Good to Great Policing: Comprehensive Study Notes and Study Guide
Overview of Good to Great Policing
Source Citation: This study guide extracts key findings from "Good to Great" Policing, authored by Wexler, Wycoff, and Fischer ().
Core Inspiration: The research applies the principles from Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, which examined companies that achieved sustained market returns after years of mediocre performance, to the unique environment of law enforcement and the broader public sector.
Defining Success in the Public Sector:
Greatness in policing requires a fundamental shift in focus from inputs to outputs.
Inputs (Not the measure of greatness): These include arrests made, reports filed, budgets secured, and money/resources allocated. These are viewed as means rather than ends.
Outputs (The true measure of greatness): Success is defined by sustained crime reduction and overall public safety.
The Policing Context:
Inherent Advantages: Policing organizations often benefit from passionate, mission-driven personnel.
Inherent Challenges:
Civil service and union protections that complicate personnel management.
Inherited staff and limited authority to fire underperforming employees.
Short tenure of police chiefs in major cities, which averages < 4\text{ years}.
The necessity for "legislative" leadership, which relies on persuasion and finding shared interests among stakeholders, rather than relying solely on "executive" authority (command and control).
Level 5 Leadership
The Level 5 Paradox: Great leaders exhibit a paradoxical blend of deep personal humility and intense professional will.
Key Characteristics:
They are fanatically driven to build organizational greatness rather than personal celebrity or status.
Credit and Blame: These leaders look in the mirror to take responsibility for failures and look out the window to give credit to others or good fortune when the organization succeeds.
Application in Law Enforcement: In policing, this must be balanced with a "command presence" necessary for high-visibility crises, such as instances involving the use of force or terrorism response.
Succession Planning: A hallmark of Level chiefs is the development of successors. This includes mentoring and sending commanders to advanced training even late in the chief's own tenure. They avoid the "genius with a thousand helpers" model where the organization collapses once the leader departs.
First Who, Then What
Personnel Management: The primary goal is to get the "right people on the bus" and the "wrong people off the bus," while ensuring the right people are in the "right seats" before determining the organization's strategic direction.
Self-Motivation: The "right people" are characterized as being internally self-motivated and requiring little external management to perform well.
Strategies for Law Enforcement: Improving person-to-organization fit is difficult in policing but can be achieved via:
Hiring and Promotion: Utilizing performance-based promotions instead of pure seniority. Chiefs may conduct personal interviews focusing on character, integrity, and attitude.
Organizational Structures: Implementing advisory councils and planning teams composed of members with a long-term stake in the department.
Reassignment: Using transfers or reassignments where firing is not an option.
Development: Establishing robust leadership development programs.
Confronting the Brutal Facts (The Stockdale Paradox)
The Truth-Based Culture: Organizations must create a culture where the truth is heard through data-driven debate and analysis.
Operating Mechanisms:
Autopsies without Blame: Analyzing mistakes to learn without assigning personal fault.
Red-Flag Mechanisms: Creating systems that alert the organization to critical issues before they become disasters.
Lead with Questions: Leaders should use inquiries rather than providing all the answers.
The Stockdale Paradox: This principle involves maintaining unwavering faith that the organization will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, while simultaneously confronting the most brutal facts of the current reality.
Data in Policing:
CompStat: Served as an example of real-time data usage and accountability.
Historical Warning: The transcript notes past data manipulation in cities like Dallas and Chicago, which eventually led to necessary reforms. Police departments have a real-time data advantage but must own and analyze it honestly.
The Hedgehog Concept
The Three Circles of Focus: Greatness comes from a deep understanding of what an organization can be the best in the world at, what they are deeply passionate about, and what drives their resource engine.
Law Enforcement Application: For police, this usually involves a singular focus on crime reduction and public safety through proactive, problem-oriented approaches and community partnerships (e.g., CompStat).
Temporal and Geographic Specificity: This focus can be applied to specific geographic areas, time frames, or specialized units.
The Council: Leadership should utilize a standing "Council" consisting of diverse members. This group debates issues extensively to reach an understanding; however, the chief ultimately retains decision-making authority.
Culture of Discipline
The Triad of Discipline: This involves disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action.
Management Style: Discipline comes from the internal drive of the "right people" on the bus. This allows for a culture of freedom and responsibility rather than a stifling bureaucracy or top-down tyranny.
Focus on Mission:
Relentless focus on the core mission.
"Stop Doing" Lists: Eliminating non-essential tasks that distract from the main goals, such as responding to false alarms or taking phone reports for "cold" crimes.
Teaching Moments: Honest mistakes should be treated as mediation or teaching opportunities rather than strictly punitive events.
Technology Accelerators
Role of Technology: Technology itself does not create greatness or momentum. Instead, it acts as an accelerator of the Hedgehog Concept when it is pioneered to serve the core mission.
Statistics on Tech: Research shows that of great executives did not rank technology among their top factors for success.
Examples in Policing:
Chicago CLEAR: Utilized for Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) goals regarding safety and partnerships.
CompStat: Serves as the data backbone for performance and accountability.
Flywheel and Doom Loop
The Flywheel Effect: Organizational greatness is the result of consistent, cumulative small decisions and efforts over time. There is no single "killer app" or breakthrough moment; rather, momentum builds until it sustains itself.
The Doom Loop: This is characterized by inconsistency, chasing "fads," and repeated restructuring without disciplined thought. In policing, "revolving-door chiefs" often hinder the flywheel's momentum.
Crisis as Catalyst: Crises can be leveraged to drive change, citing examples of corruption reforms in New Orleans under Pennington and leveraging scandals in Providence under Esserman.
Case Study: Broad Acres Elementary
Context: This was a failing school characterized by high poverty and a large immigrant community with very low proficiency scores.
Hedgehog Concept: The school shifted its entire focus to academic excellence.
Confronting Facts: The school confronted brutal test data and communicated openly with parents, even offering vouchers for other schools.
Process:
The union head was involved in planning and setting standards.
Approximately of teachers stayed with a commitment, while others transferred out (getting the "wrong people off the bus").
They hired specialists and eliminated non-essential activities like certain assemblies and field trips.
Outcomes: The school saw dramatic gains within , demonstrating that improvement is possible despite inherited staff and unions if there is extreme focus and shared goals.
Other Law Enforcement Considerations
Performance Evaluations: Current evaluations often measure "easy inputs" like orderliness rather than complex police work. There is a need for tools tied to specific expectations and recognition.
Leadership Investment: Departments should invest in programs such as the Madison Leadership Academy and the Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP).
Character: Character and integrity should remain the paramount factors in hiring and promotion decisions.
Restructuring: Moving "seats on the bus" (e.g., implementing geographic policing models) can occasionally achieve results without physically moving people.
Framework vs. Checklist: These principles are intended as a framework for long-term improvement, not a simple checklist. For further nuance in the public sector, the article points to Collins' monograph Good to Great and the Social Sectors.