Lately, one of my clients has been referring “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. I read the book when it first came out, as well as the Social Sector monograph he published to accompany the book. Since it’s short, I pulled it out recently to refresh my memory…and I’m glad I did!

I had forgotten how many good tidbits were in the book. I was especially surprised to read Collins’ suggestion that business thinking is not the answer for the nonprofit sector. I’m sure I had a reaction to this when the monograph was first released, and I wonder if I disagreed, since, over the years, I’ve continued to push the idea that nonprofits should run themselves like a business. Collins makes some great points about why we shouldn’t do this, about how and why the social sector is different from the private sector, and thus needs to operate differently.

So I’m keeping this blog simple. In the words of Jim Collins: figure out what you can be the best in the world at, what you are deeply passionate about, and what best drives your resource engine. Go get ‘em!