How Can an Organization Employ the Concept of the Flywheeland the Doom Loop

The Flywheel and the Doom Loop

Part one

How might your previous place of employment or your current organization’s leadership facilitates this concept, or actually inhibits its progress? To what extent do you agree or disagree with Collins’ notion of “motivating the troops” (p. 178) as a key component for provoking the doom loop?

Educational institutions are not the same as corporations but the concept of the flywheel and the doom loop can be applicable to their operations. According to Collins (2001), there are key factors that contribute to build momentum of the “flywheel.” The factors applicable to my institution will be discussed: 1. step by step/action by action pattern of build up leading to breakthrough, 2. Confronting the brutal facts to see clearly what steps must be taken to build momentum, 3. Attain consistency with a clear hedgehog concept, 4. Follow the pattern of disciplined people and 5. Spend little energy trying to motivate or align people (p.183).

My impression of our school’s leadership this year is that if we continue to take some positive actions step by step we may well be on our way to greatness. For example we have made great strides in implementing our common assessments, all departments succeeded in designing a common assessment and we are now using them to evaluate our students and inform our teaching. The next phase will be to analyze the results. Another positive action the leadership team has taken is that we now have a consistent schedule of PLC meetings with well-planned agendas that result in meaningful and productive meetings. In effect, leadership is confronting the brutal facts and is conducting school business consistently. Despite opposing views we are making great strides toward transforming the status quo of our school, “the flywheel is gradually building momentum.” We voted for disciplined teachers to form the core of our leadership team and we now benefit from the choices we made. The determination of our team is...