An Argument for WHY over WHAT
I recently presented my thoughts on the 3 imperatives to a modern business:
- Customer Development (WHO)
- Intrinsic Motivation (WHY)
- Organizational Agility (HOW)
These 3 elements act as a foundation for the 'WHAT' of your organization. Your product, your service, whatever it is you deliver to your customers. Interestingly I just came across (via Brad Feld) a great TEDx-Puget Sound talk by Simon Sinek that meshes very well with my ideas on this:
Simons excellently crafted talk focuses on the fact that WHY a company does what it does is more important than HOW they do it, which is in turn more important than WHAT they are producing. He argues very convincingly that companies that focus more on the WHY rather than WHAT are more successful. I think this fits in well with the model I have been working on, and has given me a new and different perspective to aid my thinking. I wonder how organizations will start to shift as this type of thinking becomes more prevalent.
