Start With Why (21 page)

The Education for Employment Foundation is not an American charity hoping to do good in faraway lands. It is a global movement. Each EFE operation runs independently, with locals making up the majority of their local boards. Local leaders take personal responsibility to give young men and women that feeling of opportunity by giving them the skills, knowledge and, most importantly, the confidence to choose an alternative path for themselves. Mayyada Abu-Jaber is leading the movement in Jordan. Mohammad Naja is spreading the cause in Gaza and the West Bank. And Maeen Aleryani is proving that a cause can even change a culture in Yemen.

In Yemen, children can expect to receive nine years of education. This is one of the lowest rates in the world. In the United States, children can expect sixteen years. Inspired by Bruder, Aleryani sees such an amazing opportunity for young men and women to change their perspective and take greater control of their own future. He set out to find capital to jump-start his EFE operation in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, and in one week was able to raise $50,000. The speed at which he raised that amount is pretty good even by our philanthropic standards. But this is Yemen, and Yemen has no culture of philanthropy, making his achievement that much more remarkable. Yemen is also one of the poorest nations in the region. But when you tell people WHY you’re doing what you’re doing, remarkable things happen.

Across the region, everyone involved in EFE believes that they can help teach their brothers and sisters and sons and daughters the skills that will help them change path that they
think
they are on. They are working to help the youth across the region believe that their future is bright and full of opportunity. And they don’t do it for Bruder, they do it for themselves. That’s the reason EFE will change the world.

Sitting at the top of the megaphone, at the point of WHY, Bruder’s role is to inspire, to start the movement. But it is those who believe who will effect the real change and keep the movement going. Anyone, regardless where they live, what they do or their nationality, can participate in this movement. It’s about feeling like we belong. If you believe that there is an alternative path to the one we’re on, and all we have to do is point to it, then visit the Web site
efefoundation.org
and join the movement. To change the world takes the support of all those who believe.

They marched in, single file. Not a word was spoken. No one made any eye contact with anyone else. They all looked the same. Their heads shaved, their clothes gray and tattered. Their boots dusty. One by one, they filled a large, cavernous room, like a hangar from a science fiction movie. The only color was gray. The walls were gray. Dust and smoke filled the space making even the air look gray.

Hundreds, maybe even thousands of these drone-people sat on neatly organized benches. Row after row after row. A sea of gray conformity. They all watched a projection of a huge talking head on the screen in the front of the room that filled the entire wall. This apparent leader recited dogma and propaganda, stating proudly that they were in complete control. They had achieved perfection. They were free of pests. Or so they thought.

Running down one of the tunnels that led into the cavernous hangar, a lone blonde woman. She wore bright red shorts and a crisp white T-shirt. Like a lighthouse, her complexion and the color of her clothes seemed to shine through gray air. Pursued by security, she ran with a sledgehammer. This would not end well for the status quo.

On January 22, 1984, Apple launched their Macintosh computer with their now-famous commercial depicting an Orwellian scene of a totalitarian regime holding control over a population and promised that “1984 won’t be like
1984
.” But this advertising was much more than just advertising. It was not about the features and benefits of a new product. It was not about a “differentiating value proposition.” It was, for all intents and purposes, a manifesto. A poetic ode to Apple’s WHY, it was the film version of an individual rebelling against the status quo, igniting a revolution. And though their products have changed and fashions have changed, this commercial is as relevant today as it was twenty-five years ago when it first aired. And that’s because a WHY never changes. WHAT you do can change with the times, but WHY you do it never does.

The commercial is one of the many things the company has done or said over the years to show or tell the outside world what they believe. All Apple’s advertising and communications, their products, partnerships, their packaging, their store design, they are all WHATs to Apple’s WHY, proof that they actively challenge status quo thinking to empower the individual. Ever notice that their advertising never shows groups enjoying their products? Always individuals. Their Think Different campaign depicted individuals who thought differently, never groups. Always individuals. And when Apple tells us to “Think Different,” they are not just describing themselves. The ads showed pictures of Pablo Picasso, Martha Graham, Jim Henson, Alfred Hitchcock, to name a few, with the line “Think Different” on the upper right hand side of the page. Apple does not embody the rebel spirit because they associated themselves with known rebels. They chose known rebels because they embody the same rebel spirit. The WHY came before the creative solution in the advertising. Not a single ad showed a group. This is no accident. Empowering the individual spirit is WHY Apple exists. Apple knows their WHY and so do we. Agree with them or not, we know what they believe because they tell us.

An organization is represented by the cone in the three-dimensional view of The Golden Circle. This organized system sits atop another system: the marketplace. The marketplace is made up of all the customers and potential customers, all the press, the shareholders, all the competition, suppliers and all the money. This system is inherently chaotic and disorganized. The only contact that the organized system has with the disorganized system is at the base—at the WHAT level. Everything an organization says and does communicates the leader’s vision to the outside world. All the products and services that the company sells, all the marketing and advertising, all the contact with the world outside communicate this. If people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it, and if all the things happening at the WHAT level do not clearly represent WHY the company exists, then the ability to inspire is severely complicated.

When a company is small, this is not an issue because the founder has plenty of direct contact with the outside world. Trusted HOW-types may be in short supply and the founder opts to make a majority of the big decisions. The founder or leader actually goes out and talks to customers, sells the product and hires most if not all the employees. As the company grows, however, systems and processes are added and other people will join. The cause embodied by an individual slowly morphs into a structured organization and the cone starts to take shape. As it grows, the leader’s role changes. He will no longer be the loudest part of the megaphone; he will become the source of the message that is to flow through the megaphone.

When a company is small, it revolves around the personality of the founder. There is no debate that the founder’s personality is the personality of the company. Why then do we think things change just because a company is successful? What’s the difference between Steve Jobs the man and Apple the company? Nothing. What’s the difference between Sir Richard Branson’s personality and Virgin’s personality? Nothing. As a company grows, the CEO’s job is to personify the WHY. To ooze of it. To talk about it. To preach it. To be a symbol of what the company believes. They are the intention and WHAT the company says and does is their voice. Like Martin Luther King and his social movement, the leader’s job is no longer to close all the deals; it is to inspire.

As the organization grows, the leader becomes physically removed, farther and farther away from WHAT the company does, and even farther away from the outside market. I love asking CEOs what their biggest priority is, and, depending on their size or structure, I generally get one of two answers: customers or shareholders. Sadly, there aren’t many CEOs of companies of any reasonable size who have daily contact with customers anymore. And customers and shareholders alike both exist outside the organization in the chaotic world of the marketplace. Just as the cone demonstrates, the CEO’s job, the leader’s responsibility, is not to focus on the outside market—it’s to focus on the layer directly beneath: HOW. The leader must ensure that there are people on the team who believe what they believe and know HOW to build it. The HOW-TYPES are responsible for understanding WHY and must come to work every day to develop the systems and hire the people who are ultimately responsible for bringing the WHY to life. The general employees are responsible for demonstrating the WHY to the outside world in whatever the company says and does. The challenge is that they are able to do it clearly.

Remember the biology of The Golden Circle. The WHY exists in the part of the brain that controls feelings and decision-making but not language. WHATs exist in the part of the brain that controls rational thought and language. Comparing the biology of the brain to the three-dimensional rendering of The Golden Circle reveals a profound insight.

The leader sitting at the top of the organization is the inspiration, the symbol of the reason we do what we do. They represent the emotional limbic brain. WHAT the company says and does represents the rational thought and language of the neocortex. Just as it is hard for people to speak their feelings, like someone trying to explain why they love their spouse, it is equally hard for an organization to explain its WHY. The part of the brain that controls feelings and the part that controls language are not the same. Given that the cone is simply a three-dimensional rendering of The Golden Circle, which is firmly grounded in the biology of human decision-making, the logic follows that organizations of any size will struggle to clearly communicate their WHY. Translated into business terms this means that trying to communicate your differentiating value proposition is really hard.

Put bluntly, the struggle that so many companies have to differentiate or communicate their true value to the outside world is not a business problem, it’s a biology problem. And just like a person struggling to put her emotions into words, we rely on metaphors, imagery and analogies in an attempt to communicate how we feel. Absent the proper language to share our deep emotions, our purpose, cause or belief, we tell stories. We use symbols. We create tangible things for those who believe what we believe to point to and say, “That’s why I’m inspired.” If done properly, that’s what marketing, branding and products and services become; a way for organizations to communicate to the outside world. Communicate clearly and you shall be understood.

Martin Luther King Jr., a man who would become a symbol of the entire civil rights movement, chose to deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in front of another symbol: the Lincoln Memorial. Like King, Lincoln stands (or in the case of the memorial, sits) as a symbol of the American value of freedom for all. Great societies understand the importance of symbols as a way of reinforcing their values, of capturing their beliefs. Dictators understand the importance of symbols all too well. But in their case, the symbols are usually of them and not of a larger belief. Symbols help us make tangible that which is intangible. And the only reason symbols have meaning is because we infuse them with meaning. That meaning lives in our minds, not in the item itself. Only when the purpose, cause or belief is clear can a symbol command great power.

The flag, for example, is nothing more than a symbol of our nation’s values and beliefs. And we follow the flag into battle. That’s some serious power. Ever notice the patch of the American flag on a soldier’s right arm? It’s backward. There was no mistake made, it’s like that on purpose. A flag flying on a staff, as an army was rushing into battle, would appear backward if viewed from the right side. To put it the other way around on the right shoulder would appear as if the soldier were in retreat.