Why Before How
The order you do something in is critical to you getting the result you desire. When you start out on a trip, it is a good strategy to know where you want to go, otherwise you can’t know when you have arrived.
Equally, to be continually trying to solve the problems you face in your business, without ever knowing why you are even in business, will never create the best outcome and you will be always working harder than you need to for the same results.
Those of you that have had young children, or have worked with them, know how they are fixated with asking “why?”. Regardless of whether they recognise this for what it is, they know it is foundational to deciding if they will do something or not. I think questions are the key to learning, growth, and success and if there is a hierarchy to questions then “why” would have to be number one.
Why…
– sits behind your understanding of how important something is
– gives clues to something’s priority and its importance and urgency
– indicates the level of quality and the standard of work required
-is the doorway to understanding our emotional attachment to something
In summary, “why” is often the connection of purpose that encourages collaboration and allows big things to happen.
We have just seen Japan beat Ireland and Scotland at the Rugby World Cup, which in my opinion, was a monumental feat. Consider that Ireland beat the All Blacks in 2016 and in 2018, so it would be reasonable to say that Japan could also therefore beat the All Blacks!
The compelling question is, why did Japan win? They focused hard on the task for over 12 months, they committed themselves to beat Ireland and get to the second round of the playoffs. Their planning and focus allowed them to build their belief and convince themselves that this was achievable. Japan’s “why” was to honour the loyalty of their fans and their whole country who are supporting them by hosting the Rugby World Cup.
When your “why” is clear and big enough, two things happen:
– You increase your conviction and your likelihood of success.
– You focus more resource and commitment on the HOW.
This process of escalation increases the focus and eliminates other distractions. Once this gets to singular, as in the case of young Maasai men needing to kill a lion to reach manhood and warrior status. It becomes unnegotiable, thereby demanding total commitment and conviction to succeed and to kill that lion or die in the process.
If you do not have a written statement that encompasses your “why”, then start right now by creating that.
Once you have written it down, it is very important to test it for strength.
Write down all the things you did today and then rate them 1 to 10, relative to their alignment to your “why”. I.e. to run my business by example, doing all the things that I teach and advocate that my clients should do: a written vision, a business plan and KPI’s, shared 90 day goals, etc.
Now mark those with a score. If 10 equals excellent alignment and 0 equals no value.
I add up the score and divide it by the number of tasks on my list to get a percentage.
The closer you get to 100, the more you know about the power of your “why”. If after a week or so you aren’t trending towards improvement, you will know you have to do more work on your “why”.
