Simon Sinek's Start With Why: The Golden Circle Meets the Limbic Brain

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Simon Sinek's 2009 book Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action argues that behavior is influenced in only two ways, manipulation or inspiration, and that manipulation through discounts, pressure and incentives must be constantly refueled. Sinek points to Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Steve Jobs. In the summer of 1963 a quarter of a million people came to Washington, D.C., without phones or internet, because King spoke of a dream, a belief, rather than a plan. His framework, the Golden Circle, has three rings: what, how and why. Most organizations communicate from the outside in, while inspiring leaders start with why.

Sinek ties the circle to brain anatomy: the neocortex handles rational thought and language, while the limbic system governs feelings, trust and decisions but has no capacity for language, which the episode links to gut feelings. Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi's Primed to Perform reached a similar conclusion, finding that play, purpose and potential lift performance. Ken Krogue, writing in Forbes, argued that you must first start with who, the right audience and decision maker. The book had a late surge, becoming the best-selling leadership book from mid-June 2016 to mid-June 2017 with nearly 200,000 paperbacks sold, according to NPD BookScan.

• The episode contrasts a plain computer pitch with Apple's message about challenging the status quo and thinking differently.
• Apple sold computers that were neither the fastest nor the cheapest, yet some customers tattooed the logo on their bodies.
• McGregor and Doshi's core idea is that why we work determines how well we work.
• The hosts compare a why without the right who to striking a tuning fork in a room full of pillows.
• The episode links the book's revival to fatigue with algorithmic feeds and constant notifications.