The Law of Diffusion of Innovations
Understanding the power of a good communication strategy in driving people’s behavior and commitment.
We all have stumbled on Simon Sinek’s name times enough to know, at the very least, that he is an inspirational ambassador of great leadership. We see him delivering these amazing talks, nod our heads, and wow ourselves in pure disbelief at how obvious it seems, but here is the thing: the majority of us are not listening. Well, one day I did, and he inspired me to read “Start with Why” — which I found to be a very good decision. These lines are my take on the book and the overall message Simon is trying to gift to the world.
The Law of Diffusion of Innovations
So, the Law of Diffusion of Innovations was explained by Everett M. Rogers and refers to the bell curve of product adoption, which splits the percentage of the market who adopt products into Innovators (2.5%), Early Adopters (13.5%), Early Majority (34%), Late Majority (34%) and Laggards (16%). It also explains the tipping point (where your product target the mass market) is somewhere at 16%, and that to reach the tipping point a product needs to have the acceptance by the far left side (Innovators and Early Adopters), to then gain successively middle (Early Majority and then Late Majority) and right (Laggards) side’s acceptance. This happens because both Majorities require others to first utilize the product and make the necessary sacrifices before they’ll use the product themselves. The Laggards, well, they probably never will.
What Simon claims is that there is a reason driving the Innovators and Early Adopters to be the ones that willingly endure the sacrifices to be the first ones to experiment with products: people don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.
The Power of WHY
Innovators and Early Adopters buy the products they buy because they have a visceral bond with the brand. They believe in the same vision the brand believes in. They relate to the purpose of the brand and therefore are willing to try out any brand’s product- good or bad, it’s irrelevant. They are the influencers, and they are driven by WHY you do it.
The ultimate example of a great communication
You can argue that many industries and brands do not follow the path of communicating “starting with why” and that is successful. Yes, but how many of them can say people endure early morning hours waiting in line to be the first to buy a new product (that they could easily buy the week after during business hours without any effort)? How many can follow through without using any sort of market manipulation and consistently be at the top? Few, or maybe even just one: Apple.
These people are loyal to Apple; they endure sacrifices to try out Apple’s products, and the only question they ask is “which model”. They believe in the same vision Apple does. The shiny Apple emblem says something about them, about who they are and what they believe. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a MacBook, iPhone, iPod, or whatever. What they have is just the material representation of WHY they have it.
And the reason I took this unconventional approach from the book, is to put you in the mental space to understand that The Golden Circle is not an opinion — is biology, and the evolution of the product’s adoption in the market proves it.
The Golden Circle
Every organization knows what they do — it’s the material outcome of their work. Some of those, know how they do it, and that mastery gives them the edge in the market and puts them one step ahead of the competition. Few, however, know why they do it. “Why” is not (or shouldn’t be) about making money — that should be a consequence. The why is the reason, the purpose for which the organization exists.
The Golden Circle layers represent the principles discussed above: the why, the how and the what, and it’s more than a hierarchy. The way we, as humans, understand these principles is deeply connected with our behavior evolution as a species. The newest part of our brain — the Homo sapiens brain- is the neocortex, which refers to our what level and is responsible for rational and analytical thought, and spoken language.
The other 2 sections, referring to the how and why, are our limbic brain responsible for all our feelings, such as trust and loyalty. It’s also responsible for all human behavior and all our decision-making — but has no capacity for language. In practice, it’s this disconnection that makes putting our feelings into words so hard.
And now the important message: when we communicate outside in, people can understand huge amounts of complicated information (like qualities, facts, and features), but it does not drive behavior. But when we communicate inside out, we’re talking directly to the part of the human brain that controls decision-making, and our rational part of the brain allows us to rationalize those decisions. The limbic brain is powerful enough to drive behaviors that sometimes contradict our rational and analytical understanding of a situation. (Apple and how their strong communication of “why” changed the course of events, you see?)
So now, how can we apply this knowledge to become inspirational leaders? What is leadership after all?
Leadership
I’m sure you already heard that “there are leaders, and there are those who lead”. Leaders hold a position of power or influence, while those who lead inspire others. And others follow not because they have to, but because they want to. They follow for themselves.
A great leader can win hearts and minds. But how to then? Easy. First, discipline yourself to start with why. Give people something to believe, a reason, a purpose they reflect themselves on, and they will take your belief as their own, and will follow you. Next, be consistent with your why. Live, and do and be your why. Make people trust your message by being your message.
Great leaders inspire people to act, which is not related to extrinsic motivations you give them — it’s intrinsic. And the only way to motivate someone to act by themselves is to be truthful and authentic. Guess what? The only way for you to be authentic is if you know your “why”. That, along with living your “why”, will build trust and loyalty. Want to be a great leader? You have to believe in your why. And then put it out loud and clearly. Front and center.
If you do, then the magic happens: you will inspire people to act, and they will do it for themselves, not for you — and this is the most powerful bond you can create. This is why you should “start with why”: they will follow you, for themselves.
In our industry, this means that someone believes so much in why they are doing what they are doing, that they will refuse other sorts of manipulations, such as better offers or conditions. They will stay because they believe they are part of something bigger, a purpose. They are inspired by the purpose they are contributing to.
And no, to do this you don’t have to be a “natural-born leader”. It helps, of course, but we can all learn how to improve our communication to become great leaders, that inspire action and drive behavior.
Final notes
If you are wondering if “starting with why” really changes the communication pattern and the commitment of teams towards a purpose, yes it does. It makes communication simpler, easier to understand, and closer to the heart. I’ve noticed it myself, not only as a message sender within my teams but mainly as a message receiver, eg when onboarding into Motors — the reason why we are here is clear and is stated in almost all meetings we have: “Create the most effective and intuitive vehicle buying, owning and selling experience.”- and with this message I know to what I’m contributing. I know why I’m here.
Finally, if you, like me, believe you can positively impact people’s lives by guiding them to be the best they can be — maybe even better than they dreamed of, read the book.
It provides examples of the power of “starting with why” (and what happens when you ignore it), gives a deeper insight into the role of our limbic brain in human evolution, and further explains the relation between the “Why”-type and “How”-type of people and goes through some basics of communication that can go a long way into turning you into a great leader.
Hope you enjoyed this post, thank you for reading!
