As Joe watched the girls practice, he saw them laugh at their mistakes and cheer their baskets. Why can’t my company have this kind of excitement and energy? He had a revelation. The next morning, Joe held another impromptu company-wide meeting. The employees slowly waded into the room; the energy was at an all-time low. He could hear them questioning the meeting. “Why do we need to go through this again?” “Why are we wasting our time?” More why, why, why… Joe stood in front of the group and nervously cleared his throat. Then Joe spoke, “I want to apologize for my behavior yesterday. I was wrong. I’ve been trying to push progress, to add new programs—I’ve been trying to create how we should be—that’s a mistake.” As Joe saw a few eyes open wider than he’d seen in a while, he continued, “I was remembering my daughter’s basketball performance last year. As she was running down the court, you could hear me yelling out, ‘Get your hands out of your pockets.’ She was actually playing basketball with her hands in her pockets— she was disengaged. At 昀椀rst, I was guilty of pushing her too much to be something that she wasn’t made to be—a star basketball player. What I learned was that she was great at story writing— that’s her passion. Instead of trying to create a basketball star out of her and making both of our lives miserable, I discovered her passion, her strength—story writing—and chose to focus on it. It made both of us happier, and it helped the team.” The employees looked at each other, confused. Is he having a breakdown? they thought. One spoke up, “Why tell us this story, Joe?” Joe realized how off-the-wall his story must have sounded and replied, “Great question—actually great word—‘why.’ We all need to know ‘why’—why we’re who we are. I’ve been trying to create 8