It's not what you say, but why

I’ve got another TED conference talk for you today, this one is Simon Sinek talking about “How great leaders inspire action”.

I watched this for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it got me really thinking about how the best drugs workers/activists/services do what they do so well.

Can this translate into advice

If you’re an NSP worker or anyone who spends time supporting people then think about the way you do this. Theres a good chance that the advice you give is heavily focused on ‘What’ people should do, examples would be:

• Telling people they need to use clean equipment
• Telling people to not reuse filters
• Telling people to get tested for blood borne viruses

You might also cover (to a lesser extent) ‘How’ people can do this, examples would be:

• Suggesting people keep back spare pins for emergencies
• Keeping all your equipment separate from other peoples when you’re cooking up
• Checking the angle of injection and orientation of the needle

But as Simon Sinek talks about we should really think about focusing more on ‘Why’ we think people should do the things we suggest if we want to inspire them to change. Of course this is far more difficult as it moves away from the practicalities that we are used to working with, and into the realm of concepts. This takes more time and requires more skills.

I’m sure some of you are already working in this way (pat yourself on the back), in some cases you might not even have realised that there is a difference, but just think about the workers, trainers, teachers and activists that inspire you. My guess is they do this all the time.

Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek is the author of the book ‘Start with Why’ and spends his life trying to teach other people how to become inspiring leaders. He also has his own blog called ReFocus, and you can follow him on Twitter.