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Ask WHO, not HOW

June 9, 2022

Most people spend the majority, if not the entirety, of their lives putting off the things that matter most.

The Shocking & Exciting Truth about Procrastination

What procrastination means is that your goal or ambition is great — It's something you'd like for yourself, but you're not the right person to execute the plan to achieve it, at least not right now.

You need a Who to get you through whatever stage you're in, because at the moment, you're clearly not the Who in possession of the needed knowledge or capability — If you were, you wouldn't be procrastinating.

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Procrastination is wisdom, if you listen to it. Procrastination is the by-product of having a goal and asking "How?" instead of "Who?"

You only have two options when you procrastinate:

How do I do this?
Who can help me with this?

How is the question society and our public education system have trained us to ask the moment we have a goal or desire. But Whos already have the necessary skills, knowledge, connections, and expertise to get it done ASAP.

This is what Who Not How by Dan Sullivan is all about…

"WHO" creates results, "HOW" creates problems…

Once the "WHAT" and "WHY" have clearly been established, the specified "WHO" or "WHOS" have all they need to go about executing the "HOW”.

The Who Not How framework teaches us to focus on what we can do, and then finding other Whos to do what they can do.

Having a lot of things on your mind and weighing decisions can really exhaust your energy and willpower called decision fatigue. But with a freed-up mind, you can begin creatively expanding your vision.

Once you have your “WHO”, you need to clearly define the goal

Whenever we delegate or create a project, we clarify the “what”, but we rarely clarify the most important question… “why”.

Once the "why" has been clearly defined, you can more easily delegate it because they will have all the necessary context to go about executing the how. Without knowing the why, you or your team won't have autonomy to do what's required.

It is not the role of the leader to explain how the job is done. All the Who needs is clarity about what specifically "done" looks like. To see my project plan template, click here.

Increase Your Accountability

In addition to more efficiently increasing your output by asking Who not How, it’s actually the investment in Whos that strengthens your own commitment to your goals.

Go ahead and try it:

Ask Who not How
Create a defined project plan that answers the “Why”
Share the project plan to your Who

See you all next Thursday 👋

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