Gut feeling? Nope, that's the heart!

This new information changes my thinking about how to promote change because in a world (or district) that is completely motivated by data...it apparently isn’t. I am a people pleaser at heart. I want to do or give what makes someone happy. I thought this was giving my admin the best data I could provide. While some of that may be true, what is also very true is they have a heart and aside from what anyone says that’s what they lead with.

I think we traditionally target the mind and ignore the heart because of what I mentioned earlier. We live in a data driven world. We, as a society, believe that the proof is in the pudding. We look for data to back up our reasoning or logic for everything. When we search for a hotel room, we look at how many stars they have. When we buy a product on Amazon, we read the reviews. When we buy a house, we research the market. We THINK our world revolves around this data, but as I’m learning, the data is the result, not our why. Why do we look at the star ratings of a hotel? Because we want to stay where others believe what we believe. I believe in staying in a safe, friendly, home away from home type of environment. I will stay with the hotel that believes in these same things. I’m not looking for a hotel that believes in a quick fix, cheapest route, just make do for one night type of environment.

I believe that answering the question of why is so important in changing efforts for the reason mentioned above. “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” Simon Sinek repeats and repeats this. Until I have my why, nothing else matters. I can have my how and my what, but without a why I’m at a standstill.