Start With Why-Book Summary
How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
In this book, Simon Sinek presented how great leaders inspire others by putting the Why (the purpose) before the How (the process), or the What (the product) and how organizations guided by the concept of Golden Circle will succeed more often than those who don’t.
Simon Sinek started the book with a wonderful story of group of American car executives who went to Japan to see a Japanese car assembly line. In American car factories, workers on the assembly line apply final fixes on doors using a rubber mallet, whereas in Japan the doors are engineered to fit perfectly from the start. What American automakers did is a metaphor for how so many people and organizations lead i.e.Effective short term tactics are used for short term outcomes instead of planning for Long term results.
With this wonderful story he tried to explain the difference between the person or organizations who decide to manipulate to get to the end result, and those who start with the end result in mind and let everything else naturally fall into place and how looking at bigger picture can shape your behavior towards driving long-term results.
He then explains on how to influence human behavior, either you can manipulate or you inspire. Typical manipulations from politics to business include price, running a promotion, using fear, Peer pressure or aspiration message and promising innovation to influence behavior be it a purchase, a vote or support. When companies or organizations do not have a clear sense of why their customers are their customers tend to rely on a disproportionate number of manipulations. Danger of manipulations is that they work, just because it works doesn't make it right because manipulations can lead to transactions but not loyalty. Once that manipulation looses it’s power or charm customers move to different company. For example Many companies plays price game, drop the prices low enough and people will buy from them like End of a retail season, short term gain is fantastic but once buyer get used to paying a lower than average price for a product or service , it is very hard to get them to pay more.
Simon sinek suggests that inspiring your customer is effective alternative to Manipulation. These are a few leaders or organizations who choose to inspire rather than manipulate to motivate people. Every single one of these inspiring leader thinks, acts and communicates exactly the same way and its complete opposite to leaders who believe in manipulations. Consciously or not, how they do it is by following a natural pattern of the Golden Circle. The core of Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” is his discovery of The Golden Circle.
When we start with “Why”, we go from the inside out of the circle. “Why” is the reason to buy and the “Whats” merely represent the tangible products as a proof of that belief. “Whats” are the reasons we can point to rationalize why we so much like a company over another.
Simon Sinek cites the example of Apple. In his opinion, Apple is technically no different from its competitors. But Apple communicates from the “Why.” and not with What.
If Apple were like most other companies , a marketing message from then would move from the outside in of the The Golden Circle and start with some statement of WHAT company does or makes, followed by How they think they are different or better than competition, followed by some call to action. A marketing message from Apple might look like
“ We make great computers.
They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly.
Wanna buy one? “
But that’s not the way Apple actually communicates. They starts with WHY then How to What and marketing message is
“Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently.
The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly.
And we happen to make great computers.
Wanna buy one?”
Apple doesn’t simple reversed the order of information, theirs message starts with WHY, a purpose, cause or belief that has nothing to do with WHAT they do — the products they make, from computers to small electronics — no longer serves as the reason to buy, they serve as the tangible proof of their cause, which is the reason why people perceive Apple as authentic.
Simon’s key idea in a nutshell:
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
Simon sinek states that his concept of Golden circle is not an opinion instead it is a biology and the Golden Circle matches the way our brain operates.
Neocortex: Our neocortex, corresponds with the “What” level. This is responsible for all our rational and analytical thought and language. This allows us to look through vast amounts of facts and figures, but it doesn’t drive behavior.
Limbic Brain: The middle two sections make up our limbic brain and are responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. This roughly corresponds with the “Why” level. This area of the brain is responsible for all human behavior and all our decision making.
When companies start with “Why”, with what they believe, they will tap into our innate drive to include those products as symbols of our values and beliefs. They make us feel special like we belong to something bigger, and we feel a sense of tribe affiliation with all the others buying the same products.
Clarity,Discipline & Consistency
Starting with Why is just the beginning. There is still work to be done before a person or organization earns the right or ability to inspire.For the Golden circle to work, each of the below pieces musty be in balance and in the right order
a) Clarity of Why the organization exists
b) Discipline of How- Finding your why is the easy part, Holding yourself true to this and sticking to how you achieve your why is the hard part. It requires discipline.
c) Consistency of what -Everything you say you do. All your products or services should reflect your WHY
Simon Sinek says that the goal of business should not be to do business with anyone who simply wants what you have. It should be to focus on the people who believe what you believe. When we are selective about doing business only with those who believe in our WHY, trust emerges.
Trust begins to emerge when we see that people and organizations are driven by reasons that go beyond the self-serving. Aligning Why, How and What, is a way to build that trust.
Because consumers are inspired by “Why” you do what you do, companies that begin communicating with the “Why” have a greater flexibility in the market. Take the example of Apple and Dell. Apple makes computers. Apple also makes iPad’s and iPhone's.
Dell, on the other hand, is defined by “What” they do. Dell does computers, so consumers don’t feel comfortable buying anything else from them like say, a tablet or a smartphone. They tried expanding into different verticals but quickly retreated to “focus on their core business”.
Simon Sinek also cites the First Mover Advantage when “Why” is in the picture. Take the case of Creative versus Apple. Creative was far more capable of producing an mp3 player, and they were the first. But they marketed their offering as a “5GB mp3 player”, more like a “What.” Instead, Apple marketed the iPod as “1000 songs in your pocket” giving us the “Why” that we need.
When employees belong, they will guarantee your success. And they won’t be working hard and looking for an innovative solution for you, they will be doing it for themselves.
The goal is to hire those who are passionate about your “Why”, your purpose, cause or belief, and who have the attitude that fits your culture. Once that is established, only then should their skill set and experience be evaluated.
Great companies do not hire skilled people and motivate them; they hire already motivated people and inspire them. Companies with a strong sense of “Why” are able to inspire their employees. Such employees are more productive and innovative, and the feeling they bring to work attracts other people eager to work there as well.
The Tipping point
The Law of diffusion of Innovations stated by Everett M.Rogers pertains to the bell curve of product adoption. The curve outlines the percentage of the market who adopt your product, beginning with the Innovators (2.5%), followed by Early Adopters (13.5%), Early Majority (34%), Late Majority (34%) and Laggards (16%).
The ones who queued up for hours, or days outside an Apple store to buy the latest iPhone are all early adopters and belong to the left side of the curve. The people on the far right instead are never content and never loyal. For a business, it would be prudent to get to know the far right side of this curve better, so that you don’t waste time and money in trying to convert them. While some of them might end up doing business with you, they’ll probably switch to one of your competitors at the drop of a hat if they get a better deal.
The goal of a business then is to be crystal clear about their “Why” and find people who believe what you believe. Once you get enough of the 15–18% on the left side of the bell curve, they will encourage the rest to follow.
Start with Why, But know How
All the great leaders have charisma because all great leaders have clarity of why; an undying belief in a purpose or cause bigger than themselves.It’s not Bill Gates’s passion for computers that inspire us, it’s his undying optimism that even the most complicated problems can be solved.
Bill gates imagined a world in which Malaria does not exists, and it will happen. wright brothers imagined a world in which we’d all take to the skies as easily as we catch the bus, and it happened. Why Types have the power to change the course of industries or even the world, if only they know HOW.
Behind every “Why” type of leader, is a “How” type of leader who brings the “Why” to life.WHY-types are focused on the things that most people can’t see, like the future.HOW-Types are focused on things most people can’t see and tend to better at building structures and processed and getting things done.
In nearly every case of a person or organization that has gone to inspire people and do great things, their exists special partnership between WHY and HOW. Bill gates , for example may have been the visionary who images world with a PC on every desk, but Paul Allen built the company. Steve Jobs is the rebel evangelist, but Steve Wozniak is the engineer who made the Apple work. The Special Partnership between WHY and HOW that makes an organization great.
Vision and Mission Statement
The difference between “Why” and “How” types also introduces the difference between the vision and mission statements of an organization.
The vision is the founder’s intent, “Why” the company was founded. The mission is a description of “How” the company will create that future.
When both are clear, it will help the “Why” and the “How” type of leaders to have clearly defined roles in the partnership.
KNOW WHY. KNOW HOW. THEN WHAT?
Most companies struggle to differentiate or communicate their true value to the outside world. When we as human beings struggle to put emotions into word, we rely on metaphors, imagery, and analogies in an attempt to communicate how we feel. We use symbols. We create tangible things for those who believe in what we believe to say. If done properly, that’s what marketing products and services are, a way for organizations to communicate to the world outside.
If What you do doesn’t prove what you believe, then no one will know what your WHY is and you’ll be forced to compete on price service, quality, features and benefits. It is not just WHAT or HOW you do things that matters, what matters more is that WHAT & HOW you do things is consistent with your WHY. Only then will your practices indeed be best.
The New Competition
We’re always competing against someone else. Better quality, More features,Better service. We’re always comparing ourselves to the competition. And no one wants to help us.What if we showed up to work every single day to be better than ourselves? For no better reason than to want to leave the organization in a better state than we found it?
All organizations start with “Why”, but only the great ones keep their “Why” clear year after year. Those who forget “Why” they were founded show up to the race every day to outdo someone else instead of outdoing themselves.
You are your best competition. What if the next time someone asks “Well why should i do business with you? We answer with confidence “ Because the work we’re doing now is better than the work we were doing six months ago , and the work we’ll be doing six months from now will be better than we’re doing today. Because we wake up every day with a sense of WHY we come to work.We come to work to inspire people to do things that inspire them.
Our goal is to find customers who believe what we believe and work together so that we can all Succeed.
Imagine if every organization started with WHY, decision would be simpler, loyalties would be greater , Trust would be common currency. if our leaders were diligent about starting with WHY, Optimism would reign and innovation would thrive. No matter the size of organization, no matter the industry, no matter the product or the service, if we all take some responsibility to start with WHY and inspire others to do the same, then together we can change the world.
