1963, a hot August day, no social media, multi- television networks, or instant messaging available to promote an event and yet, 250,000 people set out on a peaceful march on Washington DC. A march that was highly discouraged by the present government, a march that made history and changed the world.
Why did that happen? How could that have been? What was it? Those are the questions we need to ask today. Why,how,what, in that order.
When coaching business’s I ask “Why” they do what they do. Then “How” they do what they do. And lastly, “What” they do what they do.If the culture of your company does not know the “Why” they will under-perform. The “Why” is the vision moving forward.
Does your company have an inspiring vision that trumps the day to day “What” drama? Check out Simon Sinek’s U-tube TED talk on his book “Start with Why” for a better explanation. I love how he ties it all together and helps us see how backwards we are.
When I ask a person where they work they usually tell me “What” they do and “How” they do it. The vision”¦or “Why” is usually buried and/or not even articulated.
Martin Luther King Jr said “He had a dream” and that dream was powerful enough to get people out to demonstrate their support 250,000 people, of which 25% were white. He didn’t say, like our current ad campaigns say, or worse yet, our politicians”¦ “I have a 12 point plan!” (As Sinek points out in his Ted Talk)No he had a dream, and it lives on. And when the vision takes shape it can follow the “How, and What”. So maybe, just maybe, it happens”¦
“And when this happens, when we all allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every village, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, FREE at last, free at last, God Almighty, we are free at last.”