Centennials: The 12 Habits Of Great, Enduring Organisations

On 6 February, CMCE was delighted to welcome Professor Alex Hill to lead a workshop in which he shared the insights of research conducted into long-lived organisations and what makes them successful.  The organisations studied included British Cycling, Eton College, NASA, New Zealand All Blacks, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Art and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The research was conducted over thirteen years and involved spending a year with each of the organisations that took part in the study. The results are included in Professor Hill’s book Centennials: The 12 Habits of Great, Enduring Organisations, and are attracting interest from a diverse range of other organisations, including sports teams, schools, and investment banks.

Professor Hill explained that the key to enduring success is for organisations to be “radically traditional”, combining a stable core with a disruptive edge. These provide the basis for 6 Principles and 12 Habits. During the session, he also provided a number of practical examples that showcased how the organisations that were studied demonstrate their commitment to these Principles. The table below includes the 6 Principles together with the key Questions related to each of the 12 Habits.

Professor Hill then invited participants at the workshop to use the Centennial Truths self-assessment questionnaire which is based on the 12 Habits to analyse a client situation and to then discuss their analysis with a small group of fellow participants. This provided an excellent introduction to the content of the 12 Habits.

The workshop concluded with a lengthy Question and Answer session in which Professor Hill responded to questions about his research.

A full recording of the workshop is now available and can be accessed using this link.

Please use this link if you are interested in reading Alex’s book, Centennials, this link if you are interested in listening to it, and this link if you are interested in listening to a podcast where Alex discusses the book.

You may also be interested in exploring these two websites in which Alex discusses his work: www.professoralexhill.com and www.radicallytraditional.org, which will also give you access to the Centennials Truths questionnaire used during the workshop.