Find Your Why: a practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team pdfdrive com

Narrow remaining themes
1. ______________________________
2. ______________________________
3. ______________________________
4. ______________________________
5. ______________________________
State Your HOWs
As we explained earlier, HOWs must be actions because
they are the things you do to bring your WHY to life. Traits
and attributes, such as “honesty,” or adjectives, such as
“determined,” are not actions. We turn themes into HOWs
by making them actionable. It’s possible that some of your
themes will already be in the form of a verb or action, which is great. For those
that are traits or adjectives, here’s how to proceed.
Consider one of the themes from our example list above:
Optimistic
There are various ways to transform the adjective “optimistic” into a HOW. Here
are just a few possibilities:
Find the positive in everything
See the glass as half full
Look forward, not backward
Find the silver lining in every cloud

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After digging into the stories, we agreed that “Find the positive in everything”
really embodied what they meant when we wrote down the theme “Optimistic.”
The other themes in the list are pretty close and just need a tweak in order to
become actions:
Connection
Connect with people in meaningful ways
Making others feel safe
Make others feel safe
Always learned from others
Learn something from everyone
There’s always a solution
Look for creative solutions
Notice how the simple shift in language turns these passive words or phrases
into actions we can actually perform on a daily basis.
Here’s the final list of HOWs from our example:
Find the positive in everything
Connect with people in meaningful ways
Make others feel safe
Learn something from everyone
Look for creative solutions
We have a few personal preferences we’ll share with you. We don’t like to use
“Be” verbs, because they don’t feel active to us. We can feel the difference
between “Be connected” and “Connect with people in meaningful ways” or “Be
positive” and “Find the positive in everything.” We also advise you to drop the
gerund. Take the “ing” off of your verbs. It’s more inclusive and a clearer
instruction. “Making others feel safe” versus “Make others feel safe.” There are
exceptions to every rule and the most important thing to remember is that if it
feels right, it is right.
Make sure the words you use resonate with you and remind you of the stories
behind them. It’s this emotional connection that will inspire you to put these
HOWs into action.

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