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Times
are tough, deal with it!
Part 2 in series exploring
the Idea Sets of Good to Great.
The bad news just keeps on coming ( and we don't
count on it easing up any time soon) – but making
it through when the going gets tough requires more than perserverence.
Lessons for making it though can be found in
the story of Vice
Admiral Jim Stockdale. Stockdale, the highest ranking officer
in the Hanoi Hilton, spent eight years enduring endless torture
and soul-destroying treatment. In the end, he made it home
with body and spirit intact. But Stockdale didn't know he would
make it. How did he face each day for eight years not knowing
for sure he would survive in the end? Would the pain and suffering
be worth it?
According to Stockdale, in order to survive the
darkest nadir we need to have faith that in the end we will
prevail, but never ignore the most brutal facts of reality,
no matter how hideous they appear. This incongruent combination
of blind faith and brutal facts creates an intriguing paradox.
Jim Collins named it the Stockdale Paradox in his book, Good
to Great.
Collins and his research team spent five years
revealing the secret ingredients that transforms a good company
to a great company. They discovered that the great companies
embraced this paradox. They knew, some how, some way, in the
end they would prevail – and they were willing to face
the most brutal facts of their reality to get there. The paradox
enabled the great companies to make the really tough decisions
needed to grow and prosper.
Read
an excerpt from Jim Collins that discusses how good-to-great
companies left themselves stronger and more resilient, not
weaker and more dispirited.
In
Love and War by Jim and Sybil Stockdale
Jim Stockdale teaches us that freedom is a state of mind and that the two greatest
weapons of enslavement are guilt and fear, not bars and walls.
Stoic
Philosophy was a source of inspiration and consolation
for Vice Admiral Jim Stockdale throughout his life and captivity.
OTHER IDEAS
Click here to
visit the other ideas that have captured our curiosity and
helped shape our perspective.
COPYRIGHT
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Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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