Introduction
Chicago has a way of making ideas feel bigger. Tall buildings. Clear lines. No place for fuzzy thinking.
So when my friend sat across from Jim Collins—yes, that Jim Collins—the conversation didn’t drift. It cut.
Because greatness doesn’t happen by drift.
It happens by direction. And by the people who choose to follow it.
Leadership and Desire
Most leaders think their job is to assign tasks. Collins says something different.
Leadership is getting people to want to do what must be done.
- Want.
- Not comply.
- Not obey.
- Want.
This reveals an uncomfortable truth: If people don’t want to do the work, we picked the wrong people.
People and the Flywheel
A hundred strategies matter less than one metric:
How many key seats are filled with A-players?
Not all the seats. Just the ones that determine the direction of the flywheel.
Because the flywheel doesn’t turn because we talk about it. It turns because a small number of essential actions keep happening, over and over, with compounding force.
AI and Momentum
AI doesn’t change that. AI only matters if it accelerates a spoke that’s already creating momentum. Otherwise, it’s noise dressed up as progress.
Innovation and Possibility
Innovation doesn’t start with:
“What are we best in the world at?”
That’s yesterday’s question.
The better question—the one Collins hammered home—is this:
“What else could we do with our unique gifts that the market would value?”
Possibility, not pride.
Adaptability and Survival
But here’s the part we’d rather skip: the world won’t pause while we figure this out.
Adaptability is no longer a competitive advantage. It’s the cost of staying in the game.
Complacency isn’t a dip in performance. It’s the beginning of disappearing.
The Choice Before Leaders
Which leaves every organization—every team, every leader—with a choice.
- Keep doing what worked.
- Or reexamine the purpose, the people, and the practices that keep the flywheel turning.
Because if your company vanished tomorrow and nothing important would be lost, the market has already answered your Core Purpose question.
The rest is just paperwork.
The organizations that thrive are the ones brave enough to ask the harder question today.
The ones that don’t wait for Chicago to wake them up.