---
title: "What can creators learn from Good to Great?"
description: "Jim Collins's Good to Great in 15 frameworks with steps, and the four Tom Sharman lessons it backs."
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/
updated: 2026-11-03
---

# Good to Great

> Jim Collins's Good to Great in 15 frameworks with steps, and the four Tom Sharman lessons it backs.

The frameworks here are Jim Collins's, from Good to Great. Claude read the book in Tom's Brain and linked it to his lessons.

## How Tom uses this

- [Move the people you have before you hire](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/move-the-people-you-have-before-you-hire/index.md): Collins warns against firing too soon and recommends moving people to other seats where they might blossom before deciding they are off the bus. (p. 66)
- [Sam Stoffel: rebuild the team, then find the formats](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/sam-stoffel-rebuild-the-team-then-find-the-formats/index.md): Collins puts who before what in the same order, with the right team first and the direction worked out second. (pp. 49 and 50)
- [Signals show before numbers, and numbers come at month four](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/signals-show-before-numbers-and-numbers-come-at-month-four/index.md): Collins shows breakthrough arrives after long unseen buildup, such as nine years at Circuit City and fifteen for John Wooden, so early signals matter more than early numbers. (pp. 178 and 184)
- [A brand that compounds has a mission and an enemy](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/a-brand-that-compounds-has-a-mission-and-an-enemy/index.md): Collins argues the flywheel compounds around a passion and purpose beyond money, with bravado-led growth failing against understanding. (pp. 119, 121 and 205)

- Author: Jim Collins
- Pages: 328
- Chapters: 32
- Frameworks: 15
- Categories: Hiring and teams, Leadership, Life and thinking, Growth and strategy, Lead generation, Systems and operations, Founder mindset
- Book 19 of 46 on the bookshelf: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/index.md

## What it argues

Collins and a research team compared eleven companies that made a sustained leap from average to great results with matched companies that did not. The leap came from disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action rather than from visionary celebrity leaders, technology, mergers or pay. Humble but fiercely driven Level 5 leaders got the right people on the bus first. They then faced the brutal facts while keeping faith, found a Hedgehog Concept at the overlap of what they could be best at, what drove their economics and what they were passionate about, and built a culture of discipline around it. Momentum came from turning a flywheel in one consistent direction until breakthrough, where comparison companies lurched through programmes in a doom loop. The book closes by joining the study to Built to Last and arguing that greatness comes from work you care about.

## Worth keeping

- Who comes before what: get the right people on the bus before choosing the destination, and hire for character over skills (p. 49).
- Level 5 leadership pairs personal humility with fierce professional will, and credit goes out of the window while blame goes in the mirror (p. 43).
- Packard's Law: you cannot grow revenue faster than your ability to find the right people (p. 63).
- Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, never your biggest problems (p. 67).
- Create a climate where the truth is heard: questions, debate, blameless autopsies and red flag mechanisms (p. 83).
- The Stockdale Paradox: faith in the endgame together with the discipline to confront the brutal facts today (p. 95).
- The Hedgehog Concept sits at the overlap of what you can be best in the world at, what drives your economics and what you are passionate about, and core competence is not enough (p. 106).
- Pick one denominator, profit per x, to force insight into your economic engine (p. 114).
- Keep a stop doing list and use budgeting to decide which arenas to fund fully and which to cut (p. 152).
- Technology only accelerates momentum, so apply the Hedgehog filter before adopting any (p. 165).
- There is no miracle moment: push the flywheel in one direction and let results create alignment (p. 189).
- A good BHAG comes from understanding the three circles, a bad one from bravado (p. 213).

## Which project it moves forward

**The Content Operators launch**

The Hedgehog Concept test of best in the world at, economic engine and passion is the clearest tool in the book for defining one offer for the launch, and first who and the flywheel guide how to staff and sequence it.

## The questions it answers

### What makes a format repeatable, as opposed to a hit that happened once?

The Hedgehog Concept and the cross-country team's single idea show how one simple concept applied with fanatical consistency produces repeatable results (pp. 102, 217).

### What is the smallest team that can produce at the volume I am used to?

Packard's Law caps growth at the supply of right people, and Nucor ran a $3.5 billion company from a headquarters of fewer than twenty-five people with four layers of management (pp. 63, 149).

## The frameworks

1. [The good-to-great framework](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/the-good-to-great-framework/index.md): The overall sequence of concepts that takes an organisation from average to sustained great results.
2. [The window and the mirror](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/the-window-and-the-mirror/index.md): How Level 5 leaders apportion credit and blame.
3. [Three practical disciplines for rigour](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/three-practical-disciplines-for-rigour/index.md): How to be rigorous in people decisions without being ruthless.
4. [Do you know when you know?](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/do-you-know-when-you-know/index.md): Two questions that tell you whether someone should leave the bus.
5. [Four practices for a climate where the truth is heard](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/four-practices-for-a-climate-where-the-truth-is-heard/index.md): How leaders make sure the brutal facts reach them and get acted on.
6. [The Stockdale Paradox](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/the-stockdale-paradox/index.md): A two-sided psychology for facing hard times.
7. [The Hedgehog Concept (three circles)](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/the-hedgehog-concept-three-circles/index.md): A way to find the simple idea that guides every decision.
8. [The Council](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/the-council/index.md): A standing group used to reach a Hedgehog Concept through debate.
9. [Four elements of a culture of discipline](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/four-elements-of-a-culture-of-discipline/index.md): What to build to get disciplined action fanatically consistent with the Hedgehog Concept.
10. [The technology filter](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/the-technology-filter/index.md): Three questions that decide how to treat any technology.
11. [Crawl, walk, run](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/crawl-walk-run/index.md): Walgreens' deliberate way into the Internet.
12. [Buildup and breakthrough (the flywheel)](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/buildup-and-breakthrough-the-flywheel/index.md): How lasting transformation accumulates momentum.
13. [Blue Plans](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/blue-plans/index.md): Abbott's mechanism for managing Wall Street while investing in the future.
14. [Good BHAG test](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/good-bhag-test/index.md): A way to join the two studies and set big goals with understanding.
15. [Where to begin](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/good-to-great/where-to-begin/index.md): Collins' suggested sequence for using the book.

## Working with Tom on this

Tom builds and runs content teams inside creator and founder businesses, as a fractional Head of Content. [Fractional Head of Content, UK](https://tomsharman.com/fractional-head-of-content-uk/)