Some ideas and reflections on the movement created by Simon Sinek's "Start with Why" book and Ted Talk.
March 2024
START WITH WHY
In 2009, Simon Sinek wrote a book and did a Ted Talk called “Start with Why”. It was a seminal moment in business and in particular branding. Simon managed to articulate what so many of us in branding were trying to get at, but hadn’t quite found the words for – this idea that we wanted our clients to stop focusing on ‘what’ they produced and to really think about ‘why’ they did what they did, what was the purpose and meaning behind it all…?
The book, along with a growing awareness in business at the time that it needed to take a greater level of responsibility for their role in shaping society, impacting the environment, and so on, began a trend towards businesses having a ‘purpose’: something about them that was bigger and deeper than the idea they were there just there to sell stuff and make as much money as possible.
CHALLENGE
Whilst there were some companies that fully embraced Simon’s ideas in a deep way, there were many that just hired an agency to create a purpose for them that could be captured via a lofty sentence using words that sounded impressive, but with no programmes, policies, products or ideas that would give those words any substance.
This for me was missing the point. Much of the magic of branding and communications as I saw it lived in the interconnection between the doing and the saying: taking what you do (or make) that has meaning and value and communicating it in a way that is compelling. I agreed with Simon’s notion of focusing companies on something deeper, but I wanted to guard against the desire some would have to gain credit without doing the work. So I began to experimenting with some other ways of using Simon’s ideas.
END WITH WHY
The idea of ending with why is that if your ‘why’ is truly embedded within your organisation (i.e. you really mean it), people will be able to ‘feel’ it through everything you are doing and you won’t need to talk about it – or if you do, you can say it right at the end of the communication, as a way to put words to something people have already understood.
START WITH HOW
Experimenting with a “start with how” type of approach is also interesting. It could be argued (and is by some) that any form of ‘why’ or purpose in relation to a business is already pre-determined through its primary purpose being to make money for its shareholders (certainly if it’s a listed company). But even if this is the view, ‘how’ you go about that, what you’re willing to do in pursuit of profit, whether your focus is on ‘jam’ (money) today or ‘jam’ tomorrow, how you think about legacy, where you see your responsibilities as beginning and ending – these are the things worth considering that will ultimately shape people’s perception of you in the world.
FOCUS ON WHAT
Ultimately, it can be argued that really all that matters is what. ‘What’ is where you evidence who you are, why you exist, how you operate. What are you doing, what are you making, what have you achieved and on what terms. Throughout all forms of culture we are always being led back to this truth – whether it’s Elvis singing “a little less conversation a little more action please”, a football team manager’s classic rebuttal “we will do our talking on the pitch”, or Nike’s Just Do It tagline and call to action. Perhaps what is really all that matters in the end.