So Let's Get REAL, Dog! It's Just 'ight For Me

This discussion post is designed to focus on whether the Lonehill Community Initiative's future is to be delivered upon an underlying platter of mediocrity... or whether it will strive to move along the 'good to great' model researched by one of the world's leading business management gurus.

Many thanks to Lindy Boulanger for the delivery of the latest LRA hard-copy newsletter slipped under my door.

It arrived as I was watching a repeat of the latest American Idols. I just love the brutal honesty of the two male judges - Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell. One wonders what they would say about our community initiative (see below).

But first, if you are a local Business Owner, Director & Decision-Maker here's an invitation:

Invitation: My INNER Circle Business Forum is hosting the launch of INNER Circle at The PALAZZO Montecasino this coming Tuesday 17th April. I have set aside 10 seats (first-in, first-served - it's limited seating unfortunately) for local Business Owners, Directors & Decision-Makers on this database who would like to attend. RSVP on the link below or reply to me on this email:

· Tue. 17Apr - INNER Circle LAN 100 PALAZZO - Trevor Nel - (booking essential)

Now to get real and to be brutally honest, the latest hard-copy Lonehill newsletter, whilst at first glance looking attractive, was mostly uninspiring in content and lacking in much meaningful information of serious community value.

There was not a contact number or name in sight for anyone to follow up with the LRA or its service providers - apart from a web address. And no indication of where the crime incidents occurred to give us any idea of regularity of trouble spots to be avoided. It was more an advertising medium for the Lonehill Shopping Centre.

I am reminded of the constructive critique given by the three Idol's judges who constantly remind that the context of their critical analysis is made of the final 12 who have made it through to the final stage over 400,000 other hopeful applicants. The point being that the panel's critique cannot take away from the competitors achievements to date. It is how the competitors respond to the critique that is interesting to note. And so it is with my comments on this forum.

I can almost hear Randy Jackson saying: 'So let's get real, dog. This is not good. It's just 'ight' (alright) for me. Not great.'

And Simon Cowell saying: 'This might do for a little karaoke evening but it's not going to help you win Idols'.

So let's get real. As pleased as I am about the apparent stabilisation of the Lonehill Community Initiative that many of us worked so hard to establish, the discussion has to move on to one of how this initiative is to be positioned now and into the future.

That is, whether it is to be a project meandering from 'boom and/or bust' mediocrity so typical of a traditional residents association, to perhaps being recognised as a good project... or ideally to that of a GREAT project.

My purpose on this forum is to help this Lonehill Community Initiative to achieve GREATNESS.

So who wrote this?

'Why achieve greatness?

• if you're doing something you care deeply about and if you believe in it, it's impossible to imagine not trying to make it great.
• if you have to ask 'why should we try to make it great?' then you're probably in the wrong line of work.
• you will have the ultimate satisfaction knowing that your short time here on earth was well spent, and that it mattered.'
  

It's written by the same author of this statement:

'A great organization is one that makes a distinctive impact and delivers superior performance over a long period of time. For a business, performance principally means financial results, specifically return on invested capital. For a social sector organization, on the other hand, performance must be assessed first and foremost relative to the organization’s mission, not its financial results. Notice that by this definition that you do not need to be big to be great. Your distinctive impact can be on a local or small community, and your performance can be superior and long-lasting without becoming large. You might choose to grow in order to have a wider impact and to better deliver on your mission, but it is important to understand that big does not equal great, and great does not equal big.'

His name: Jim Collins, regarded as one of the world's leading business management guru's and thinkers. And his information is widely available on the Internet. See http://www.jimcollins.com/ - includes free-to-use diagnostic tools.

Says Collins:

'Every institution has its unique set of irrational and difficult constraints, yet some make a leap while others facing the same environmental challenges do not. This is perhaps the single most important point in all of Good to Great. Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.'

But by far the most important insight gained from his research is outlined here:

'Business executives can more easily fire people and—equally important—they can use money to buy talent. Most social sector leaders, on the other hand, must rely on people underpaid relative to the private sector or, in the case of volunteers, paid not at all. Yet a finding from our research is instructive: the key variable is not how (or how much) you pay, but who you have on the bus.

The comparison companies in our research—those that failed to become great—placed greater emphasis on using incentives to “motivate” otherwise unmotivated or undisciplined people.

The great companies, in contrast, focused on getting and hanging on to the right people in the first place—those who are productively neurotic, those who are self-motivated and self-disciplined, those who wake up every day, compulsively driven to do the best they can because it is simply part of their DNA.

In the social sectors, when big incentives (or compensation at all, in the case of volunteers) are simply not possible, the First Who principle becomes even more important. Lack of resources is no excuse for lack of rigor—it makes selectivity all the more vital.'

So, it's all got to do with the quality of people driving the project.

To paraphrase a Jim Collins diagnostic tool question, if your life were dependent upon it, who in Lonehill would you pack into a five- to seven-seater rocketship to re-establish the Lonehill Community Initiative on Mars? Who would be the best people for delivering on the ultimate strategy for the Lonehill Community Initiative? Are they currently on the bus?

Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 705-2790
Lonehill Resident