I am writing again from a short clip that I watched called "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" by Simon Sinek. It is an 18 minutes long video clip from TED - Ideas worth spreading. A family member gave it to me sometime back for gaining wisdom and enlightenment, which he literally said. I have watched once before but this connection with our work has not arrived at my mind until now. So kindly go through it, if only you are interested. Please don't be compelled to read or be challenged by it. It is something I want to do and share for information and I want to thank you all for giving me that space till date.
"The Goal is not to do business (work) with people who needs what you have. The Goal is to do business (work) with people who believe what you believe. They believe not for you, they believe it for themselves."
What bothered Simon Sinek?
The talk on the video revolves around how certain individual, group or organization are able to achieve better despite doing the same thing. Simon Sinek specifically questions the "WHY" of this and closely looked at three cases as mentioned below:
- Why is it that Apple happen to be so innovative year after year than other competitions yet it is just one computer company? They have the same talent, access, agency, media, consultancy etc.
- Why is it that Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement in American? He was not the only one suffering from it.
- Why is it that the Wright brothers figured out the man controlled flights when there are other better qualified and better funded people?
What did he decode in the process?
After three and a half years, he was able to decode the answer. He found out that there is a pattern and that all of the above three think and act in the exact same way as completely opposed to everyone else. He termed it as "The Golden Circle". The inner core of the Circle was WHY, encircled by HOW and the outermost by WHAT.
WHAT - Every single organization knows what they are doing. 100% of them know that.
HOW - Some Organization know how they do it.
WHY - Very few know the purpose of existence and what they believe.
What was his explanation? How did he Inspire his audience?
He gave two instances of selling a product -
Case 1: How majority of us communicate interpersonally."We make great computers (WHAT), they are beautifully designed, user friendly and simple to use (HOW). Wanna buy one?"The response came, " Nah...."
Reason for its failure: The communication started with the WHAT and then the HOW without touching the WHY part of it, though the WHY is the core of making people believe what you believe.
Case 2: How Apple inspires"Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently (WHY). The way we challenge this status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly (HOW). We just happen to make great computers (WHAT). Wanna buy one?"Reason for its success: The communication started with making people believe in what you believe by dealing with the WHY of it as the primary focus and the rests are just secondary. The order of communication in the first case has to be reversed.
What has this Golden Circle got to do with our brain?
The Golden Circle is all grounded in the tenants of Biology and has nothing to do with Psychology. Simon explained that the human brain is broken down into three major components.
The Neocortex or our homo-sapiens brain corresponds with the WHAT level. It is responsible for our rational, analytical thought and language. This is equivalent to talking from the Outside In (WHAT--> HOW --> WHY) from the Golden Circle. In this, we can understand the features, facts and situations which does not drive behavior. However, it does not feel right just knowing that.
The HOW and the WHY make up our limbic brain. It deals with feelings like Trust and Loyalty. It is responsible for all human behaviour, all decision making and has no capacity for language. This is also equivalent to talking from Inside Out (WHY --> HOW --> WHAT). It directly talks to the part of the brain that controls the behaviour. we allow people to rationalize (WHAT) with the tangible things we say and do. This is where the gut decision come from. It's the part of the brain that controls decision making but not language.
What about the Wright brothers?
The Wright brothers were driven by a cause. They believed that if they could figured out the man controlled flying machine, it would change the course of the human world. They did not have the money, qualification and people. At the same time, there is an unrecognized Samuel P. Langley who wanted money, fame and be the first to figured it now. He had all the often assumed recipe for success - money, right people and market. It turned out that he quit when the Wright brothers successfully accomplished their purpose because he could not accomplished his fame and richness.
And about Martin Luther King?
He went around spreading the word "I believe.. I believe..." for the American Civil Rights Movement. Those who heard his cause ultimately spread the said cause, not for him but for themselves. it is about what they believed about America. Around 250,000 people turned up in his speech and this speech was about "I have a dream" and not about "I have a plan." It was not about Black versus White and 25% of the audience was White.
Simon's concluding comment
"There are Leaders and those who Lead. Leaders hold the power and authority. But those who lead inspire us. Be it individual or organization, we follow those who lead not because we have to but because we want to. We follow those who lead not for them but for ourselves. Those who start with WHY has the ability to inspire those around them."
My biggest take away:
I also believe that if we follow the same approach with our Teacher Forums or any work that we do, then we would definitely succeed.
I am not going to comment further on this but leave for you to ponder upon.
Thank you.
