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

Reporting Out: Presenting the Candidate
Why Statements
(
5–10 MINUTES)
The team presentations should be short—two minutes maximum per team. Each team should
cover the two bullet points below and say no more than that:
State the WHY (with no explanation or detail)
Link to two of the stories shared earlier in the workshop that best exemplify the WHY being
lived. Doing so ensures the WHY is based on who you actually are and demonstrates that
communicating your stories is a great way to share the WHY.
FACILITATOR TIP
As each team presents, ask someone from the other team to film them. Nothing fancy required—a
phone or tablet camera will serve just fine. Recording the presentations puts the teams a little
more on their game; it also preserves a piece of the Why Discovery experience for future
reference.
Once the two teams have presented their Candidate Why Statements, the group may
overwhelmingly agree that one statement captures the WHY better than the other. This was very
much the case with La Marzocco. In the event of consensus around one Candidate, that
statement becomes the Draft Why Statement that the group will carry forward. Sometimes, the
majority will feel that the WHY can be best expressed by combining the two Candidate Why
Statements. Work with them to come to an agreement on a single Draft Why Statement.
Remember, no one expects this version to be perfect. As we mentioned earlier, the aim of this
workshop is to produce a Why Statement that’s 75–80 percent done. That’s the reason we call it a
draft—we want to keep the conversation going beyond the end of the discovery session.
Once you have arrived at the Draft Why Statement, the teams will probably feel that there’s more
work to be done. If so, ask for volunteers (we’d suggest a maximum of six) who would like to
continue working on the statement. These “Why Champions” should come together over the
following couple of weeks to try to refine the words of the Why Statement. It may take time to find
the words that feel right. That’s normal. The most important thing is for the Draft Why Statement to
be actionable.

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Here are some examples of Why Statements at different levels of development. The first two are
in the correct form: simple and clear, actionable and free of WHATs, focused on service to others
and written in affirmative language that resonates with the group:
To believe in people so that they can, in turn, believe in themselves.
To provoke people to think differently so that they can be awakened to new possibilities.
Next, here are a couple that are almost there:
To constantly improve ourselves so that we may be well equipped to overcome the challenges
we face.
To do good in the world, to help people build skills and to learn constantly and have a clear
sense of direction/vision, so that they can accomplish much for themselves, their family and
their community, effectively and successfully.
Do you see how those two can be improved? The first is about “ourselves” and not about others.
The second is about others, but it’s way too complex to be remembered, let alone acted upon.
And finally, two more that need quite a bit of work:
To support our dealers so that they can have sustainable businesses and realize higher profits.
To help clients manage every aspect of their wealth so that they can rest assured that no stone
is unturned in their wealth management.
These statements are both very firmly focused on WHATs rather than WHYs.
Discovering a WHY is as much about the journey as it is about the destination. The process
allows us to build the kind of emotional connections to the WHY that will make it genuine, true and
long-lasting. Over the months and years that follow your discovery session, it is possible that the
words of the organization’s Why Statement will change slightly. What should not change is the
feeling behind the words.