Built to Last

Five foundational principles from Jim Collins' Built to Last — purpose, bold goals, systems thinking, experimentation, and continuous improvement. Structured as a 5–7 week coaching programme.

What's inside

This collection distils five core principles from Built to Last into a structured coaching programme. Each principle includes a micro lesson, blind spots, journal prompts, and a five-day habit builder.

The five principles:

Preserve the Core / Stimulate Progress — Hold tightly to your core values and purpose while relentlessly pushing for innovation and change.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) — Set goals bold enough to change how you think about what's possible — concrete, emotionally compelling, and rooted in purpose.

Clock Building vs. Time Telling — Shift from being the person with the answers to building systems and structures that produce results without depending on any single person.

Try a Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works — Replace the pursuit of the perfect plan with intentional experimentation — small, fast tests that accelerate learning and reduce risk.

Good Enough Never Is — Cultivate a restless commitment to improvement driven by curiosity and craft, not perfectionism or fear.

How to use this collection

As a structured programme, work through one principle per week over five to seven weeks. The programme begins with a baseline assessment and ends with reflection and forward planning.

For targeted coaching, use the baseline assessment to identify which principles are most relevant, then assign selectively. Each principle is self-contained.

As session preparation, assign a micro lesson and journal prompts as pre-work before a coaching session so the client arrives with reflections ready to explore.

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