Simon Sinek's "Golden Circle" is a leadership model that helps organisations communicate their message effectively. The model is based on three questions: "Why?", "How?" and "What?". According to Sinek, most organisations communicate by starting with the answer to the question "What?", i.e. what do they do.
Simon Sinek is an author and motivational speaker who introduced the concept of WHY, i.e. the deep reason why a company exists and does what it does.
According to Sinek, the WHY is what inspires people to follow a vision, to believe in a product or service, to feel part of a community.
The WHY is what differentiates successful companies from those that are not, because they are able to communicate their value and passion.
Sinek argues that the traditional marketing model, based on WHAT the company does and HOW it does it, is no longer effective in creating an emotional connection with customers.
Conversely, companies that start from the WHY (because they do) succeed in creating a relationship of trust and loyalty with their audience, because they convey a sense of belonging and purpose.
Finding one's WHY is not easy, but it is crucial for a company that wants to have a clear and coherent vision, a strong and motivated organisational culture, and a competitive and differentiating strategy;
The WHY is what gives meaning to everyday work, what guides decisions and actions, what attracts and retains customers;
The WHY is what makes a company unique and unrepeatable.
Two famous examples
Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I have a dream' speech
"Why" was the belief that all people are created equal and should be treated as such.
"How" was through peaceful protests and civil disobedience.
"What" was the civil rights movement, which aimed to end racial segregation and discrimination.
TED Talks
The "What" are the speeches, recorded and made available online for free.
The "How" is through organising conferences and inviting speakers from various fields to give talks on their ideas.
The "Why" behind TED Talks is to spread ideas worth sharing and inspire people to act.
The case of TED Talks makes the differentiating element particularly evident: one can find thousands and thousands of videos with educational/inspirational content on the web.
During the pandemic, almost all companies have to some extent experimented with that mode to stay in touch with their market.
But then what makes TED talks always so interesting and impactful?
The Why: each speaker and content is only included if it meets the goal of dspreading ideas worth sharing and inspiring people to act.
