Once we have our Why, and this is communicated clearly and effectively so that everyone is connected with it in a powerful and personal way, then it acts as a North Star for everything that occurs in and around that business. It provides a guide for decision making, as well as what policies and procedures should be in place. It is easy to look at all the organisation’s ‘Hows’ (e.g. strategy, values, plans, intellectual property, ways of working etc.) and ‘What’ it does (i.e. the products and services it offers to the outside world) and ask a couple of very profound questions:

• ‘Do they all support us to fulfil on our Why?’
• But even more challenging – ‘Do they all not just support us, but are they the best ways to fulfill on our Why?’
• And the killer question – ‘Well if not, why are we doing them?’

We call this type of enquiry a Why Integrity Audit, to check that everything that is being done inside the organisation is in integrity with the purpose, cause, or belief of the organisation. From our experience, we find that somethings need to be stopped, others reshaped, some accelerated, and some new things started – and with the guidance from the Why, these decisions become blatantly clear…

This is illustrated in this short article The Goosebumps Test

But here’s the real win when you do this for your team, department, or organisation: You get to manage less and lead more. So it’s more fun! You don’t need to check up on people so much, as they are more clear about what’s really important and in which direction we’re all heading. What’s more, we find that decision making can be passed lower in the organisation – lower and closer to the action.

When we look at how we employ people at the moment, there is a lot of management and a lot of rules and policies. These do not seem to be sourced from enabling people to be the best they can be (i.e. leading them), but to ensure we all comply and follow rules (i.e. to manage us). Imagine what it would be like if we all knew the cause we were working towards; if we only invited people to join us and worked only with people who believed what we do and we designed our rules and policies to unleash everyone to do their life’s work. What would that make possible?

When people feel safe, they bring their full genuine selves to work and thrive, and when they thrive, their organisation thrives. We call organisations that thrive Why-Based Organisations, and these organisations have four key attributes, over and above normal organisations.