Why?

I had the blessing of being the head of a district initiative for the past two years, an initiative which no one wanted anything to do with.  Well, not quite no one, but truth be told, I and my job had a hard sell from day one.  Which is why Simon Sinek in his TEDx talk ‘Start with Why’ resonated for me.  I think a part of leadership is helping an organization see the path for the future; however, few leaders are really successful in achieving ‘buy-in’.  This is what Simon studied: why do a few entrepreneurs/companies achieve greatness while many others do not?

Did you know the Wright brothers were not the first to 1. study flight 2. achieve flight?  The crazy thing is they are recognized as the first.  Why?  How about tablets?  Microsoft was well ahead of Apple in developing those.  And yet Apple owns the market.  Or Tivo?  I have a DVR.  It's not as good as Tivo, and it also isn't a Tivo.  Which is also crazy since Tivo invented the DVR but has been a failure in 'selling' it.

Simon Sinek studied this phenomenon and 'coded' the rationale.  The failure is in selling the what and  how.  Entrepreneurs succeed when they sell the why, or what they believe in as opposed to what they do or how they do it.  

In the video Simon outlines what he calls the "Golden Circle".  His point is unsuccessful sales start with the what and/or the how.  For instance, 'we build excellent tablets'.  That is what the organization does.  Simon discovered that when entrepreneurs start with why, or what they believe, those entrepreneurs are successful.  

They start with why and then move through the how and the what.  His contention?  "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it".

I wondered if this would work as a mission template:  'We believe (why) _______ .  How we do this is _____.  What we do is ______.  Would this at least be inspirational?  

Well, here's my attempt:

We (those wonderful people I work with) believe education; the ability to read, write and think; is a fundamental human need and right.  How we deliver this fundamental right is provide public education to all students regardless of income, race or ability.  What we do is work to develop the best instructional methods possible to deliver the ability to read, write and think to all learners.  

And we do this every day; we do it for all students; we do it together.

Hmmm . . . I like this Simon Sinek guy.

Writing for Leadership Part 2

So, today was the final day of the Writing for Professional Growth series a colleague and I attended through Oakland Schools.  As the facilitator, Joan, handed back our manuscript all covered in red edits, I struggled to find any enthusiasm.  We had rewritten the entire thing twice already.  “Oh, this is so good,” Joan said while I leafed through the marked up pages.  “So much potential.  Lots of edits is a compliment, you know.”  She must have read my disappointment.  “If it wasn’t good I wouldn’t have had a reason to make any comments.”  Man had I heard that idea somewhere before.  Yet again, the parallels between leadership and writing were calling out to be noticed. And I knew she was illustrating still that writing is like leadership.

Good essays start with ‘good bones’

Leadership is about potential.  Joan pointed out that a good essay is about what it will be, not what it is.  If it has ‘good bones’, a good story to tell with meaning, it will become a good essay through work.  So many people talk about the value of capacity building in leadership.  I was just at a lunch where an assistant superintendent was talking about how a potential employee impressed her with his ability to humbly elevate the work of others.  His work was finding the potential in other people and helping them reach it.

Writers can’t see their own writing

Leadership is about re-visioning.  I worked with a writing teacher who spoke about the literal meaning of revision: to see with new eyes.  Because we know what we mean to write we often misinterpret what we have actually written.  It takes someone else reading our words, new eyes, to give us invaluable feedback on what others are seeing.  I can’t think of a stronger parallel to leadership.  What a leader says and what the audience receives are often different messages.  Without a great peer-editor a leader will often be misread.

Sometimes we just need to rewrite

Leaders are constantly redefining themselves.  I can’t remember what the article was, but the author was describing how GM’s true failure in the 2000’s was that it couldn’t reinvent itself from the 1950’s and was still basically the same company. As there are times where an essay, which still has those good bones (GM’s purpose of selling quality cars to the world is a solid one) but must be totally rewritten, sustaining organizations have leaders who can rewrite themselves.

We write for ourselves

Leading others helps us find ourselves.  One of the reasons I attended the workshop was to help my colleague get published; however, what was most interesting to me about this workshop was how it forced me to clarify and organize my thoughts about the work I have been doing for the last two years.  And the most wonderful result was I found there was meaning in my work, a structure and logic of sorts that once written looked pretty darn good, maybe even worth reading.