I had the privilege of working with a group of entrepreneurs yesterday. Our discussion focused on creating a culture of discipline. In Good to Great, Jim Collins said this:
"When you put these two complementary forces together – a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship – you get a magical alchemy of superior performance and sustained results."
Sounds pretty good to me. But what is a culture of discipline? I think it starts with everyone in the organization being crystal clear about exactly what the organization is trying to achieve. If there hasn't been robust discussion and even some significant conflict about this topic, that absolutely needs to happen. Now.
The next step toward a culture of discipline is making sure everyone, and I mean everyone, in the organization is 100% focused on their own highest value activities. That means the vast majority of the working day is spent head-down, actively involved in the one or two activities that have the greatest impact on the organization. Anything else is just screwing around.
Finally, the span of supervision needs to constrict. If your habit is to review progress every month, start doing it every week. If in the past you reviewed results on a weekly basis, do it every day. The world has changed. If we want to survive, our companies have to change. That's what a culture of discipline is all about.
