Simon Sinek explains how differing purposes ("whys") within an organization can coexist by being nested under a higher, shared why. He uses the analogy of the United States (national why), states, and cities—each with distinct whys yet unified under being American—to show how departments like operations and marketing can serve different roles while cooperating toward the organization’s overarching purpose.
Chapters
One question I get a lot is how do you bridge the gap between two completely different whys inside an organization? It's a good question, especially when you feel like you're working at cross purposes. Now, if it's done properly, the why should be nested within something higher. So for example, the United States has a why. It's based on the Declaration of Independence. All men are created equal. Right now, within the United States, we have nested Y's. Each state has a Y. Each city has its own Y. In other words, Los Angeles has a very different why from New York. Some people belong in New York, some people belong in Los Angeles. They are not the same, but they're both distinctly American. They belong in America. Los Angeles wouldn't make sense. In France just wouldn't make sense. So it's going to be the same inside an organization. Operations may seem to have a completely different why than marketing. For example, just like Los Angeles or New York, you either belong here or you belong there. But they should both feel like they fit in the overarching why. And that's actually how you find common ground. So when you feel like you're working across purposes, the opportunity is to actually take it up a level. In other words, you say, hey, remember the why of this organization. Remember why this organization exists. And we're both serving to advance that cause. So that means we're working together, we are cooperative. So whenever you find that you're at each other because you have different whys or you feel like they're competing, try and re articulate that competition. As to cooperative, we're cooperating together, serving different ways in order to advance the greater good. And that's how you find cooperation with seeming competitive wise inside the same organization.
