〰️Finding Purpose

Your purpose is the cause or belief that drives us all. Knowing this helps designers choose the right projects to work on.

​🎯Invitation

Take inspiration from the work of Simon Sinek to develop your own 'why statement'. Through a series of activities, you will explore the idea of The Golden Circle and how it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired.

Start by looking at the three tabs below.

What is the Golden Circle?

Simon Sinek presents a simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers.

Our aim is for to students develop a set of values and design principles personal to them which can becomes a manifesto and guide for their work.

👀 Overview

DIAGRAM

DEFINITION

Sinek says people are inspired by a sense of purpose (or "Why"), and that this should come first when communicating, before "How" and "What". Sinek calls this triad the golden circle, a diagram of a bullseye (or concentric circles or onion diagram) with

• "Why" in the innermost circle (representing people's motives or purposes), surrounded by a ring labelled

• "How" (representing people's processes or methods), enclosed in a ring labelled

• "What" (representing results or outcomes).

He speculates about the biological factors behind this structure, such as the limbic system. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start_with_Why)

Case Study: Open Desk

The first part of this workshop asks students to take an example company (in the example below we have used Open Desk), look at their online presence and analyse what their Why, How and What might be.

WHAT

Open Desk sells beautiful cnc cut plywood office furniture

HOW

Open Desk connect customers to local makers with their own CNC machines

WHY

Open Desk wants to change the way furniture is made to reduce the impact of mass manufacturing and shipping worldwide.

✏Activity: Start With Why

In this Miro board activity, students are invited to visit the websites of brands and distributed design projects to identify their 'Why' or their brand mission statement.

copy the content into your own miro board to edit

✏ Activity: Find Your Why

The Japanese have the term “ikigai,” which can be translated to mean “a reason for being.” This is anything that gives a deep sense of purpose to a person’s life and makes it worthwhile. It is what you get up for every morning.

By finding it you will be able to answer: why are you a designer? What are your interests? what do you care about? How does that manifest? By knowing how to articulate your personal position it will help you choose worthwhile topics for projects.

Step 1: Gather Stories and Share Them

Talk to a friend and get them to fill in these three circles.

****⚫Childhood

Recall what you liked to do when you were a kid, for example what was your happiest memory of your childhood?

****⚫Work

What task at work would you do for free if you didn’t need the paycheck? What’s usually the reason why people thank you? Observe what people ask of you when they come to you for help.

****⚫Life

Think back to the activities you do that make you forget about the passage of time. If you were given the chance to do something you love and not worry about money, what would it be?

Step 2: Identify Themes

Now sift through the stories and sort elements them into the what how and why boxes

Step 3: Draft a why statement

Think of it as the first thing you say to people, it is most natural to start with what/who you are

Step 4: Repeat Steps 2&3 with your current project keep it jargon-free and practice saying out loud - imagine you are at a party.