Believing Will Make It So

May 25, 2010 by Kim.

I recently watched a TEDTalks podcast titled “Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action.” It’s a fascinating talk and I encourage you to give it a listen. Simon’s main premise is, “[People] don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Ultimately, the why is what you believe. People will sign up for projects or follow their leaders to the ends of the earth because they believe what their leaders believe. And as such, this belief becomes personal. The vision becomes their own.

So my question for all you leaders out there is this: are you communicating what you believe? It’s difficult for others to follow you if they don’t know what you believe. I know we all hear the “communicate, communicate, communicate,” mantra incessantly. But it’s not just the act of communicating that’s important, it’s what you communicate. You can tell me all day long that we’re going to save significant amounts of time and money by implementing project X. Great. But savings and efficiencies are a result (the “what” in Sinek’s theory), they aren’t a belief. It’s very difficult for those of us in the trenches to use savings or efficiency as a motivator for jumping on the latest project bandwagon and acting as cheerleaders for the doubters around us. Let me give you an example.

I recently attended a presentation where an executive from a multi-billion, global company discussed the recent consolidation of their information technology (IT) department.  Up until this project was undertaken, each business unit around the globe had their own IT department with their own procurement rules, governance policies, and so on. This model was inefficient and caused delayed response times, finger pointing, and downright obstinacy when headquarters wanted to implement a standardized IT policy.

The why (the belief the CIO and executive IT leaders held) was communicated to the stakeholders and IT staff many times during the course of the project. It went something like this, “We want to become a unified organization able to quickly respond to our customers needs with flexibility, agility, and resiliency while generating savings to our organization.” This company is now two years into their consolidation and it’s a huge success. I believe it was successful because the stakeholders and staff employed by the organization clearly understood the “why” of the project and they made that belief their own. The majority of employees believed that the consolidation would make them stronger, more resilient, and able to act quickly to supply solutions and resolve problems for their customers. That’s a fantastic message. It’s also a message that’s easier for people to believe and make their own than saving money and gaining efficiencies.

But what if instead, the message went something like this, “We have the potential to save millions of dollars and gain significant efficiencies so get on board with this project.” Granted, savings and efficiencies are great goals. But are they goals a help desk person or a server technician really cares about? No. Savings and efficiencies are goals executive management is concerned about. Most line staff in an IT organization are concerned about their customer. If they see that being unified will help them be flexible and give them more choices when solving their customer’s problems, they are more likely to believe and support a project that brings about those results.  

Public speakers are told that you have to tailor the message to the audience. That’s exactly what this global organization did. Now let’s flip the coin. Let’s say you’re selling this idea to executive stakeholders. The CEO, the CFO, and the COO.  I think you see the point. They DO want to hear about cost savings and efficiencies and faster response times as a result. This is exactly the message you want to use with this group in order to gain their buy-in.

The success of this global organization’s consolidation hinged on communication that was targeted to the audience. The CIO sold this major project to their executive team using savings and efficiencies as the premise. They sold it to staff and other stakeholders using a unified, flexible model for addressing problems quickly. You can see that both approaches are necessary because both of these groups are thinking about the project from the aspect of how it benefits their department or their day-to-day work on a personal level.

Believing in a mission or a project or a new venture is personal. We as leaders have to make the message personal for all of those impacted in order to win the support of the majority. So tell others what you believe about your current project and watch them catch the vision.

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