Jim Collins demonstrates in his book “Good to Great” if you want a culture of greatness, you must surround yourself with disciplined people.

What is this discipline? It’s when people are engaged in processes of disciplined thought and then take disciplined approaches to their tasks. These individuals work within the framework of a well-defined set of accountability and responsibility.

Few companies move from good to great because they respond to growth and success in the wrong way. The entrepreneurial spirit is fueled by imagination, creativity and daring moves into uncharted waters. We’re jazzed by the highs we get when we move into areas we never thought we’d be able to get into.

If we’re not disciplined, though, the complexity brought on by moving into uncharted waters will exceed the capabilities of those in the organization. These complexities could even exceed our own capabilities and lead to problems we never anticipated: problems with customers, scheduling and cash flow. What once was fun and exciting becomes a gnarled ball of issues that drain passion and energy.

The original members of the team, those who were really charged up at the onset, begin to wonder what happened. Comments like “this isn’t fun anymore” are uttered out loud. Complaints about nonsensical tasks increase. That old creative magic wanes. As Jim Collins points out: The cancer of mediocrity begins to grow in earnest.

That’s the beginning of the end.

Bureaucracy begins to smother the entrepreneurial spirit. Good people leave. Worse, the better employees suffer the slow process of death by a thousand cuts as they begin the quiet quitting process. This leaves you working with fewer great employees and settling for good to less than good employees.

Mediocre companies build bureaucracies to manage the small proportion of wrong people on the bus. This in turn drives even more of the better employees away, increasing the need for even more bureaucracy. The spiral continues until it’s a better proposition to either sell the company or close.

Head this off at the proverbial pass now. Don’t wait until bureaucracy begins to show interest. Avoid bureaucracy by creating a culture of discipline. When you have your original entrepreneurial spirit coupled with a culture of discipline, you get a magical alchemy of superior performance and sustained results.

Stop hiring for skills.

Start hiring for attitude.

The right attitude can overcome any deficiency in skills. Hire the right person with the right attitude, then find a way to make them comfortable and competent with required skills. Get the right people on the bus first, then put them in the right seats. Move the wrong people off the bus. Next, establish a process of disciplined thought: Everyone seeing things the same way in the same light.

Every good-to-great company must maintain unwavering faith it will prevail in the end regardless of the difficulties. At the same time, you must maintain discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality whatever those might be. You must remain faithful you’ll create a path to greatness.

Of utmost importance, you must remain disciplined as you search for and understand you organization’s hedgehog concept — the core value proposition or the primary thing you do well.

Finally, it’s time for a well-defined and disciplined course of action. You need a clearly defined map everyone understands.

Mediocre companies try skipping the first parts and jump directly to the map. That won’t work if you have people on your bus unwilling to even look at the map. Disciplined action without disciplined people is a disaster waiting to happen.

Discipline by itself can’t guarantee success. Global competitiveness could stunt your organizational performance. The point is in getting self-disciplined people who are engaged and empowered on the bus and getting the wrong people off the bus. Develop the framework of a consistent and disciplined system designed around your hedgehog concept and you’ll be well on your way from good to great.