Most professionals today have heard of Jim Collins author of Good to Great, Built to Last and How the Mighty Fall among others.  Collins has been called the most influential management thinker alive, by Fortune Magazine.  Collins operates a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado where he conducts research, teaches and consults with executives from the corporate and social sectors.  Here Collins has studied how great companies endure, how they grow, attain superior performance and achieve greatness.

In Good to Great, Collins focuses on the values and ethics needed to build a great and sustaining corporate culture.  Through concepts like the Flywheel and the Hedgehog Concept, Collins provides the means to change cultural dynamics and convert organizations in the process.  Possibly the most groundbreaking concept in Good to Great, is the description offered of Level 5 Leadership.  These are the leaders who are more committed to the cause than themselves.  It defines a leadership model that finds leaders throughout the organization and encourages them to bring their skills, ideas and passions forward no matter what the position they hold.

In Collins latest book Great by Choice, Collins asks why do some companies thrive in uncertainty and chaos while others don’t?  Through nearly a decade of research Collins and his co-author, Morten Hansen, identify principles for creating a great enterprise in tumultuous times.

One of the most compelling notions in this book is that of the 20 Mile March.  It articulates the idea that the best leaders are not more risk taking, visionary or creative than their counterparts, but rather more disciplined, empirical and paranoid.  The 20 Mile March concept speaks to the discipline needed to be successful not only in business but in life.

Being successful at a 20 Mile March “requires hitting specified performance markers with great consistency over a long period of time.” Organizations that grab hold of this concept consistently deliver high performance in tough times and hold back in good times. 

According to Collins and Hansen a good 20 Mile March has the following characteristics:

1. Clear performance markers
2. Self-imposed constraints
3. Appropriate to the specific enterprise
4. Largely within the organization’s control to achieve
5. A proper timeframe – long enough to manage, yet short enough to have teeth
6. Imposed by the company on itself
7. Achieve with high consistency

The authors point out that a good 20 Mile March does not necessarily have to be financial, but can also be creative, learning, service-improvement or any other type of march that meets these seven characteristics.

Within Great by Choice the reader learns about two competing teams who sought to be the first to reach the South Pole in 1911.  The winner, Roald Amundsen used many of the principles laid out in Great by Choice to lead his team to victory while the other team led by Robert Falcon Scott all perished less than ten miles from the finish line.

One of the key distinguishers to these two explorers is the fanatic discipline used by Amundsen to achieve success.  He made it clear to his team that they would travel 20 miles each day regardless of the conditions.  They would push through their 20 miles when it was blisteringly cold, and they would resist the urge to go further when conditions were favorable.

On their daily 20 Mile March, Amundsen anticipated and planned for the worst.  His paranoia that the most awful might occur, provided a tenacity for success as well as a method for contingency planning throughout the journey.  Amundsen reached the pole and the finish line at home base on schedule while facing the exact same conditions that Scott faced.  With proper planning using empirical data, fanatic discipline and a healthy dose of paranoia, Amundsen was successful.

Like Amundsen and his team, companies can embrace fanatic discipline by using 20 Mile Marches as a way to exert self-control, even when afraid or tempted by opportunity.  According to Collins and Hansen, “Having a clear 20 Mile March focuses the mind, because everyone on the team knows the markers and their importance and can stay on track.”

Being on a 20 Mile March builds confidence. “By adhering to a 20 Mile March no matter what challenges and unexpected shocks you encounter, you prove to yourself and your enterprise that performance is not determined by your conditions but largely by your own actions.”

In today’s public organizations, this relates to being clear on the vision and consistently working toward that vision. Consider also the value of a 20 Mile March in translating to your personal goals and the discipline required to achieve them.