First Who, Then What

Video Transcript

When we began doing the Good to Great research, we expected that at first these Level 5 leaders might come in and set a new direction and then motivate people to go there. But what we found instead was something quite the opposite. They came in and they said, “I am not going to figure out where to drive this bus until I have first figured out who should be on the bus, who should be off the bus, and who should be in the key seats. And only once I’ve got the right people on the bus and the right people in the key seats, then we will figure out where to drive the bus.” It’s the idea of First Who, Then What. First, get the right people, then figure out what to do. This is one of those ideas that’s even more important in our world today. Why? Because if the world is unpredictable, if the world is changing, if the world is requiring adjustments, you can’t predict the whats. So, the most important thing is to pick the right who.