Nested WHYs - Simon Sinek

 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 it's 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 WHYs. Each state has a WHY, and each city has its own WHY. In other words, Los Angeles has a very different WHY from New York. Some people belong in New York, and 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, it just wouldn't make sense. So it's gonna 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 at cross-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 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 WHYs inside the same organization.