Moving from the What to How and the Why

I recently watched a great TED talk (click here) by Simon Sinek about how the best companies and leaders inspire others. I thought his insights would be helpful as we think about developing a vision. To review quickly from the last post, a vision is where we are going (the what/where), how we are going to get there (the how/the strategy) and why we are bothering to go there in the first place(the why, the who, the problem that must be solved, etc.).

Sinek's TED talk reveals that the best companies tell people the why before they tell them the how or the what. He gives the example of Apple, a company that reinvented itself with their "Think Different" campaign (best commercial ever by the way) that communicated who they were, what they were about, and, because of who they were and what they were for, why they did what they did. He also mentions Martin Luther King, who never talked about the how or the what of racial cultural change. He only talked about the why, the dream. He pounded his beliefs to his audience over and over.

People connect to us over the why -the who we we are and what we are about pieces- before they care about what we are doing or how we are doing it. Most people, once they believe in your why, don't care about the why or the how.

For a church planter, I think there is great wisdom in this insight. We talk to people all the time about our visions for planting. We share before church staffs, large audiences, over lunch, through blogs. What do we share most often? What do we share first? If Sinek is right, we should spend most of our time talking about the why.

So...

1. The "what" is where are going. It should be framed by by asking the question "What can we do better than 10,000 other churches?"

2. The "how" is the things we are going to do to get to the what. It is the strategy piece. The unique practices or experiences we are going to create to make the what happen.

3. The "why" is... well, what's the point? "What" we are doing and our "how" will probably not be easy at times. Why should I buy in? What motivated you to do this in the first place? Who are you? What are you about? What makes you do this thing the way you are doing it? The more honest, unique, and real the answer to the question better it will connect to people who agree with you. The more generic it is the less it will weigh. (The more you spread weight over a multitude of people the less weight they feel).

A few more thoughts on "why." The more specific you are the more narrow audience you will attract. The more people you might offend. This is a good thing. Apple's launch into being the most successful company of this decade was the result of alienating some people as much as it was the result of opening their arms to others.

Also, whenever you are done crafting your vision and strategy, determine how you will measure it's success. This is where the what becomes more helpful. Why's are harder to measure. That's all for now. Thanks for listening.

Creating a Vision

During the previous blog I talked about the four steps to successful leadership. The first step that we talked about was "Creating a Vision." Humor me for a little while as a share a few thoughts on creating a vision.

What is a vision? A vision is simply an idea of where you want to be in the future. For the author it is the finished book. For the runner it is the goal at the end of the race. For an NFL team it might be the Vince Lombardi Trophy for winning a SuperBowl. A vision is not complicated. But, it is very important.

If it is so simple why do some organizations struggle with it? Sometimes a team struggles with vision because their destination is really hard to put into words or pictures. Maybe they're going somewhere they have never been before. Sometimes a group struggles with a vision because it isn't weighty enough. The why question isn't answered. Why should I make this business profitable? What's the big deal?

Some questions to ask yourself about vision: What do we want to accomplish? What imprint do we want to leave on the world? Why do we want to do this? Can we do this? It might be difficult for me to get buy in from a church start team if my vision is to "Win the Super Bowl."

I'm probably getting a little ahead of myself. So much of a successful vision comes in the next steps of leadership, communicating and transferring vision. Creating a vision is often the easy part. But, there are some important things to consider to make sure your vision is clear. Clear for you. Clear for others.

Recently I read this blog where Tony Morgan interviewed Will Mancini, the founder and Clarity Evangelist of Auxano about having a clear vision. I think the most salient piece of information I got from this interview was his "vision framing question." The question is "What can your church do better than 10,000 churches?" I think that is a great place to start. It helps you really think about your organizational strengths and passions. It is clarifying too. It keeps you from just photocopying someone else's brilliant vision. Maybe what they do doesn't fit your team. A great idea for one may not be for everyone. So, vision may start with a little self discovery huh?

Another helpful resource is Andy Stanley's Visioneering.  He reminds us that vision is at it's heart a solution to a problem that must to be solved. What problem does your vision solve? Does anyone else care about this problem?

Both of these questions start with the "what." So, vision is the summary of several questions.

Where do we want to end up?
Who are we? (Our vision has to fit)
What are we going to do

But I think the most important question's are how and why. That will probably be a good blog for next time. "Moving from the what to the how and the why."