Rethinking the Golden Circle

I love TED talks. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design – guided by the notion that all fundamental elements of the 21st century will be constructed by one or more of these three areas, TED provides interesting speakers and presentations to provide insight into our world. This particular 18-minute post caught my attention because it is one of those pieces that reframes something common to all of us. The speaker, Simon Sinek, has numerous examples to make his point, which uses brain research to act on how people make decisions. He then applies that to organizations and forwards the notion that we should reorder our arguments for what makes us great. Rather than inspiring people to action through communicating what we do, how we do it, and why we do it, we should position ourselves by starting with our beliefs and why we do what we do, how we do it, and finally, communicating what we do.

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

Mr. Sinek calls this the golden circle (three concentric circles of what, how, and why).  I’ve had some fun exploring this concept in thinking about MVCC. This is what I’ve come to thus far:

Traditional Circle

• What – We offer great programs and services to help people achieve their educational and career goals.
• How – We can do this because we have outstanding faculty and caring staff members.
• Why – We do this to provide access and opportunity to our community - do you want to enroll today?

Golden Circle

• Why – We believe that everything we do transforms lives and builds community.
• How – We can do this because we have faculty who make learning an active and engaging experience and caring staff members who believe students have the right to succeed.
• What – We offer great programs and services that align with community needs to help people achieve their educational and career goals – do you want to be part of it and enroll today?

Please watch the video when you have a chance and come back here and review my take on the Golden Circle. I’d be interested if you have your own take on how we might reframe the circle for MVCC. If you have any thoughts on this post, please contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.