For the majority of my 25-year career as a consultant, I worked on know-how. I gave strategy advice to chief executives on acquisitions, divestitures, organization, and people. I dutifully cranked out the valuation and segmentation studies. But inevitably the discussion would turn to something else. The CEO would ask: “We can tell our people what we are trying to do but the real money is to tell them why we are doing it and how can we get them on board?”

 
I heard this again and again, one assignment after another, until I came to understand that there was too much “how” and too little “why” in business. So many executives are consumed by how to get things done, rarely by why they should be done in the first place. That’s why I started NikosOnline.com. It’s a place where I can share my thoughts and ideas on the “why” in business, and a place where you can engage in debate and discussion about the “why.”

Years ago, my own discovery of this difference led me on an intellectual journey that resulted in a book, “Purpose,” and an ongoing debate in which I’ve been positioned as the antithesis of Ram Charan, the co-author of ‘Execution’ and “Know-How.” Nearly 100 people weighed in on the topic earlier this year when leadership professor James Heskett fueled a spirited debate between know-how and know why on Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge website. I watched the discussion from afar, amused by the contrasting theories, humbled by the eloquence of the readers’ responses, the passionate back-and-forth of the participants.

 
 “Is there too little ‘know why’ in business?” asked consultant Mark Howell. “Almost certainly. In “The Leadership Challenge,’ (jim) Kouzes and (Barry) Posner ask the question: ‘Are you on this planet to do something, or are you here just for something to do?’ I believe most businesses begin as a result of finding something to do rather than to do something which is what Mourkogiannis would call purpose.”

 
“You can’t separate know how from know why, and you can’t have one without the other,” wrote Maree Conway, a general manager at Victoria University. “And know why needs to come before know how—there is no point deciding, acting and executing without knowing why you are doing it. Purpose gives you the constant or guiding star—it’s always there to remind you why you do what you do every day.”

 
If there was a consensus in the debate, it was that purpose is powerful and valuable because it is a reason for doing something which appeals to our inner sense of what is right and what is worthwhile. “How” is about management. “Why” is about leadership. A lot of pen and paper has been wasted in making the distinction between managers and leaders. Emerson had it right when he noted that “the man who knows How will always have a job. The man who also knows Why will always be his boss.”

I love that quote and the thinking behind it. Do you?