Starting with Why with Stephen Shedletsky

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Connect with Start with Why
Website: https://startwithwhy.com/ | Twitter: @steveshed, @simonsinek |
Stephen's recent Discovery Ed Webinar

Links & Show Notes

• Simon Sinek’s TED Talk summary (02:15)
  • “People don’t buy what they do, they buy why you do it.”
• Why start with WHY? (04:12)
• What happens when you start with why? (05:07)
  • Proctor & Gamble
  • Image of Golden Circle here
• How you find your why… describing love (08:25)
  • Look to the anthropology - map peaks and valleys in your life & why will emerge (08:56)
  • Why lives in limbic brain, has no language
• Don’t put ‘I’m a teacher’ in your WHY (10:02)
  • Take your ‘whats’ out of your ‘why’
  • Richard Branson (11:30) - Infusing fun so that we positively impact people’s lives - put a splash of red in a mundane world of grey
  • Collective efficacy
• Context vs. content (14:28)
  • “Vision without execution is hallucination.” - Edison
• Clarity of Why, Discipline of How, Consistency of What
• Discipline of How (16:18)
  • Stephen’s WHY: To connect with people in meaningful ways so that we connect with depth and live in a more fulfilled world
• Helping students find their why (19:40)
  • Life experience & brain development are crucial
• Does your why change? (22:04)
  • If you live in line with what you believe, the result is passion, if you live out of line with what you believe, the result is stress.
• Organizational ‘why’ vs. individual ‘why’ (23:08)
  • “For what reason are you proud to be a part of this institution?”
  • 2 ways to change a population: Evolution or Revolution (24:45)
  • Nested Whys
  • Simon Sinek’s Why: To inspire people to do the things that inspire them so that each of us can change the world for the better
  • “We can each choose to be the leader we wish we had.”
• Consistency of What (26:08)
  • Authenticity - we say & do what we actually believe
• What about when we’re not consistent with our why? (28:30)
  • Ask for accountability
  • Keep goal in our heads = 7-15% will accomplish
  • Write goals down = 45% will accomplish
  • Share goals with someone we care about = >80% will accomplish
  • (Note: I couldn’t find where Stephen found these numbers, so don’t have a link, but tried to look around online and found that the jury is kind of out on whether or not and when it’s a good idea to share your goals, with whom, what kind of feedback to receive, etc. There are a lot of factors here that make goal-sharing for accountability a grey area.)
  • Continue - Start - Stop
• Leaders Eat Last (31:08)
  • “A whisper is a shout.”
  • Inspiration & Clarity, then Trust
  • Safety, Value, Belonging
• General George Flynn (34:18)
  • Definition of leadership - ask someone how they’re doing and care about the answer
• Fulfillment > Happiness (36:14)
• Work-Life Balance & Flow state (36:48)
  • Martin Seligman
  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi & Flow
  • Flow = when you’re both challenged and skilled
• Books that have shaped Stephen’s worldview (38:40)
  • Man’s Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl
  • Start with Why, Simon Sinek
  • Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek
  • Give and Take, Adam Grant
• The Infinite Game: Game Theory & Simon’s new book (40:02)
• Takeaways (43:07)
• Ben’s skills video (44:25)
• “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who can come alive.” - Howard Thurman
• Michelle Obama
• Cal Newport - So Good They Can’t Ignore You
• tinyurl.com/vrainwavesfeedback