HOW GREAT LEADERS INSPIRE ACTION
The first is a lecture called "HOW GREAT LEADERS INSPIRE ACTION" by Simon Sinek. Sinek blew my mind when he described what he calls "The Golden Circle". He explains that in our efforts to inspire action we usually communicate on the level of WHAT and HOW. "This is WHAT we do, and they is HOW we do it." Sinek explains how the backwardness of this approach and how it doesn't connect with the real reasons people do what they do, or the real things that drive human behaviour. He claims that communicating at the WHAT and HOW level connects with the outer shell of the brain, the Neocortex. This is part of the brain drives rational and analytical thought, however it does not drive human behaviour. Sinek goes on to say that great leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired action by connecting with people from the inside out at a deeper level of the brain at the Limbic System of the brain by communicating WHY. WHY is the purpose, cause, belief. Sinek states, "People don't buy WHAT you do but WHY you do it." In addition he claims that "the goal should not be to do business with those who need what you have, but rather to do business with those who believe what you believe." The Golden Circle starts with inspiration from the inside out. By connecting with people at the WHY level you connect with the Limbic System which controls things like trust, loyalty, long term memory and human behaviour. The Limbic System has no capacity for language, but it is responsible for those gut decisions and those times when things seem to make sense at the Neocortex level (rational analytical thought), but "just don't feel right" and as such you don't do it.
Sinek communicates that "WHAT you do serves only as the proof of what you believe". He uses the example of the 1963 I Have a Dream speech, by Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. didn't speak of "WHAT needed to change, he spoke of what he BELIEVED". The WHY was that there are a set of laws created by a higher authority than those created by man. He believed in those laws created by that higher authority. Sinek claims that none of the 250,000 people at the famous March on Washington were there to see Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but rather were there because they BELIEVED in what he BELIEVED. "People don't buy WHAT you do, but WHY you do it."
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the best there is at extraction: stealing valuable secrets inside the subconscious during the mind’s vulnerable dream state. His skill has made him a coveted player in industrial espionage but also has made him a fugitive and cost him dearly. Now he may get a second chance if he can do the impossible: inception, planting an idea rather than stealing one.
We learn throughout this 2010 Sci-Fi thriller that planting an idea is not as easy as one may think. We learn that the brain recognizes an idea that does not belong to the host. The brains defense mechanisms will attack an idea from an exterior source. Thus successfull INCEPTION is based on planting the idea at a level so deep that the host believes it is their own.
INCEPTION made me think of the Sinek's Golden Circle. I'm fortunate to have many leadership and mentorship opportunities in my life. I am a husband, a father, a friend, a neighnour, a coach, and employer. Those titles (WHAT) do not facilitate inspiration. However connecting with people at the level of common belief, purpose or cause does inspire. WHY, HOW, WHAT work together from the inside out to inspire those around you to "buy-in", in accordance with the Laws of Diffusion of Innovation.
"People don't buy what you do but WHY you do it."
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