Tag: Simon Sinek

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Latest Read: Find Your Why

Find Your Why: A Practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek. Simon wrote a bestseller in 2009 called Start with Why.

Find Your Why: A Practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek

This book is the workshop companion. It will certainly not stand alone without the original. Find Your Why is above all, lead by Simon, David Mead, and Peter Docker as a corporate workshop now part of Simon’s consulting company Sinek Partners.

In this book the authors walk through specific points to identify “Why”for teams and organizations.

At the same time, Find Your Why is positioned to be an anchor for a workgroup moderator. So again, without reading Start with Why, your organization will struggle with Find Your Why as a stand alone book.

However, I found Start with Why to be compelling so I eagerly absorbed how this companion book can bolster teams and organizations. At various points throughout the book I could forecast how this would be received by my organization and others during a pandemic, when everything was changing rapidly in the opening weeks of remote work.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The Infinite Game

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. During my read of Start With Why it was natural to seek Simon’s view of long term leadership. A few hits and misses along the way but it was another enjoyable read.

the infinite game by simon sinek

Simon introduces the theme contrasting finite against infinite. In other words, simple examples of football or chess, these games have time limits, rules are standardized and the players are known to the opponent. It is easy to find a winner and loser at the end of similar finite sporting events.

However the focus of his book is on infinite games, business, war, politics, and even our own personal lives. There is no time limit, rules change over time, and the players as well. No winners or losers appear on an infinite stage, above all, movements are forwards or backwards.

However, with my deep interest in learning about the long US war in Vietnam it was a bit surprising to see Simon tee off his book with the 1968 Tet Offensive. This was his pinning idea of infinite. While the US involvement in Vietnam extended back to the 1940s, and French colonial rule began in the late 1860s, it was a shame China’s 1000 year rule over Vietnam was not mentioned.

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Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Start with Why

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek helps identify an idea of a ‘golden circle’ in three consecutive rings. The Why, How, and What provide a foundation to show certain stories are successful. When measuring ‘why’ they succeeded against, in some cases overwhelming odds.

Start with Why

Simon acknowledges that many talented companies make good products. But they are also a short term success story. Simon shows how Tivo fits this example.

But only a few really understand ‘the why’ that makes their efforts timeless. These groups (or individuals) succeed beyond all expectations. Focusing on your purpose and cause you cannot only find success, but also differentiate yourself.

Above all, Simon’s story of the Wright Brothers success is a key example of ‘Why’ matters. Simon provides a vivid example of achieving success based upon the Golden Circle.

Samuel Langley worked to become the first man to fly an airplane. He was very qualified to tackle this challenge. In 1880 he invent the Bolometer. Langley was a professor of mathematics at the Naval Academy. He also worked at Harvard University. By the late 1880s, Langley was a senior officer at the Smithsonian Institution. Then the US War Department funded ($50,000 grant) his airplane project. Langley assembled a team of very talented engineers. Even Alexander Gram Bell followed Langley and photographed early test flights. So by all accounts he was gong to be the first to fly a plane.

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