The Where and The Why: Clarity as a Psychological Anchor

Welcome back to our Splendor realities where we explore the inner clarity, self-awareness, and leadership mindset required to be in meaningful successes both personally and professionally. Today's episode is about direction, alignment, and what happens when teams go beyond activity into true people's driven momentum. Joining us today is Claire Tristan, author of The Weare and The Why, and widely known as The Weare and The Why We Spurrow. Play the strategic plan in X-Bots, who has worked with hundreds of organizations across industries through a nation while Australian government initiatives helping teams define where they are going and why it's mattered. From rural outback businesses to cutting-edge tech startups, Claire's tested and refined was actually works when it comes to vision, pebbles, and alignment. The work bridges strategy and human behaviour, translating big ideas into practical frameworks that energise teams and turn direction into daily action. Welcome to our Splendor realities, Claire, it's so good to have you. Thank you, hello, thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. Claire works with teams in every imaginable context. What do you notice emotionally when it team lacks clear direction? Thank you. I guess the main thing is a little bit of confusion and a lack of focus. Everybody in the entire organization wants to be on the same page and wants to understand where the organization is going and why they're going. They want to be on that journey and they want to be part of the bigger vision. I think it's mainly just people are a little bit confused about where to focus. I think that's the main issue is, but once you have everyone on the same page and everyone is focused, it can really move mountains. Yeah. When leaders struggle to articulate where they are going, how do that on set and see, show up in behaviour, motivation and decision making? Yeah, so that's an interesting one. A lot of the times the leaders, they feel like it's all up to them, I guess, so and they often struggle to articulate what that bigger picture and vision is. So the process that I work with teams is a collaborative co-creation of the bigger vision because sometimes the leaders struggle to sort of, and they feel a lot of pressure on them to sort of come up with all the answers and come up with this ultimate vision. But it's actually a lot more powerful if the whole team contributes to that vision. And in my book that I go through, there's a lot of evidence that co-creation actually makes it a lot more actionable. So when teams contribute to the development of those initiatives, it's much more likely to be successful. Yeah. You have teams to find ball destination. What shifts internally for people when do you feel genuinely inspired by a shared goal? Yeah, so that's the moonshot thinking that I work with teams around. Because I've done this so many times with hundreds of teams, I've actually developed a bit of a framework to help teams to develop their own moonshot. So obviously the moonshot was based on the original moon landing in 1972 when Kennedy announced that we choose to go to the moon. So now moonshots are a method that leaders use to sort of inspire and motivate teams. And it's quite different than the normal smart goals that are more short term and they're easily achievable. Whereas a moonshot is a really big exciting goal. How can leaders balance ambition with reality without losing trust or credibility with your team? So yeah, I guess that comes back to the co-creation that I mentioned before. So if the team helps to create that goal, then it's a little bit more credible so they have a bit more belief and they feel like they're part of that journey. And I mean in terms of the moonshot, it should be, I've got an acronym to help teams to develop that together with their leadership team. So it should be an acronym called Stars. So it should be a stretch goal. So 80% impossible, 20% possible. So it should be tangible. So it's measurable and time bound, verational. So it gets the whole team excited about achieving it together relevant. So it's 20% possible. So it's within the realms of possibility of the capabilities of what that organisation does, all the team does. And it should be singular. So just one big exciting goal. Yeah, experience. What role does clarity play in reducing conflict? Confusion and burnout inside organization? Yeah. So that's one thing that having a really clear moonshot really helps with because it gets everybody focused on the same goal. So it's helps with reducing burnout and confusion and that sort of thing because everybody's on the same page. And also I coupled that goal with the Y as I mentioned, you know, and the title of the book that you mentioned at the start is the Where and the Y. So the Where is the big exciting moonshot goal. And then the Y is the part where heart where that sort of comes into it where people can push through challenges. And remember why they're going through, you know, some it's not always perfect every day. So having the Y to sort of support that the purpose really helps the team to kind of remember why they're putting in that extra effort and reduces that burnout, I guess, in terms of it's it's a little bit of care sort of thing. And also just caring about each other as well at the same time on that journey. And was concerned upstructed some leaders. How do you all teams connect people so every day actions and responsibilities? Yes. So purpose is a little bit trickier to define than the moonshot goal. So it's because it's where the heart comes in. So it is hard to articulate for a lot of organizations, particularly a lot of service based organizations struggle with this concept. But it's sort of remembering the impact that you have as a team and what you do every day. And again, I've developed a framework to help teams to articulate what their purpose statement is. I've called it the ethos framework, which stands for eternal. So it should last forever. So once you have this statement, it should never change. True. So it has to be true. You have to walk the talk. You can't say one thing and do another. It has to be heartfelt. So that's where the emotion sort of comes into it. It creates a sense of oneness. So it unifies the whole team. And also it should be simple. I recommend that it should be less than seven words long because otherwise people can't remember it. So that's just sort of a practical framework. If you are developing a purpose statement, those kind of the ethos framework can help you to sort of test it out and check whether or not, you know, that it's a good robust purpose statement that we'll see the test of time. What's common emotional resistance do you see when teams are invited into the past strategy conversation? Sometimes they feel like it's not their place that it should be just the management tells everyone what to do. But once they're sort of encouraged and there's some really practical exercises in my book that sort of helps people to, for example, one of the exercises is why did they start working with that organization and what they're most proud of at that organization? So they're three very simple questions that people can relate to and just spend a little bit of time thinking about and that sort of thing contributes to the bigger picture and the bigger purpose of the organization. But quite often there's these people in the organizations that are called true believers that are there and they're passionate and they do put in that extra effort every day. And they may not be the leadership team, but usually you sort of know who those people are and they just have a little bit more care factor. So they're the kind of people that you would want to include in these kind of strategy sessions. How can leaders create a line with our controlling or overpowering your team? So that's where the beauty of the where and the why comes in. So it's really, really simple. It's just two statements. So one is the main shot statement and one is the purpose statement. So there's the where and the why and giving just those two guardrails to the team can really help them without giving them too much information. So I guess this is the beauty of this strategic framework is that it's just those statements can really help team members to guide their daily decision-making and I've even had leaders say to me. So basically at the end of a session people receive a poster and it's downloadable from my website. And the why.com/templates. So basically it's just one statement which is the main shot, one statement which is the purpose statement. So the main shot is the head and the purpose statement is the heart and I call it the rocket fuel to get you to that moonshot destination. And quite often so people put this poster on their wall and I have had leaders say to me that their team actually pull them up on decision-making and say hang on, remember these are the two guardrails. And sometimes the leaders don't match those and they actually pull the leaders up and the leaders you know, remember and actually adjust their decisions based on those two simple guardrails. Yeah, it's actually a really, really simple framework. It brings up back to just where we're going and why you're going there. And you'll be surprised at a lot of just daily decision-making can be made on those two factors. When strategy becomes a shared conversation rather than a talk done directly, what changes in team dynamic? This is posted on the wall all the time that people can see. So the whole team is reminded every day where they're going and why they're going there. And I've had team leaders say to me that they have even heard their team members discussing, particularly the moonshot if it's exciting and people track it and make it really transparent to the team of progress towards that moonshot over time. It kind of changes team dynamics in terms of they're having their own conversations without the leaders of you know, okay what's going to help us achieve our moonshot in terms of their daily activities and things they're doing, they're thinking of what can we do and what's going to contribute towards that bigger goal. So yeah, it can be really exciting and create energy and enthusiasm from all of the team members. Looking back at your work, what's one mindset she that consistently helps leaders move from fragmented effort to focus progress. So having that clear moonshot goal really helps. So being really careful in formulating what that is is obviously very important because it's a three or four year goal. It's a very long walk. No, it's a medium-term goal let's say. Formulating that goal well and taking some time and doing that is really important because you're going to have the entire team focused on that over three or four years. Spending the time thinking about your organization, what are the strengths, what are you passionate about and formulating a moonshot carefully that meet the star criteria that I mentioned earlier is really really important because if you get it wrong you're going to be channeling the team's energy into something that perhaps you don't want to do. So yeah, taking the time to formulate a really clear moonshot that suits your organization, I would say would be the most important thing. Yeah. Claire, thank you for bringing such clarity, practicality and humanity into the way we think about strategy and leadership. Your work reminds us that direction isn't just a business tool. It's a psychological anchor that else people do their best work together. Thank you so much Claire. Well, thank you. Thank you for having me. You're welcome. We're going to link another layer in more of us the work you do and also connect with you. Sure. Yes, I've got a website. It's theware and theware.com. And yeah, there's information about my book there which they can download the book and then they can also, there's templates and there's plenty of other real world stories about real organizations, in Notforprofit and Forprofit, in all different sectors, manufacturing, entertainment, healthcare. So yeah, there's plenty of inspiration there if people would like to find out more. Thanks again, Claire. This has been a wonderful conversation. You're welcome. And to our listeners, remember this, clarity creates confidence. Whether you're leading it, seem on navigating your own next chapter, knowing where you're going and why changes, knowing where you're going and why changes everything. Take a moment after this episode to reflect on what truly aligns you and those you lead. Join us next time on our Splendory reality.