Understanding Your Why

Finding your Why isn’t always simple. It’s more than just making a statement you think your audience will get behind. And it’s far more than co-opting the Why you’ve seen work successfully for others. Audiences are smart. They will instantly be able to sense if your Why is not authentic. Your Why is not the same, but has to align with and drive everything else you’re doing, especially your vision, mission, and values. Remember:

• Your Vision describes where your organisation is going in the coming years.
• Your Mission focuses on your business operations and the products or services you offer.
• Your Values define how your entire organization should go about achieving your mission.
• Your Why shifts focus from internal operations to your external impact.

Understand Your Why Exercise

Your “Why” or purpose is the reason you have formed your creative practice boiled down to a single sentence (or two). This exercise will help you to understand your purpose and communicate it to the world.

How to Identify Core Purpose: 5 Whys

• Start with WHAT you do. “We make X products or deliver Y services”
• Next, ask “WHY is that important?” How do you make a difference in the lives of your customers?
• Ask the WHY question 5 times. Each time brainstorming and writing down your answers.
• After a few whys, you’ll find that you’re getting down to the fundamental purpose of your creative practice or business.
• Review all the different answers to the WHY question, searching for the answer that resonates most, generates some passion, and gets to the heart of your business or creative practice’s core purpose.

Questions to Test & Refine Your Core Purpose

• Do you find this purpose personally inspiring, and does it make you feel proud of your business or creative practice?
• Can you envision this purpose being as valid 100 years from now as it is today?
• Does this purpose help you decide which opportunities and activities to say YES to and which ones to say NO to?
• Is this purpose authentic (not merely words on paper that “sound nice”), and would it be greeted with enthusiasm rather than cynicism?

Putting it into words

When you’ve got your purpose figured out, try and put it in words. Keep in mind, it doesn’t need to be a description of your products and services. It needs to be a succinct description of the impact of those products and services, and it usually begins with ‘we.’ And it should speak to your highest aspirations, it doesn’t need to be something you’re delivering on 100 percent today.

You can find downloadable PDF and Word versions of the exercise below