Comprehensive Study Notes: Good to Great Policing
Overview of "Good to Great" in Policing
Source Citation: Wexler, Wycoff & Fischer (2007). Key findings for law enforcement.
Theoretical Foundation: The article applies the research of Jim Collins, who studied companies that transitioned from mediocre performance to achieving sustained market returns over a period of at least years.
Core Management Philosophy: Greatness is not defined by inputs (e.g., budgets, reports, number of arrests) but by the definition and achievement of specific outputs (e.g., sustained reduction in crime).
Policing Context:
Advantages: Policing attracts passionate, mission-oriented individuals.
Challenges: Strict civil service and union protections, inherited staff, limited power to terminate employees, and short tenures for police chiefs (the average tenure in major cities is less than ).
Governance Style: Requires "legislative" leadership, which relies on persuasion and finding shared interests rather than the purely "executive" authority found in the private sector.
Level 5 Leadership: The Dual Paradox
Definition: A paradoxical blend of extreme personal humility and intense professional will.
Motivation: Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven to build organizational greatness rather than personal celebrity or status.
Attribution Model: These leaders look in the mirror to take responsibility for failures and look out the window to give credit to others or good luck for successes.
Policing Specificity: Chiefs must balance this humility with "command presence" required for high-visibility crises, such as the use of police force or terrorism.
Succession Planning:
Avoid the "genius with a thousand helpers" model, where the organization collapses once the leader leaves.
Level 5 leaders proactively develop successors by mentoring and sending commanders to advanced training even late in the leader's own tenure.
First Who, Then What: Human Capital Strategies
The Bus Analogy: Get the "right people on the bus" and the "wrong people off the bus" before determining the organization's directional strategy. The "right people" are defined as those who are inherently self-motivated.
Implementation in Law Enforcement: Because of civil service protections, removing people is difficult. Strategies to manage the "bus" include:
Performance-Based Promotions: Moving away from strict seniority-based systems.
Character Assessments: The chief conducting personal interviews to evaluate character, integrity, and attitude during the hiring process.
Advisory Councils: Utilizing planning teams or councils with a long-term stake in the organization.
Strategic Reassignments: Using transfers or the restructuring of "seats on the bus" (e.g., geographic policing models) to optimize current staff without physical removal.
Leadership Development: Formal programs intended to cultivate talent internally.
Confront the Brutal Facts (The Stockdale Paradox)
The Paradox: Leaders must maintain an unwavering faith that they will prevail in the end, while simultaneously having the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of their current reality.
Creating a Culture of Truth:
Incentivize data-driven debate.
Conduct "autopsies" of organizational mistakes to learn, rather than to assign blame.
Implement "red-flag mechanisms" to identify problems early.
Data in Policing:
Law enforcement has a real-time data advantage (e.g., CompStat), but this data must be owned and analyzed honestly.
Examples of past data manipulation in cities like Dallas and Chicago highlight the need for reform and integrity in reporting.
Dialogue Style: Leaders should lead with questions rather than answers to encourage discovery and debate.
The Hedgehog Concept: Focus and Simplicity
Definition: A deep understanding derived from the intersection of three circles:
What you can be the best in the world at.
What you are deeply passionate about.
What drives your resource engine (or in the public sector, the "social resource engine").
Policing Application: Relentless focus on pro-active crime reduction and public safety through problem-oriented policing, partnerships, and data systems like CompStat.
The Council: A standing group of to diverse members who debate issues to achieve a deep understanding. The Council's role is not to reach consensus, but to inform the chief, who then makes the final decision.
Culture of Discipline and Technology
Discipline Framework: Involves disciplined people engaged in disciplined thought and disciplined action.
Bureaucracy vs. Responsibility: When you have the "right people on the bus," you don't need a top-down, oppressive hierarchy. Discipline provides a framework of freedom and responsibility.
Mission Focus: Eliminate non-essential tasks to focus on the core mission. Examples include:
Ceasing responses to false alarms.
Implementing phone reports for "cold" crimes where no suspect or evidence is present.
Using honest mistakes as teaching moments or through mediation rather than just punishment.
Technology Accelerators:
Technology does not create momentum or greatness; it only accelerates it if used in service of the Hedgehog Concept.
Evidence: of great executives studied did not rank technology as a top-five factor in their transformation.
Example: Chicago’s CLEAR system was a technology accelerator for the CAPS (Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy) goals of increasing safety via community partnerships.
The Flywheel and the Doom Loop
The Flywheel Effect: Organizational greatness is the result of consistent, cumulative small decisions and efforts over a long period. There is no single "killer app" or breakthrough moment; rather, the momentum eventually becomes self-sustaining.
The Doom Loop: Characterized by inconsistency, chasing management fads, and repeated organizational restructuring without disciplined thought. Moving from one "program of the month" to another prevents momentum.
Leadership Tenure: The "revolving-door" nature of police chiefs hinders the flywheel. Successful leaders leverage crises as catalysts for necessary change (e.g., the New Orleans corruption reforms under Pennington or scandals in Providence leveraged by Esserman).
Case Study: Broad Acres Elementary School
Context: A failing school with high poverty and a large immigrant community characterized by very low proficiency scores.
Transformation:
The Hedgehog Concept was shifted exclusively to academic excellence.
The principal confronted the brutal facts by sharing failing test data with parents and noting that vouchers were available for them to leave.
The union head was brought into the planning and standards development process.
Personnel management: Approximately of teachers stayed by making a commitment, while those who did not agree were permitted to transfer.
Academic Rigor: Specialists were hired, and non-academic activities (assemblies, certain field trips) were eliminated to preserve focus.
Result: The school achieved dramatic proficiency gains within , proving that the framework works in high-pressure public sectors with inherited staff.
Additional Practical Considerations for Law Enforcement
Performance Evaluations: Current tools often measure simple "inputs" like orderliness. There is a need for complex tools tied to specific expectations and formal recognition.
Training Investment: Continued investment in programs like the Madison Leadership Academy or the Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP) is vital for developing Level 5 leaders.
Hiring and Promotion: Integrity and character must be the paramount criteria for advancement.
Public Sector Nuance: Jim Collins later published "Good to Great and the Social Sectors," a monograph specifically addressing the challenges of leadership without executive power, which serves as a companion to these principles.