No Vision, No Tipping Point

The Golden Circle of Why*

Every business owner on the planet knows what they do, what product or service is offered as the result of their work. Some know how they do it – through proposition, process, maybe as provider, but few organizations are clear about why they do what they do.

'Why' does not mean 'profit' – that’s a result. Why means the purpose, the cause, your belief: why do you get out of bed in the morning? Enthropologist Simon Sinek calls the map of that process - why businesses do  to what they do "The Golden Circle of Why."

For example, Apple Computers, as an UN-inspired organization might look like this:

What:    We make great computers.

How:     They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly.

So far, sounds like every other computer manufacturer out there.

"Wanna buy one?"

“Meh.”

Here is the reason, according to Sinek, that Apple is different than other computer companies, that Martin Luther King was a great orator, and The Wright Brothers were able to fly. Apple, King and The Wright’s were inspired. By applying The Golden Circle of Why, starting with the ‘Why’ and working out to the 'How' changes everything.

What, How and Why

Sinek mapped Apple's Golden Circle of Why this way:

Why:      Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently.

How:     They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly.

What:    We make great computers.

"Wanna buy one now?"

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have, the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. Once you attract those people you have your lead to tap into the whole market place.

The Golden Circle is like the human brain, the outer layer, the neocortex, corresponds on the ‘what’ level – rational and analytical thought, and language; the limbic brain, responsible for feelings, behavior, decision making and language.

 Telling the ‘what’ communicates, but telling the ‘why’ and ‘how’ activates people and market.
The Law of Diffusion of Innovation

Created by Everett Rogers in 1962, the model shows in a bell curve of market share that if you want mass market success, you have to first jump the 16% to 18% mark. That is the tipping point between the early adopters interested in an innovation to the early majority willing to try it.

The curve looks like this:

The first 2.5% of population are the innovators;

next 13.5-15% the early adopters – they do things first because they agree with the why;

then 34%, the early majority;

34% late majority;

and the final 16% - the laggards.

The early majority will not try something until someone else has tried it first. It is in that 34% where mass market success is achieved.

How to move from the die-hards who were looking for your product to begin with and the early majority?

Tell people why you believe in your product. If what you believe and believe agree, they will want your product.

Sinek noted that Martin Luther King delivered the “I have a dream,” not, “I have a plan” speech. People came to his rallies by the hundreds of thousands because they agreed with his dream.

We follow leaders for ourselves, not for them. If you inspire people with the ‘why’ they will want what you have.

 *from Simon Sinek's TED Talk: "First why and then trust"