In sports, the military, and business it is easy to go through the motions of a task mindlessly, and many people mistake activity for productivity.  For example, during a typical baseball practice, it was easy for me to field hundreds of groundballs mindlessly.  However, if I did not have a clear purpose to what I wanted to work on when fielding the groundballs, then the time spent fielding the groundballs was a waste of time.  The best coaches are the ones who can effectively communicate ‘the why’ to their players.  Communicating ‘the why’ brings purpose to practice and motivates the players.  When the coaches explain ‘the why’ behind a practice plan they are clearly defining what needs to be accomplished at practice and why achieving those objectives in practice will lead to success in a game. 

Every flight brief in the Navy started with the person leading the flight stating the mission objective for the event.  By clearly defining the mission objective the person leading the flight was giving the rest of us in the flight the reason and motivation behind the event.  Communicating ‘the why’ not only provides motivation and clear purpose, but it also offers an objective that can be easily measured and evaluated after the flight.  At the end of each flight debrief the person who led the flight would stand in front of the room, re-state the mission objective and give a short assessment if we had accomplished the mission objective or not.  

A recent study found that only 32 percent of US workers are actively engaged in their work.  The poll also revealed that 51 percent of employees are disengaged and 17 percent of US workers are actively disengaged, meaning they are consciously and purposely working against their business.  These percentages are frightening for anyone that owns a company or manages people.  My proposal for the employee engagement problem is to get buy-in from employees by communicating ‘the why’ behind tasks employees are asked to complete.  Former Navy SEALS Jocko Willink and Leif Babin explain in their book Extreme Ownership that when managers and leaders don’t communicate the why behind a business decision it leads to confusion and frustration on the part of employees.  The business leaders that communicate ‘the why’ will provide a clear sense of direction for their employees and a reason for why certain actions are being taken.  The result of explaining 'the why' behind a business decision is more engagement from employees and the creation of a call to action that all members of a team or company can rally behind.

Authored By: Fletcher Vynne, former F/A-18 Super Hornet Weapon Systems Officer

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