How do you explain when things don't go as we assume?
How do you explain when others seem to achieve things that defy all of the assumptions?
eg.
Why is apple so inivative?
They're just a computer company, they're just the same as everyone else.
They have the same access to the same talent the same agencies, the same consultants, the same media.
why did Martin Luther King lead the civil rights movement?
Why did the Wright brothers figure out flight when other teams were better qualified and better funded?
There's something else at play here.
As it turns out there's a pattern.
all the great and inspriing leaders think act an dcommunicate in the excat same way.
It's the complete opposite to everyone else. They communicate from the inside out.
It is the world's simplest idea and it is called the golden circle.
Why
How
What
What
Everyone knows what they do
How
Many know how they do it
Why
Few know why they do it. Why does your organisation exist? What do you believe in? Why should anyone care?
People don't buy what you do they buy why you do it.
The goal is not to sell to people who need what you have but to sell to people who believe what you believe. This breeds trust. This breeds loyalty.
What is about rational decisions.
How and why are where people make decisions based on feeling or gut instinct.
Feelings cannot be expressed in language whihc may explain why it can be hard to describe gut decisions.
The law of diffusion of innovation
- 2.5% innovators
- 13.5% early adopters
- 34% early majority
- 34% late majority
- 16% the rest are laggards
Early adopters buy what they buy because of what THEY believe
People who tell us what they have
- Tivo
- Langley
People who tell us what they believe
- Apple
- Martin Luther King (I have a dream, not I have a movement, I believe, not I have.)
- The Wright Brothers
Glad to see that I fall into the early adopters category! Nice post today
ReplyDeleteNick
your post made me think for a while,and yes your post says it all. I think they don't do the usual, success comes to those who thinks outside of the box.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of WHY-based communication. But what I'm missing in this talk is more real-life examples of how to apply it. Especially in the academic context, I struggle to really use it well.
ReplyDeleteFair call Sam but I'm not really sure that why-based communication would work in an academic context. In theory at least academic material is supposed to focus on objective facts rather than gut instinct. Why-based communication, as it is presented here, is more of a marketing strategy.
ReplyDeleteAn example of this difference, to paraphrase his presentation, would be the preference for windows or macs from an academic or non-acdemic perspective. If people based this decision on an academic approach Simon would expect people to prefer windows machines as they're faster, cheaper etc. according to Simon.
If people based this decision on a non-academic approach Simon would expect them to prefer apples as they will align themselves with apple's reasons for doing business rather than the product they create.