Simon Sinek: Understanding People Is Key to Business Success

[00:00:00][Music] over the next couple of days you'll probably hear a lot about how to make better design how to execute better how to consider your clients or the end user when you're doing what you have to do and I'd like to add another another item to the list to consider as you say here for the next two days which is how can you help the human race how can you help the human race the human species progress I'm not joking either this is something I think we all have to be aware of at the end of the day the Human animals is a social animal and our very survival depends on our ability to form communities to form cultures what's a community what's a culture it's a group of people with a common set of values and beliefs right what's a country it's a group of people with a common set of values and beliefs what's a company it should be a group of people with a common set of values and beliefs when we're surrounded by people who believe what we believe something remarkable happens trust emerges and make no mistake of it trust is a feeling a distinctly human feeling you know we we all have friends who are total scrs and yet we still trust them right trust is not a checklist simply doing everything you say you're going to do does not does not mean people will inherently trust you it just means you're reliable we need trust right we need trust when we're surrounded by people who believe what we believe and trust starts to emerge when we trust them and they trust us we're more willing to take risks we're more willing to experiment which requires failure we're more willing to explore and go somewhere that no one has ever gone before with the confidence that if we fail if we trip over if we turn our backs that those within our community those who we trust and who trust us will look after us while we're gone will pick us up when we fall over will help us when we're hurt our very survival depends on it we're not good at everything we're not good by ourselves you know if I send you out to go fight a saber-tooth tiger by yourself odds are tiger one U zero it's not going to go very well but if you go out as a group we're pretty damn amazing and the reason is is because we all have our certain strengths and we all have our certain weaknesses and the goal is not to fix your weaknesses the goal is to amplify your strength and surround yourself with the people who can do what you can't do but it's not just based on skills and and application and experience it's based on what you believe it's based on what you believe you see simply being good at something and having somebody else being good at what you're no good at does not mean you will trust each other trust the sense of trust comes from the sense of common values and common beliefs I can prove it how many of you are from New York okay bunch of you are you friends with everybody in New York why not why not but when you go to Los Angeles and you meet someone from New York you're like hey I'm from New York and your best friends right and when you go to France you there you are in the Paris Metro mining your own business and you hear an American accent behind you and you turn around you say hey where you from they say Los Angeles you're like hey I'm from New York and you're best friends because when you're surrounded by people who don't believe what you believe when you're in a environment where you don't feel comfortable you look for anyone who may share some of the same values and beliefs that you have and you start to form a very real and very intense bond with them simply because you know that they have a basic understanding of how you grew up of the things that you care about of the life that you live back home well the same is true when we go to work do we want to go to work with people who understand us who believe what we believe who have a similar view of the world that has nothing to do with their opinions and the differences that we share that's good that's called diversity that's called advantages to problem solving which is we can all look at the same thing from a different angle and come up with Solutions what I'm talking about is why should you help each other in the first place what are you in pursuit of now the question is is what creates that sense of values and beliefs what creates that sense of trust right our very human instinct we know how to find people who believe what we believe our our our our survival depends on it we're we're biologically gifted with this idea if I ask you to go out in the street and find all the people who believe what you believe you know exactly what to do you're going to strike up conversations you're going to start talking to people and E either you'll have a good feeling about them or you won't either you'll have chemistry whatever that means or you don't sometimes it's quick sometimes it's slow but we know how to do it it's called making friends it's called dating it's called networking we have the innate ability to do it the problem is it's not scalable the problem is you're the only one who had that gut feeling but if you know the symbols to look for if you know how to see the things that people are doing and saying that you can find them if I tell you go out on the street and find all the people wearing red hats it's easy there's one there's one there's one there's one there's one there they're easy to spot simply because they have a symbol they have something that they're giving off that says something about who they are and what they believe when you were standing on that Paris Metro that American accent that you heard was a symbol it was a sign you don't know these people and yet you trust them they will say to you you guys have to go to this restaurant and you'll go okay and you'll go to that restaurant because they told you to now what if you were walking down the street and some stranger just says hey you got to go to this restaurant you be like crackpot right you're going to ignore them this is what trust does this is why we don't research everything we don't need access to all information let's say you want to go buy a new television right so you do all your research Consumer Reports look it all up right I know what I'm going to buy I know what I'm going to do I'm getting the LG it's the best on the market can't wait to get it right sat that's that's what you've decided to do this weekend that Friday night you go over to a friend's house your friend the gadget guy the guy who has the first of everything right and you go to his house and you can't wait to show off and share with him what you're going to do with all your research and you say I'm getting the new LG and he says nah man get the Sony it's so much better in that one instant either he's completely turned all of your research on its head and you're going to have to go back and do all the research again is he right should I trust him should I believe him or you just bought a Sony all that marketing all that research out out the tubes down the drain it doesn't matter because the person that you trust the person from within your community told you that you should get the Sony and you trust him he knows more than you he must be right I trust him I don't have to know everything again you're walking down the street you accidentally bump shoulders with somebody and they say where are you going you say I'm going to Best Buy a get the new LG they go don't get the new LG I know everything about this stuff get the Sony crackpot right you're going to ignore the person we don't trust everyone we trust people from within our community but you have to know what to look for just as I said before when you find the people with the Red Hats every single piece of communication we make sorry every single piece of every decision we make in our lives is a piece of communication every decision we make in our lives as individuals or as organizations is a piece of communication it's our way of saying something about who we are and what we believe this is why authenticity matters this is why you have to say and do the things you actually believe because the things you say and do are symbols of who you are and we look for those symbols so we can find people who believe what we believe our very survival depends on it so if you're putting out false symbols you will attract people to those symbols but you won't be able to form trust with them this is what Tiger Woods did to us he lied he lied he told us what he thought we wanted to hear and it was great and we were drawn to it and all of us who kind of like that idea of the sort of the good guy were drawn to it until we found out it was a lie he could have been the bad boy of Gulf he could have had all the same endorsements and had a fantastic career and still been hailed as one of the great athletes of our day but he didn't he chose to lie good luck forming trust again tiger we don't believe you we don't trust you the goal of putting something out there if you say what you believe and you do what you believe you will attract people who believe what you believe if you go to one of your friends and you say to one of your friends how would you like me to dress so that you'll like me better how would you want me to address you how do you want me to speak so that you'll like me more right your friends are going to look at you be like what are you talking about come on come on come on what should I wear so that you'll find me more appealing and how would you like me to speak to you so that you like me more and your friends are going to tell you just be yourself that's why I like you I don't just be yourself now think about what we do in Industry what do we do we do market research and we go out and we ask the customers what kind of things the way we what style should we speak to you how should we decorate ourselves what kind of things are you drawn to so that we can do those things so you'll like us more it's just as ridiculous it's just as ridiculous organizations should say and do the things they actually believe and they will attract people who believe what they believe or they can choose to lie and at the slightest hint that they might be lying cynicism sets in and people start saying I'm not sure I can trust these guys because there's not a lot of consistency in all the things they say and do which means they can't have a very strong belief set or they're lying to me and we call them inauthentic the ENT enire process of asking other people who we should be is inauthentic that's hilarious to me all these positioning studies we do are inherent we're going to do a study to find out from people so we can be more authentic that's hilarious say and do what you actually believe and the symbols you put out there the things you say and the things you do those red hats are ways that people can find you what you have the ability to do as designers is create those symbols and allow people to use those those things to say something about who they are work for companies work for clients work for people who you believe what they believe show up and feel a part of something bigger than yourself and your part is to put what they believe into pictures and words and symbols and Graphics so that other people can use those things to say something about who they are people put Harley-Davidson logos on their body to say something about who they are corporate logo ain't no Proctor and gambles tattooed on anybody's arm because Harley mean something they stand for something people put that tattoo on there not to tell you that they own a motorcycle they put that tattoo there to tell you something about themselves you ever see anybody with a with a Mac laptop put a sticker over that beautiful shining Apple ain't never going to happen then how will you know who I am do you ever see anybody with a PC break out the Windex to clean out their computer Mac people have you ever seen a dirty Mac doesn't exist does not exist why because it's who I am these are symbols we use the companies that are crystal clear in what they believe and they're disciplined in how they do it and they're consistent in what they do and everything they say and everything they do serves as a symbol of the set of values and beliefs we use those symbols to say something about who we are we surround oursel with the people and the products and the brands that say something about who we are and when we can find the people who believe what we believe we're weirdly drawn to them because our very survival depends on it we need it and so the more you can give of yourself the more you can give of what you believe the more you can discipline with discipline say and and do the things you actually believe strange things start to happen just unlike that just like on that metro in Paris simply because of one tiny little symbol that was put out there that we are from the same place we may have the same values we may have the same beliefs we're drawn to each other and we legitimately trust each other and more important more importantly we'll look out for each other and that's the key to all of this we go to work every day and we sit at our computers and we sit at our desks and we solve problems by sending emails get up and go talk to somebody it's called human interaction and it's a beautiful beautiful thing I'll tell you a quick story I I was on a plane about was about a week ago actually it was only about a week ago and um I I was coming down the aisle and my seatmate I guess you know my my companion for the next 5 hours um was already sitting down she was in the aisle and I had the window seat and you you know we've all had this experience where you're the one who gets there first and you look down and you hope that it's that one please please pleas no you know praying that that becomes your seatmate I've had many fantasies about wives and girlfriends that never sat down next to me I you know it's better than an icebreaker right hi right sitting next to you um and equally we've seen people coming down the aisle saying please don't sit next to me please don't sit next to me please but we've all done that well she ignored me entirely so I could only assume that she was praying that I wouldn't sit next to her I somehow think though she was hoping that no one would sit next to her so you know what it's like we've all been on planes you you travel and you go to the aisle and custom dictates you know just general politeness that the person looks up to you and says you you sitting here you know she didn't she completely ignored me had her face in her book and put my bag in the overhead compartment she still ignored me to the point where I actually had to say um excuse me I'm sitting there and she sort of begrudgingly moved a she didn't stand up she begrudgingly moved her leg to the side and went right like like this was something she didn't expect would happen right so I sat I knew exactly what this flight was going to be like I would have my headphones on for 5 hours and I would ignore the person sitting next to me and be afraid every time I had to go to the bathroom for having and when I'm on a plane the pressure I have to go more often it's very embarrassing and and so you like I sit down as soon as I've gone I have to go immediately again I'm going to have a bladder infection because anyway different story um and so we we we we we got into flight we we sort of reached altitude and uh the flight attendant came around to ask us if we wanted breakfast and she came over to us and she said would you like cereal would you like The Omelette she said to me and I said I'll have the cereal and she turns to my sweet mate and my my my seatmate that's funny semi sweet um bitter uh she turns to my uh my seatmate and she says do you want the Omelette or do you want the the cereal and she says I'll also have the cereal two cereal 4 minutes later the flight attendant comes back and says I only have one cereal so now I've already decided in my mind that I was going to say to my seatmate um you have the cereal right that was I I had already decided but before the words could even come out of my mouth she turns the flight attendant says I'll have the cereal and at that point I hated her and here's the joke she lacks a spirit of generosity no matter what option she would have chosen she would have gotten the cereal for one if she'd waited for 3 seconds and heard that I was about to offer it to her she would have got the cereal right if she absolutely had to have the cereal she could have turned to me and said do you mind if I have the cereal and I would have said go right ahead right she could have even apologized or said Thank you to me I'm really sorry allergic to eggs can I have the cereal you know in other words no matter what option she chose she would have got the cereal but the one option she went with was to take a selfish perspective to go for what she wanted and ignore the wants desires or needs of anyone around her even including just being polite in other words she didn't have to give me the cereal she could have just been polite about it right now from that point on I really hated her and I wrote an article about this little experience while I was on the plane sitting next to her and made no attempt to turn the screen so she couldn't read it secretly hoping she was salt and pepper hair glasses I'm good thank you um and more importantly now I had no desire to do anything for her anymore right now when we got done when the flight landed perhaps as a nice person if she had just established some sort of rapport with me just because I'm a nice guy I would have taken her case down here you go you know but I didn't and I wasn't going to or or if I did it wouldn't have been with a spirit of generosity if I did it would have been as a as a sort of a smug remark like H there you go I'm still nice it would have been as a you know one of those deals or I would have done it simply as some sort of positive reinforcement to myself that despite this horrible person I'm still a nice guy right no matter which one would have motivated me to take that case down it wouldn't have been with a spirit of generosity it would have been some sort of selfish act or some sort of aggressive act right it's the spirit of generosity if we're willing to give to the person next to us it's amazing what they'll be willing to give to us right and again our very survival depends on this we need to trust each other and more willing to trust somebody who's willing to help us I hate the whole self-help industry right how can you be happy what are the five steps you can follow to be a millionaire what are the seven steps that you need to get the career that you want you know me me me me me me me me me what about helping the guy next to you what are the five steps that you can do to help the person next to you lose some weight what are the seven steps that you can follow to help the person next to you find the job that they want do you know how we get fulfillment you can be happy because you did things at work you can be proud because you did things at work you can be excited because you had a big success at work but you know how you feel fulfilled at work when you do something for someone else it's the only way we get that feeling it's the only way we get that feeling you know why the statistics say that over 90% of people don't feel fulfilled by the work they do it's not because of the job it's not because of the pay it's not because of the benefits it's because we don't help each other anymore we sit in our cubes and we work and anything that we turn to anybody it's because we need something we need to get something and yet we don't put ourselves out there simply for no other reason than to help somebody else you know what generosity is generosity is doing something for someone else expecting nothing in return at no point ever I did something for him why won't he help me it's not an equation it's designed to help you feel good and Mother Nature has given us this feeling when we do something for someone else to encourage us to do it because when we are in groups when we are surrounded by people who believe what we believe trust emerges and our very survival and progress goes up sex feels good it's why we do it and Mother Nature has provided that it will feel good so that we can do it more so that we can procreate that was not an accident right well the same goes here that sense of fulfillment that we get was designed so that we'll do it more so not only will we procreate but we'll create strong senses of bonds and cultures amongst each other I did a little experiment with um um with a homeless person not like on them it's not like electrodes with them voluntarily um helped me um because the whole idea of giving right you you You' we you've all walked down the street and you've all seen someone begging and you either have or haven't thrown a few pennies in their cup when you do you feel good you bought that feeling that is a legitimate commercial transaction you know commercial transactions are defined as the exchange of consideration there was an exchange of consideration here you gave money you got the feeling of Goodwill you paid for that feeling if you didn't give money you either feel nothing or you feel bad you can't feel good by not giving all right you paid for that feeling so now the question is how is that person encouraging us to give the joke is they act like every corporation in the world they talk about themselves MIM me me me me me me right like they sit there with their little Outdoor Advertising little sign right and it says I'm homeless I'm hungry I got 12 kids I'm a veteran God bless they got it in there trying to appeal to somebody the religious vote the veteran vote you know the child sympathizer surround yourself with lots of pets go for that one too right all in an attempt to get something from someone takers not givers right all about me well what do what do corporations do we've added more RAM we've added more ROM we've added more speed this one's number one we're the biggest we're the best we've been around since 1969 we're better than them we're faster than them we're more efficient than that one me me me me me me me me me me me and so even if we buy their product guess what I don't really feel much so I did this little experiment I found um um a nice homeless lady on the uh streets of New York who's willing to help out and I learned that with her sign which was pretty typical I'm homeless I'm hungry blah she makes between 20 and $30 a day uh for you know for her days worth of work8 to 10 hours of sitting there selling Goodwill 8 to 10 hours she'll make $2 to $30 $30 is considered a good day I ch changed her sign and the new sign made her $40 in 2 hours and then she [Music] left it's one of the reasons she's homeless is because she's decided that she only needs $ to $30 a day to live if she stayed she would have made $150 the point is she made 40 bucks in two hours what did the signs say the sign said if you only give once a month please think of me next time it has nothing to do with the taker it has everything to do with the giver and what are the objections people give when they don't give I can't give to everyone how do I know that they really need it and so I address both those concerns I know you can't give to everyone so if you only give once a month my cause is legitimate I will still be here when you're ready to give 40 bucks two hours make it about them not about you the fact of the matter is 100% of customers are people and 100% of clients are people and 100% of employees are people I don't care how good your product is I don't care how good your marketing is I don't care how good your design is if you don't understand people you don't understand business we are social animals we are human beings and our survival depends on our ability to form trusting relationships we could have had this conference online I could have given the same talk sitting behind my computer we could have all turned on our WebEx we could have all sat at our Terminals and I would have given you the exact same information would it have been the same no I'm not there there's this weird thing about human interaction right we can't form trust without you could like what I say but you wouldn't be able to form trust without it in fact simply being here we all say the same thing you could have all for two days absolutely boring abysmal speakers boring boring boring right we've all been to those Maybe One Shining Star like I like him you know and what do we say when we leave the speakers suck but I'm glad I went because I met some great people it's this this is what the conference is all about you showed up not because you're in an industry you showed up because you have a common set of values and beliefs there's a million design conferences you got to take time out of your day you got to pay money it's called sacrifice it's called payment it's called risk but you're here simply because you know something about each other when you go out on the street in an area where you don't belong where you're not amongst people who believe what you believe and you see somebody with the same badge as you and you haven't met them yet you're going to go hey why they're just as much of a stranger as any other person on the street but because they have that little symbol that says that I believe what you believe I'm a little bit like you we can form a bond very quickly and instantly you do you do it's called human beings do you ever watch um uh Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel I was flipping through the channels one night and Deadliest Catch came on and on this episode just random um they were in a huge storm now for those of you who don't know Deadliest Catch uh they take these crab fishing boats out in the Bearing Sea which is like terrible and they put cameras on them and we watch right the reason that's I guess significant is because these crab fishermen have I think one of the top five deadliest jobs in the world you know I don't know what the exact number is but dozens of fishermen die every year doing doing this we apparently find that entertaining um bch it actually is so they have cameras only on five or six of the ships even though there are many many many ships that go out fishing every season and they don't really come into proximity with each other because you know the ocean's huge and they usually sabotage each other and give each other false information cuz they're all competitors they're all looking to get the crabs and you know make sure that they find them somebody else doesn't and you it's business right it's just business it's okay we all do the same thing in our own companies and in this one episode this big huge storm was so violent that they had to bring all the pots which are the big cages that they catch the crabs in they had to bring all the pots back on the boat uh and wait out the storm and just by dumb luck one of the boats that had cameras on it was in proximity of a boat that didn't have cameras on it and so they filmed they had secured all their pots on the deck and so they started filming the other boat and they filmed a guy climbing on the outside of the cage securing the pots and all of a sudden a huge wave hits the side of the boat and the guy is not there anymore and the people on the boat with the camera start screaming Man Overboard Man Overboard Man Overboard and they turn their boat towards where they think he might be he's a stranger they don't know him they don't know the the crew members of the other boat and yet they react and they turn towards him and they find him in the drink and for those of you who don't understand how dangerous this is if the water is so cold that if you're in the water for I think that it's a minute or a minute 30 hypothermia will set in and you die and they come upon him and he's screaming don't let me die don't let me die and they pull him on board not out of the woods yet they strip off his clothes because it's wet and cold and they wrap blankets around him to prevent hypothermia from setting in and he survives and it's overwhelming and the captain comes down and it's all on I mean you can go watch it on TV the camera comes the captain comes down and he hugs this stranger this young man his competitor he hugs this guy as if he's his own son I I lost it everybody is crying and you realize what happened here was a human interaction and the reason they risk their own lives to help this other person even though they spend every other day trying to get aead in sabotage is because at the end of the day they're all crab fishermen and they know something about each other and they know something about the risk that they all take to do this and when push comes to shove they will put themselves out there to help each other for no other reason than they get it they're one of the same I will promise you that every single member of that crew that day went home with a feeling of fulfillment I promise you that every single person on that crew that day felt more good in their their hearts and in their jobs than the richest day they've ever pulled in my question is is what are you doing to help the person next to you don't you want to wake up and go to work for the only reason that you can do something good for someone else wouldn't you want them to do that for you thank you very much [Music]