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# The power of "why?"
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2012/10/the_power_of_why/
- Published: 2012-10-05T11:30:50.000Z
- Updated: 2015-04-08T15:45:43.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: corporate culture, management, people

![People](https://i0.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2012/10/the-audience.jpg?resize=640%2C262)

Christopher Murphy, writing for Multidisciplinary Design [on “human resource”](http://www.multidisciplinarydesign.org/the-human-resource/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com):

> It’s no wonder monolithic businesses often fail. They grow and, in so doing, lose sight of what matters; people become humans and, in that subtle, but important semantic shift the people – the passionate individuals who drove the business forward, who gave it its lifeblood – become disillusioned and leave. The business, however, moves on, like a giant machine, unable to comprehend the significance of what it just lost, unable to understand the consequences of its now mindless actions.

Here’s a thought: this shift often coincides with a business losing its strong sense of “why?” Why does it exist? Once, that would have been to “do a great job of providing X”, where X is their line of business. At some point, the answer becomes something between “to continue existing” and “to provide stable income for senior management”.

Humans are very motivated by “why?” – they are very unmotivated by those other questions. Never underestimate the power of “why?”.