# No One Knows What They Are Doing By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-10-26 Most executives have no clue what they are doing; they only speak with authority and use words of certainty. They cannot be questioned about anything in particular, or one is alienated or quickly disregarded as "not knowing all the facts." Similarly, organizations and teams rarely know what they are doing. This contradicts Simon Sinek's golden circle idea that everyone knows what they are doing, some know how, and very few know why. Now, if you ask an organization what they are doing, they'll quickly look around and point to things happening. They'll say things like supporting the customer, developing a strategy, managing change, making a product, or implementing a system. These actions of the moment technically answer the question, "What is one doing?" But, this is hollow and without intention. Ask them 10 minutes later what they are doing, and the answer will be different based on nothing more than the next busy work task that floats across their field of view. So, what are they doing? Seriously, what are they doing? They are doing whatever comes up without any thought. They are reacting to the stimulus created by the organizational system that often has an executive at the helm who also doesn't know what they are doing. They are merely existing. Existing is no small feat, but it is hardly the limit of what is possible within one's life. If one only cared about existing, there are much easier ways to achieve it than running around doing whatever happens to come up next in a rudderless organization. Many will think I'm not talking about them. Our brains are great at coming up with all kinds of rationale for our actions, but, in truth, we rarely know the real reason we do something. It is often easier to react and not reflect. Self-actualization is about more than just doing whatever happens next. It calls for an agency of existence beyond the here and now, even when the present is all one can ever have. The paradox means something meaningful lives there. Discover what one is doing, and eventually find a better reason for doing so. #### Related Items [[Present]] [[Reflection]] [[Decision-making]] [[Purpose]] [[Self-Actualization]] [[Organization]]