Written by: Anthony Madigan, MD
How did award-laden musical Hamilton get even more nominations this week (in the Golden Globes) when it gives away the ending in the first song?
It doesn’t matter if you’ve not seen Hamilton (well it does, just not for the purposes of this post). It’s a universal lesson.
How do you keep an audience interested when you can’t use the simple story trick of concealing what’s going to happen, or you just don’t know what the future holds?
Hamilton has the answer for us: it’s by replacing the simple questions of what and who with something much more powerful – why?
We want to know why the Hamilton story is going to turn out this way, why these characters will get to this crisis point. The show tells us everything we need to know and more.
In life, not knowing what’s going to happen breeds uncertainty and distraction. Leaders can fill that gap by answering the big questions. Why are we going through this? Why is it important? Why should we go along with it?
Leadership is about forging deep connections with people through a shared story that’s built on a heartfelt why.
If we believe in the why, we’ll do pretty much anything. And as Hamilton shows us, there’s no limit to what can be achieved if we believe in something enough.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve not seen Hamilton (well it does, just not for the purposes of this post). It’s a universal lesson.
How do you keep an audience interested when you can’t use the simple story trick of concealing what’s going to happen, or you just don’t know what the future holds?
Hamilton has the answer for us: it’s by replacing the simple questions of what and who with something much more powerful – why?
We want to know why the Hamilton story is going to turn out this way, why these characters will get to this crisis point. The show tells us everything we need to know and more.
In life, not knowing what’s going to happen breeds uncertainty and distraction. Leaders can fill that gap by answering the big questions. Why are we going through this? Why is it important? Why should we go along with it?
Leadership is about forging deep connections with people through a shared story that’s built on a heartfelt why.
If we believe in the why, we’ll do pretty much anything. And as Hamilton shows us, there’s no limit to what can be achieved if we believe in something enough.
