Start With Why - KeynesYouDigIt/Knowledge GitHub Wiki

Why, How, and What

• Why: Your motivation; a belief. Since the why comes from the limbic system (which lacks language), you communicate the why like you communicate about emotions: metaphor, story, and symbol. When the why is absent, imbalance is produced and manipulations thrive, uncertainty increases for buyers, instability increases for sellers, and stress increases for all. Once why is clear, start working on the how.
• How: Your differentiation; the actions you take to realize those beliefs. How people bring visions to reality; if you love building things, you are probably a how person.
• What: The results of your actions. Your what is proof of your commitment to your why.

The why can be hard to communicate to shareholders and the market, who mostly see the what, which is why the what needs to be so clearly aligned with the why. Money is a result, not a reason.

Biology

We trust people who share our values. You want to belong and be with people who are like you. The neocortex controls decisions decisions relating to what, the limbic system controls decisions relating to why and how. Humans have been successful because of cultures, which are groups of people who come together around a common set of values and beliefs. A company is also a culture.

Manipulation

You can influence behavior by manipulation, which includes competing with:

• Price cuts & promotion- Winning on price is addicting and unsustainable.
• Fear
• Peer pressure- "Most of your competitors use us"...but what if they're idiots?
• Aspirational messaging- You can get someone to buy a gym membership with an aspirational message- getting them to go 3 times a week takes inspiration.
• Novelty- Innovation changes the terms of competition- novelty is just new for new sake.

Win with loyalty, not manipulation. Winning takes discipline, not quick fixes and short-term thinking. Don't win by tricking your customers. Manipulations are good for single transactions, but repeat business needs loyalty.

Building Companies

Build products, companies, and recruit people based on the desired end result; win by design, not default. Why are your customers your customers? Why are your employees your employees? If you don't know, you can't attract more of both. Your values should be clear to your customers. When Starbucks shifted from ceramic cups to paper cups, they undercut their why of creating a place between home and work. Loyalty is when people will pay more or suffer some inconvenience to do business with you. A customer’s loyalty should tell the world something about them. Loyal people buy the brand, and then pick which product in that brand they need. Defining your company by your product makes you very susceptible to disruption. If your product is perceived as a commodity, you'll act like it and start competing on price, features, quality, and manipulation. What isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition- one company’s what won’t necessarily work for another. The personality of the company and its leader are the same. Why people need to be paired with how people- Jobs/Wozniak, Gates/Allen, the Disney Brothers. Succession leaders need to embody the cause, not bring their own. What gets measured gets done, which is why what you measure needs to be in line with your why. Nouns are not values- you can't hold people accountable for nouns. Measure the things that you can truly control. If you have to make a short-term choice, be clear that it's a short-term choice. Langley had the capital, the best people, and the ideal market conditions, but lost to the Wright Brothers because because he didn't have a good why.

Employees

Happy employees make happy customers, which make happy shareholders- in that order. Hire for attitude - you can always teach skills. Just paying employees lots of money and having a good environment are manipulations, not inspirations. Don't hire skilled people and motivate them; hire motivated people and inspire them. Loyalty for employees is their "repeat business," and means turning down more money or better opportunities to stay. Shackleton's Anarctica exploration recruitment ad didn't talk about qualifications (what), he talked about they why: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success." If one stonemason is building a wall and another is building a cathedral, the latter has a sense of purpose and will be more fulfilled.

Selling

Find customers who believe what you believe. Start your sales pitches with why, then what, then how. Who is your competition? “Don't know, who cares- do business with us because we're doing better work than we were 6 months ago, and will be doing better work 6 months from now.” There is no difference between sales and dating- you wouldn't date someone by starting to talk about how rich you are or how many famous people you know, so why do we sell that way? You need to sell to the 16% innovators and early adopters who get it and believe what you believe- they'll convince the majority. You'll get 10% pretty easily- that last 6% is the tipping point.

Leading Yourself

Self-referencing your ego makes you compete against yourself. When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you; when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you. The pessimists are usually right, but the optimists change the world. Discovering your why is a process of looking backward and discovery. A company is just a what to your why. Achievement is attaining what you want, but you only succeed when that's connected to a why. You get confidence in choices not from your “gut”, but from being able to rationalize the what based on its alignment with the why.

Leading Others

All a leader needs is a follower, which is someone who volunteers to go where you're going. A company can be run and managed, but people can only be led. Leaders need a vision of a world that does not yet exist, and an ability to communicate it. Cultivate a feeling of "we're in this together." No one showed up to the "I have a dream" speech for Dr. King- they showed up for themselves. It also wasn't the "I have a plan" speech. Symbols are powerful for rallying people, but you don't decide what the symbol means, the people who believe in it do. Energy motivates, but charisma inspires. You need inspiration because you need the effect to last after you leave the room. Never losing sight of why even if the what (achievement) eludes you is inspiring to others. Charisma has nothing to do with energy- it has to do with clarity of your why. When a company gets big enough that the founder can't personally make all the decisions and inspire everyone, the why can become fuzzy.