The 5 Brutal Facts

The atomic clock strikes 08:00:00, and the executives better be in their seats.

“Good morning,” says Jim Collins, the business guru and best-selling author whose advice they’ve come all the way to Colorado to seek. “I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility to make the most of our time.”

“Everybody, take out a blank sheet of paper. I want you to write down the top five brutal facts that face the company today. Go.”

Collins has little time for pleasantries when he hosts some of the world’s biggest corporations at his Boulder office. He’s not interested in how their flight went, where they’ve eaten since arriving or even what their names are.

This is about growth, improvement and pinpointing what’s holding them back.

Collins wants them to allocate a total of 100 total points to these five brutal facts. This way, they won’t overemphasize No. 1 on their list and may even discover that No. 4 should be the real priority.

It’s an exercise that begs some obvious, but critical, questions of us as leaders:

1. Are we valuing the little time that we have as much as we should be?

2. What are the 5 brutal facts of our own teams?

3. Which of these must be addressed immediately?

Far too often when we’re floundering, we gather, exchange too many pleasantries, talk loosely about some challenges and formulate a few strategies that we think might solve our issues.

But Collins’ method isn’t about vague concerns or feelings. It’s about efficiency, truth and practicality, and it might be exactly what we need to turn around our own organizations.

True transformation cannot take place until we can candidly assess our present limitations — sometimes, before we even get to say “Hello.”