Ebook Find Your Why A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team Simon Sinek David Mead Peter Docker 9780143111726 Books

Product details Paperback 256 pages Publisher Portfolio (September 5, 2017) Language English ISBN-10 0143111728

Find Your Why A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team Simon Sinek David Mead Peter Docker 9780143111726 Books Reviews

• I read Start with Why and Find Your Why back to back over just a few days. Sinek’s famous Ted Talk (Presented in 2009, it has over 33 million views.) was so powerful to me that I had to see where he was with it now.
  
  The man has a theme. He calls it the Golden Circle Why—How—What. Why is the reason. How is the means. What is the result. They all have to be in balance, driven by the why, and when they are, you will achieve authenticity and success.
  
  The theme hasn’t changed. In terms of the Start with Why concept itself, you’ll find little new here. Find Your Why is a how-to. Sinek and his team, Peter Docker and David Mead, and Docker and Mead in particular, provide a detailed guide to defining and sharing the why, how, and what within an actual organization, using the process they have refined through extensive use to help companies apply the original Sinek concept. (There is a refresher for those who haven’t read Start with Why or viewed the Ted talk.)
  
  As the authors state, “That’s the reason this book exists. If Start with Why makes the case for the WHY, Find Your Why provides the steps to show people how to actually do it.” And it does a good job at achieving that goal.
  
  To those who have been in the organizational world for a while, a lot of this will sound a lot like past initiatives to define mission, values, strategy, and tactics, or some combination of those concepts, however you define them. The Start With Why Team, as they refer to themselves, openly discusses that later in the book.
  
  The language is different. And so are the priorities and the focus. Values, as most organizations define them, and as the Why Team points out, are really just ideals. They aren’t actionable. And they’re right.
  
  It would be a disservice, therefore, to characterize the Why program as more of the same, either more of the 2009 TED talk or more of the overlapping programs many other consultants have promoted over the years. This is more than just another of the 32 flavors of Colgate toothpaste that Sinek refers to in Start with Why. And that’s because he always goes back to why. And that’s the magic.
  
  So, if you are responsible for developing engagement, strategy, or similar programs for your company, I would consider this a must read. If that’s not what you need, there is still plenty of value to the book. Sinek and his team are clearly impassioned. The writing is very fluid. And when it comes to WHY, you can’t get too much of a good thing.
• The biggest gap in the Start With Why book is that that book didn't really address how to find your why.
  
  This book is directed at addressing that gap.
  
  The book is rather short, and an easy read. In essence, its message is
  
  1. There are two kinds of why discovery processes - one for individuals and one for groups
  2. Both of them work the same way look to your formative experiences and figure out the themes, and what was significant. Then distill that into your 'why'.
  
  The authors provided a fairly high level process for doing that.
  
  INDIVIDUALS FINDING YOUR WHY
  
  I think overall the book follows a good approach for helping you find your purpose or 'why.' I did feel though that the nuts and bolts of the process could have been further elaborated in parts of the individual 'why' discovery process, with additional questions and exercises to help guide people through the process.
  
  ORGANISATIONS FINDING YOUR WHY
  
  The book provided a good run-through of the steps of facilitating a purpose-discovery workshop.
  
  THE UPSHOT
  
  I think that there are other books that go into greater depth around the processes of finding your individual why and the process of finding an organisation or group's why. But this book is a good starting point.
  
  If you are completely new to 'finding your why' this book provides a short, accessible guide to how to do that and the process is solid.
  If you are looking for more depth around your why, you may find exploring other treatments of this topic provide greater depth and additional perspective.
• I think this book permanently damaged my respect for Simon Sinek.
  
  I've seen most if not all of his TED talks, and liked the book "Together is Better". I believe Mr. Sinek actually gets the core of leadership, but I don't understand how this "book" fits into that. Since there's two other authors on the cover, I'm inclined to believe Simon Sinek only wrote the foreword. The tone and content is such a departure from the leadership principles he's discussed that I actually felt swindled when I started reading. Even if Mr. Sinek only wrote the foreword, his name is the one used to sell the rest of it.
  
  Did you know that Emily also used this book to land her dream job with only one interview? Or that Susan and Jim are using it to find the employee with the perfect fit? ...Seriously? Fake testimonials? Then it tells you it's a workbook for you to find your why. Except all 7 chapters are the same, just tweaked to account for group size. By the way, you also need a partner and six hours to find your why.
  
  I have a feeling this is the book they GIVE you at the end of the "leadership seminar", so that the three people your company sent have a reference when they go back and train the other hundred or so. If I could refund this with a clear conscience, I would.