Starting with Why

I have given a lot of thought to Simon Sinek’s “Starting With Why” Ted Talk that we watched as part of last week’s class, and what really stayed with me from that is that so many companies start with the “How” instead of the why. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that my company is no exception. We spend lots of time and money telling our clients about the latest design innovations we can bring them, our successes in saving time and money on similar projects, but our pitches never start with why what we do is different and important and how the “why” aligns with our clients’ needs and values. I showed the TedTalk to some of my team, and they were equally excited by the concept and what that could mean for changing up the way we develop targeted marketing messages for our clients. This could totally change the way we do things, so I decided the next step would be to show one of our senior sales executives who has been at the company for more than 20 years.

Only, that didn’t go as planned. The sales executive was very critical of the Starting with Why message. Even after watching the TedTalk, he immediately started discussing the benefits of starting with the “How” and how successful that has been for us, which was disappointing, but not all together surprising. There is definitely a disconnect in the way the marketing department wants to change up the messaging and branding that we’re developing and the platforms we’re using to reach our clients, and the more traditional thinking of senior leadership. It was a good reminder for me that while there are lots of great ideas of how to create change, it will take a lot more to shift the thinking of the greater whole.