# Beyond the Why By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2022-12-12 [[Simon Sinek]] is known for his [TED talk](https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en) on the golden circle. Essentially, the outer ring is what you do, the middle ring is how you do it, and the inner ring is why you do it. Sinek argues that every organization knows what they do, some know how they do it, and nearly no one knows why they do it. On the surface, this largely aligns with how most people view the world. We rarely think about why we are doing something, but we often know the what and how with little effort. However, there is a nuance here that throws off this argument. Mainly, can you do something without having a why behind it? There is always a why. Why are you pushing that boulder up the hill? Perhaps you just felt like doing it, someone told you to do it, you wanted the challenge, you must do it as part of your punishment, or it's fulfilling your purpose. You must have a why to do anything, even if you don't want to do it. The question is whether that why is meaningful. Sinek argues that finding a meaningful why is the best path forward, but what is meaningful? If your actions always have a why, could it be said that they are naturally meaningful by themselves? Is finding a more meaningful why just changing past perspectives? Is that how the natural business why of making money turns into a glorious and pointless mission statement? Which is a more honest why: the revenue or the after-the-fact mission statement? The answers here are not easy. However, I think the goal of self-actualization or organizational alignment is not about examining the why but about examining where you want to go. The why is already in the past and can be explained away. Where you want to go takes what has happened and projects forward into the possibility of better. I only care about the why in context of understanding systems and myself to find paths to better. The why is largely subjective to the outcomes - everything can be explained away, all models are wrong, and everything can be made to [[That Makes Sense|make sense]]. The why's are easy and endless, doing better is harder. #### Related Items [[Organizational Analytics]] [[Self-Actualization]] [[Purpose]]