Some of the frameworks that I work with professionally, and sometimes in the personal realm, resonate so well. One of those is called Good to Great.

I could talk for ever on this and literally do a full day workshop on Good to Great.

There's one principle in particular that I've come to really love. It's called the Hedgehog Concept, and here's what it means. Really great organizations, and I would extend to include really great people, do four things really well.

The one is they know and protect their core, the thing that is central to what they need to do, the thing that drives their resources. That is the thing that needs to never be sacrificed. That's the hedgehog. It curls up; it's protected.

Great organizations and great people also entertain big, hairy, audacious goals at the same time. They go with big, cool, lofty stuff.

They keep a firewall too. This is the third principle. They keep a firewall between the big hairy, audacious goal and the core because it's disruptive.

Think about your cell phone. Someone is dreaming up really cool features right now. But they don't have access to your phone, because they'll screw your phone up. But when it's ready, you get the download, you wake up and you get the little message that suddenly you've got all these new features. It's a great illustration of the firewall in practice.

The other thing that really great people and organizations do is they have ways to stop doing things, the things that aren't valuable, that aren't priorities, that don't produce the value that you want. And they do that as a fourth practice. They know to let go of some things. Strategic subtraction, I heard it called recently, which I really like. It's a great geek phrase.

So that's it, the secret. A secret. Protect the core, and know what the core is. Entertain big, hairy, audacious, aspirational things. Keep a firewall between the two because they'll disrupt it, and make sure you have ways of stopping doing things. Strategic subtraction.

This is a set of key principles of becoming great with your life, with your profession, with your world.

If you're interested, you can look it up. Good to Great.

I find it really, really valuable.