How Online

Mission

The world is changing fast. In my book HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life), I describe some of these changes, and try to understand how they affect us, both as individuals and as business people. But these forces are dynamic. Their impact has grown faster than the frameworks we have devised to understand them. That is why it is important for me to keep the conversation going… to help people and organizations understand and embrace change in both their business and personal lives. This is the impetus behind HOW Online.

Companies aren’t the only ones affected by this dynamic. All of us have to think a little differently now — individuals, organizations and companies alike. We have to develop new habits of conduct if we are to thrive in this connected world. But old habits are hard to break, and new ones take time to cultivate. We have to look at the world through a new lens — the Lens of HOW — to learn how to connect and collaborate with one another, because the ones who can collaborate, who can make the most powerful connections, are the ones who are going to win. We might also have to change our idea of success. In this new connected world, the singular pursuit of success might be the very thing that causes it to elude us. Those who instead pursue significance might be the ones to whom success flows.

I think of HOW Online as the open-source version of HOW, picking up where the book left off, and moving ahead through real conversation. At HOW Online, we’ll take the Lens of HOW and experiment with it, apply it to the world around us. We’ll showcase innovators in HOW, both individuals and companies. We’ll explore research that speaks to the HOW approach. We’ll talk about people who are not getting their HOWs right; what’s more important, we’ll talk about people who are getting them right. And I won’t be the only contributor. We’ll hear from a wide range of people — there are accomplished individuals in a variety of fields working along the same lines we are. It is our hope and aspiration that people will not only read our blog, but add their voices to it.

HOW Online is going to be a journey, and journeys have their ups and downs. I look forward to everything that will unfold here, the things that will be said about how we govern our organizations, our institutions and ourselves. HOW Online itself is an organization, and we’ll do our best to govern it with a set of inspiring values and principles. To that end, we’re going to have an editorial board, whose job it will be to make sure that we get our HOWs right. We hope that our readers will keep us in line too. For the real energy behind any idea, or any movement for change, comes from the community behind that idea. We ask you to join our community, and make us part of yours.

For the last fourteen years, I’ve been on an entrepreneurial journey as the CEO of LRN, bringing my vision and my company’s vision to the world. We’ve worked with hundreds of companies, helping people do the right thing, and we’ve been pretty successful in our efforts. We’ve had an opportunity to educate and inspire millions of people in every corner of the globe.Earlier this year, I added another title to my resume: author. The publication of my book, HOW, has given me a chance to share my thinking more broadly.

I believe it has become practical to be principled — even fashionable. But this is a double-edged sword. More people are acting in a principled way, which is a net good, but sometimes companies trumpet their principles for the wrong reasons — to avoid prosecution, minimize liability or generate good PR. It occurred to me that people still need to understand on a deeper level why they should be principled, and even more importantly, how — how they can live a principled life and realize their aspirations in business and in life. This recognition was the driving force behind my book.

Since the publication of HOW, when my phone rings, sometimes the caller wants to talk about my company LRN and its services. Sometimes, they want to talk to the author of HOW.

Because there may be some confusion, and in the spirit of HOW and transparency, I would be remiss if I didn’t disclose a few things myself.

While my company’s mission and my mission here at HOW Online are the same, they represent two separate manifestations.

LRN is a commercial enterprise.

HOW Online, on the other hand, is not intended to be a commercial enterprise. LRN provides financial assistance to HOW Online, but there is no expectation that HOW Online will directly generate revenue for LRN. HOW Online belongs to me, and me alone, not my company. I own the copyright.

For the record, any payments that I receive as a speaker — whether I’m speaking about my book or LRN — go directly to my company. I forfeit any royalties from books purchased by LRN for promotional purposes. Royalties from all other sales of my book come to me.

We should also note that none of our guest contributors are paid to write for HOW Online. They do so out of passion for the issues at hand and we are grateful for their energy and commitment.

Should there ever be a potential conflict between my role as CEO and my role here at HOW Online, I will be upfront about it here. And we appreciate feedback and questions from readers… just like everyone else, we have to keep our HOWs in order, too.