Yesterday I was inspired by the Golden Circle concept of Simon Sinek when I watched him explain it in a TED video. And when I get inspired the subject tends to stick in my mind. Even better said, my mind has awoken to the subject which I already knew. So today the Why, How and What of the Golden Circle concept kept popping up in everything I experienced today.

In ordinary life I am a solution architect, so I spend my working days helping customers to a successful IT implementation as part of a bigger business change program. Today I had an interesting discussion about design documents and how they relate to each other and what information they should include in order for the readers to understand the context. During the conversation it became clear to me that the Golden Circle concept would greatly enhance the success of IT implementations.What would be the effect if the resources on the IT project would believe in ‘Why’ the customer is executing the big business-driven change program and what the role of the IT part is. I believe it would inspire people to give their best. And I am not talking about the blood, sweat and tears Simon Sinek is referring to in his examples. I am talking about the inspiration that enable people to show their best skills in which they believe they have. It would put the people on the project in a certain state of being that results in less boring and inefficient meetings. No more endless discussions in which the real topic is whose ego is the biggest, but short and effective meetings in which people listen to each others arguments and agree to the best solution in that specific context. People would appreciate each other for their specific expertise and allow one another to thrive.

But how can you achieve all this? You can make this as complex as you like, but just stick to the basics of the Golden Circle concept. Inspire! Be inspired. Influence others by believing in the ‘Why’. In other words: Be passionate about the program and projects. Believe in ‘the cause’. And more important: Be passionate about being passionate. That is one of the things I learned from Bashar. Being truly passionate is really being passionate about being passionate. This way you will influence (and actually attract) people who are ready to hear your message and make it their own. The ‘How’ and ‘What’ will follow as the next logical step. And not only to you, but to everybody you have influenced.

Now back to the title. Why an experiment? Just for the fun of it. What I will do is to deliberately take notice of the people I work with if they work from the Why -> How -> What perspective, or the What -> How. I will notice their attitude towards work and maybe life in general and see what I learn from that. It will be fun. Join me and share your experiences.

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