The Critical Importance of WHY

Organizations tell people WHAT to do.  They often tell them HOW to do it. But many organizations fail when it comes to explaining the WHY: sharing the in-depth reasons why a given task done a given way is so important.

An example at the factory level:  for many companies, including Alberto Culver, Walmart is a huge customer.  They have very specific requirements about how goods are to be shipped and received.  We need to get those cases out the door on time, packed and shipped to specification. People know Walmart is important but telling our factory workers why we need to meet Walmart’s case-fill rates is crucial.  Tying our success at Walmart to their jobs, to the number of people we hire, and to the overall success of the company is key.  People want to be part of a winning business, and they want to contribute to the win.  The WHY shows them the key to winning.

We even go so far as to use as an example like this:  Your daughter is going to the prom. She ordered red shoes to match her dress from her favorite department store.  The store makes a mistake, and you get green shoes instead. Your daughter is in tears. The prom is tomorrow. And you want to stop doing business with her favorite store. On-time delivery maintains trust in a relationship and leads to further business.  A botched delivery breaks the trust and can break the business relationship.

Back to Alberto:  If we mix up Walmart shipments a few times too many, and they discontinue our brand, there goes thirty-four million dollars in sales.  And there could go a whole bunch of jobs. Tell employees why what they’re doing is important and why doing it a certain way makes sense.

The same thing is true in the office dealing with a key group like our marketers.  There are always questions of resource allocation. “My Brand A is bigger, but Brand B is getting more dollars for advertising.  What gives?” There could be several reasons: Brand B in tests has shown greater growth potential from increased advertising. Brand B has a new competitor that needs to be fended off.  Brand B needs an extra push to maintain its listing in key chains. The marketers don’t see the big picture, so you need to explain why you’ve made your allocations as you have. To just let the dissatisfaction simmer is to risk ongoing discontentment and even the loss of good people. Explaining the reasons, and the fact that at some point another brand may be the beneficiary of this kind of thinking, gets everyone pulling as a team.