All last week, CHCI’s President, Allen Zeman was in Miami, Fl. speaking at and participating in Saba’s annual user conference. Among the keynote speakers at the summit was Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. Good to Great is a book that most of us at CHCI have read more than once and referred others to hundreds of times. As many reading this know, it’s about 11 companies (out of more than 1,400 researched for the book) that made successful transitions from good to great. One of the central themes of the book is that they did so in surprisingly similar ways.
Collins wrote the book twelve years ago, and while many of the companies profiled have since slid back from great to good (or worse) the principles remain true: culture, discipline and engaged employees acting as a team are what makes greatness possible and sustainable.
We believe these principles hold in government as much as they do in the private sector. We also believe that if all the collective excellence in government were concentrated within one agency, that agency would be the greatest organization in America―in fact, not just great but awesome.
So, starting today, we’re launching our “Awful to Awesome” project. The outcome will be a book―like Good to Great―that profiles government agencies, departments or groups that have made the transition from awful to awesome. We’ll test our assumptions that the same principles hold true in government as in the private sector and we’ll share the stories we receive with all of you. The best of the stories will be featured in the book.
So please send us your stories. We promise to get your approval before we publish them and we’re certain that by sharing these stories, we’ll make government better.
Stories should contain as much detail as possible, including people involved, dates, metrics & measurements, awards received, etc.
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