ranking military
officer in the Hanoi Hilton shot down in
1967 was there till
1974 they could pull him out at any time
and torture him and they did who
tortured over 20
times and I had the privilege to get to
know Admiral
Stockdale and uh we were going to The
Faculty Club one day and I had read his
book in Love and War which was written
in alternating chapters by himself and
his wife about their years when he was
in the
camp and I got depressed reading the
book because it seemed so Bleak it
seemed so difficult it seemed you know
it it's like we can all endure anything
if we know it's going to come to an end
and we know
when but what if you don't know if it's
ever going to come to an
end and you certainly don't know
when so I asked Admiral Stockdale how he
dealt with that and he said you have to
realize I never got depressed because I
never ever wavered in my faith that not
only I would get
out but I would turn being in the camp
into the defining event of my
life that in retrospect I would not
trade later when we were up the hill I
asked him I said Admiral Stockdale who
didn't make it out as strong as you and
he said easy it was the Optimus
I said The Optimist you sounded
optimistic he said no I was not
optimistic I never wavered in my faith
that I would Prevail in the end but I
was not optimistic I said what's the
difference oh the optimists always
thought we'd be out by
Christmas of course Christmas would come
and it would
go and then we were going to be out by
Easter and Thanksgiving and then
Christmas would come again and they died
of a broken heart
and that's when Admiral Stockdale
grabbed me by the shoulders and said
this is what I learned when you're
facing in you're imprisoned by great
Calamity by great difficulty by great
uncertainty you have to on the one hand
never confuse the need for unwavering
faith that you will find a way to
Prevail in the
end with on the other hand the
discipline to confront the most brutal
facts we actually face
and we're not getting out of here by
Christmas as I speak to this wonderful
upand cominging level five
generation and I I is having a
conversation with a friend of mine who's
going to be running for the US Senate
and I asked him why he said nationally
as we encounter great challenge we must
have the Stockdale Paradox and as you
get hit by the things we might get hit
by never lose faith and to never deny
those brutal facts that's the starting
point for our
preparation two related thoughts on that
particular
question and it really ties to the the
Ducker school it ties to The duer
Institute it ties to Claremont and it
ties to
Peter I mentioned earlier the work built
to last it it's very interesting we were
studying enduring great companies in
contrast to others went back recently
and realize we selected the study set
for that study in 1989 two decades ago
all 18 of the built to last companies
are still
Standalone independent and almost all of
them very successful companies today
if you took a random sample of large
publicly traded companies 20 years
ago what are the probabilities that all
18 in your random sample would be
Standalone independent and largely
successful today the number is less the
percentage is about
0.02%
probability not only that 15 of the 18
built toas companies lived through the
1930s
depression what do they teach us
what has enabled them to have that what
did we find that separated them and what
we found is that what really separated
was not necessarily that they had
smarter strategies although they often
did or that they were sort of more
financially Savvy although they often
were it was because they were founded
first and foremost and built always on a
rock solid set of core values that are
not open for negotiation
and if you look at what gave them the
reason to struggle the reason to fight
the reason to
endure it wasn't strategic it was
values and that is what this school
teaches the great irony is people think
that values are
soft I've never understood that
idea
the second
point is we have now done two decades of
research studying those that do well in
contrast to those that do not across six
different studies two in the social
sectors four in business 7,000 years of
combined corporate data and all
different kinds of lenses and industries
and so
forth I would like to suggest maybe even
assert as an empirical fact something
that stands out and as we face this
difficult world that we're heading into
not that we're leaving we're heading
into the evidence is
overwhelming whether you Prevail or fail
endure or die whether you build
something
great whether you build greatness out of
Calamity or from
scratch depends largely on what you do
to
yourselves not on what the world does to
you and and something that Peter had
always said but now we have seen
empirically in our
research there is no question that no
matter what the world throws at us our
destiny Our Fate and this is an
empirical
fact lies largely maybe not
entirely but predominantly in our own
hands from our own disciplines and our
own
choices
my uh third and probably last question
so I have time to speak to our young
people here a little
bit but it leads into
that how do we increase the percentage
of people on the
planet who find and live
the three Circles of their personal
Hedgehog
concept okay so this is kind of going to
the idea of managing yourself but then
scaling it up through
organizations if you think about sort of
how people apply
themselves when we go back and we look
at the good to Great data and some of
the other data we find that that there's
these three circles and you put your
energies in the middle of three circles
and the first circle is what you're
passionate about and what you love to do
and what you stand for and the second
circle is what you can be the best at
and the third circle is what drives your
economic engine okay now and you focus
your energies there but let's drop that
down a level to the
individual how many of the folks under
age 30 in here have had cross your mind
the thought I wonder what I'm going to
do with
myself okay I'd like you to think then
about finding your own three circles at
an individual level which is think about
it this way imagine that you could
engage your
energies and your time directly in the
middle of three tests
first it is something for which you have
great
passion that you love to do and that
absolutely reflects your values and when
you wake up in the morning there's this
sense of my goodness even if I getting
paid for this I would want to do it even
if I wasn't getting paid for
it
now imagine if in addition to that you
could marry it to a second
Circle which is finding what you're
genetically encoded
for and there's a big difference of what
you're good at and what you're
genetically encoded
for I discovered this as a young person
I went off to college I thought I would
be a mathematician I had done well on
math test but when I entered courses
like real
analysis I met those who were genetic
encoded for
math not being one of them I needed to
find another version of my three
circles and now imagine the third
circle as you're engaged in
something that makes that is of of great
value it's of either social or economic
or both of value it makes a contribution
you are
useful now
imagine you have all three man I'm
passionate about this I love to do it it
expresses my values I'm genetically
encoded to do it when I do it I feel
like a fish in water and then finally
third I'm
useful and what percentage of the world
do you think has
that
5% maybe not even what would happen to
the world if let's say it's 3% if we
then made it
20% of people who are doing what they're
passionate about genetically encoded for
and are useful are in positions of real
contribution and
value now I don't know the answer of how
we make that percentage go up but
linking back to the idea of maslo how
did he describe
self-actualization it wasn't hanging out
on the
beach he defined self-actualization as
discovering what you were meant to
do and committing to the ardor of
pursuing it with
Excellence the purpose of free Society I
would suggest is to systematically
increase the percentage of people who do
exactly
that and then they can do it for very
long periods of
time we were over at The Institute
yesterday and there's this bookshelf
with all of Peter ducker's books and I
asked a question Bob mentioned this last
night which book as it laid out
chronologically did he write when he was
6
five
management if you look on the Shelf
where does it fall onethird of the way
through not 2/3
oneir 2/3 come after the age of 65 isn't
that just wonderful and
intimidating as a last question and I
don't need to spend a lot lot of time
that as we look at people who are
getting older and older and we're we're
young at 60 and 70 and
80 how do we reverse this tendency to
think that at 65 our work is behind us
if we look at that bookshelf actually we
should look at it is when we hit 65
everything has been a
preparation and only onethird of our
best work is done
when I
asked Peter Ducker when he was 86 which
of his 26 books at that point he was
most proud of he said I'm still working
on it the next
one now within that I will leave one
question for those who have moved and
what Bob likes to think of as
halftime I think there's a question that
does deserve an answer it might be one
that I Channel some of my energies
into for those who are thinking about
being useful after they've been
successful I was at a group of gathering
of philanthropists people who are
successful business people that have
moved into philanthropy and I brought a
question what systematically separates
successful business people who become
great and effective
philanthropists from successful business
people who become mediocre
philanthropist they had never thought
about the
question they thought it was simply good
enough to become a philanthropist I
would suggest it is
not and yet the interesting thing is we
don't really know what
separates with one thing that came out
of the
conversation those who are the great and
effective focused on results and not on
credit
and so as we bring my time to a close I
would like to now speak to our young
people and give you 10 to-dos to
consider those of you who
are 40 years young 50 years young 60
years young you can also consider these
but I specifically want to speak to our
emerging level five generation and these
are for your consideration the best
students are those who never quite
believe their
professors number
one build a personal board of
directors people selected not for their
accomplishment but for their
character the people you would be
embarrassed to come to if you're
thinking is this really the right thing
to do that you realize that even asking
them would be
embarrassing I remember when the
personal board idea occurred to me I was
25 years old I did not have a father who
I learned anything from except bad
habits and I always resented the fact
that my classmates in college could call
their dad and ask for advice and I
thought wow that is just odd and then I
began to resent
it and then I finally realized well if I
didn't have a father I'll make one I'll
create one so I started reading
biographies figure if I didn't get a dad
I'll just invent
one and as reading those biographies I
was driving down Alma Street in Palo
Alto one day and I was listening to
these interviews with the great
President Harry Truman done by Merl
Miller and there's this wonderful line
where Harry Truman says if you don't
know the difference between right and
wrong by the time you're 30 you never
will and I pulled off the side of the
road I'm panting I'm 25 years old I've
Got 5 years to figure this out
and hence was born the idea of the
personal board of
directors your personal board does not
always need to know their on your
personal
board Peter Ducker was on my personal
board and never knew
it and he was not selected for that
because in my mind he was the greatest
management thinker
but simply because he was one of the
greatest
people number
two please turn off your electronic
Gadget not for others but for
yourself effective people take time to
think begin the discipline of putting
white space on your calendar where
there's no phone no no email I was going
to say no facts but they don't even have
that anymore uh no Twitter no emails no
connections and engag in this glorious
pockets of quietude to think do you know
that Rick Warden reads a book every
single day a book a
day a book a day 365 days a year you
read a th books in three
years
number
three uh this would be a great time in
life to work on your three
circles and perhaps consider the idea of
you studying yourself like a bug right
and of making empirical observations to
say what does this bug do what is this
bug passionate about and what is this
bug encoded for and and with no judgment
don't judge and say this bug should be
better at math
non-judgmental empirical observation of
what you really are passionate about
genetically encoded for and where you
can be useful and get input from those
who love you who know you as empirical
data on
you number
four what is your questions to
statements ratio and can you double
it John Gardner another member of my
personal board brought me into his
office one day and said
said it occurs to me Jim you spend way
too much of your time trying to be
interesting why don't you Channel your
time around being
interested that 10 seconds changed my
life imagine going into every situation
not with how to be interesting but how
to be interested how to ask questions
how to learn from everybody you meet
what is your questions to statements
ratio and can you double it and number
five for those who have dealt with
health this one also then really jumps
out and at some point all of us
will add the question a specific
question to live
by if you woke up tomorrow morning and
discovered that you had inherited $20
million and you also discovered you had
a terminal disease and you only had 10
years to
live what would go on your stop doing
list
number
six start your stop doing list how many
here have a to-do
list how many have a stop doing
list
when we were talking last night Rick war
and I and Peter Ducker had asked the
same question always of him every time
he came not what have you done but what
have you stopped doing because someone
like rck War doesn't exactly have a
shortage of energy to do
stuff and the real task is to always be
clear about what to not do what to stop
doing number
seven unplug the opportunities that
distract
you just because something's a once- in
a-lifetime Opportunity is a fact but not
a
reason if it doesn't fit your three
circles remember there will always be
many once in a lifetime
opportunities number eight how do we
build that Legion of level five
leaders find something for which you
have so much passion that you are
willing to endure the
pain number
nine great time of life to articulate
the values that you will not
compromise as a guiding constellation
remember this thing about the 18 and the
15 companies and what held them well the
same applies at individual level if
we're going to go through whatever we're
going to go through what's the guiding
constellation it starts not first with
our strategies but with our
values and number
10 prepare to live a life where at age
65 you're onethird of the way through
your
work so I would like to close in the
last 5 minutes back with
Peter I mentioned earlier his concern
and compassion for the
individual I was a very afraid
individual in
1994 I was completely unknown uh all I
knew is that I didn't want to follow a
traditional path I wanted to carve my
own path and I was leaving the academic
world and I was really nervous about
whether this could work and I'd met a
good friend of mine who knew Peter duer
and he said said who do you admire I
mentioned Peter he said well maybe Peter
would like to talk with you I thought
Peter wouldn't want to talk with me why
would he want to talk with me and then
one day I get this message on my message
machine this is Peter Ducker call me and
I call him and I'm calling from the
Seattle Airport and I'm talking into the
phone because there's people around and
I hear him yell through the phone speak
up I'm not young anymore so I'm yelling
into the
phone scheduled this day to come
down I will never forget
the moment when he came to his
door he comes to the
door and he reaches out and grabs my
hand with two of
his and he brings me across and he
says Mr Collins I am so very pleased to
meet
you he says that before I have a chance
to say it is an honor to meet
you and we sit as many in this room has
sat with him in the wicker chair and you
keep wanting to ask Peter Ducker
questions but you don't get a chance cuz
he's asking you
questions and I remember how his brain
work we went to lunch and he had a
double espresso and a glass orer low
preserve the core stimulate
progress and he gave me great Solace of
realizing that you know he stumbled as
well I remember to describing the great
frustration of writing and then having
to write a whole chapter thinking it
wasn't any good and throwing it in a
waste basket and he would looked at me
and said that is immense progress I
remember that every time now I throw a
whole chapter in the waist basket
progress and he taught me the idea that
day that entrepreneurship is not a
business idea it's a life
idea right you can do a paint by numbers
kit to life or you can try to paint a
masterpiece on a blank
canvas
at the end of that
day which was one of those I still have
all the notes of
course but he said something that has
come back to me over and over and over
and over and over
again he's turned me in that wonderfully
challenging and loving
way when he said I can see that you are
very worried about your
survival you'll probably
survive and do you worry a lot at your
age about how to be successful that's
all fine and good you'll probably figure
that
out but if you really want
to make good on this day and it's
time why don't you really think about
how to be useful
and that's the level five question I
don't see myself I see it as a journey
but that's the level five
question how do we be
useful and
so as I said earlier I believe there are
two ways to change the world
the sword meaning action and the pen and
which is why this idea of having Osan
and Ducker on the same building is
action and
pen and when young people ask what can I
do to make a
difference I might suggest get your
hands on an organization if you can't
find one start one be like Wendy cop and
employ the disciplines the disciplines
of management which will amplify your
leadership applying everything you can
learn from
Ducker to lead it with disciplined
impact to multiply your own personal
impact by a
thousandfold and therefor for to be
useful times a
thousandfold and if there is any better
way to honor the legacy of Peter Ducker
I cannot think of
it I'm and he would smile not by saying
he was a great man which he
was but by going out and making
ourselves useful and so I leave you with
that please go out and make yourselves
useful thank
you
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