For a long time, most companies have been fixated on answering questions that begin with the word “what,” as in, “What revenue milestones have we hit this year?” or “What can we do to ensure growth and sustainability?” And maybe they’ve dabbled in a few “how” questions, such as, “How do we get our sales teams to perform better?”

But it would behoove organizational leaders to consider different, deeper questions that start with “why?”

“‘Why’ is our purpose, our core belief,” said Eric Bierig, learning and development strategist at GrowthSpace, a data-driven L&D management platform. “If you’re in tune with your central ‘why’ and tune all of your actions to this, you will live a more stress-free, settled, productive, self-aware life.”

That peace of mind is possible for all employees, Bierig observed, as long as the people who sign their paychecks effectively communicate their company’s purpose and core beliefs.

“When you start with your ‘why,’ what you’re doing is building a collective vision. It motivates, it calms, it gives a sense of belonging, it gives a sense of ownership, of safety, connection between people,” Bierig said. “If there’s anything we can all agree on, it’s that motivated, calm, confident, accountable, collaborative employees are the ones that companies need.”

Bierig made these remarks in a talk at From Day One’s March virtual conference on employee purpose. He later noted that a number of studies have revealed connections between workers’ sense of purpose and their productivity.

Getting those bottom-line benefits starts with answering ‘why’ the company is in the business it’s in, which leads to organizational outcomes that should also be advertised to workers. This information is often summarized in OKRs, the latest buzzy acronym in business, short for “Objectives and Key Results” reports.

“OKRs serve as more ambitious goals that extend to multiple departments and team members,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote in a recent blog post. “Once you understand the main objectives of your organization, you can develop OKRs that move your company towards the goal line.”

To use another popular concept, OKRs create “alignment.”

“Leadership sets direction and priorities, the ‘why’,” Bierig said. “Ideally, they are transparent about the objectives and how they will achieve said ‘why,’ and the results are clarity, empowered employees, and improved organizational performance. Once aligned on the ‘why,’ your employees and teams will be best equipped to figure out the ‘how.’ They will have a strong sense of purpose.”

Of course, learning and development programming can effectively keep employees highly engaged and productive, in part by outlining why their company cares so much about whatever objectives they’ve chosen to strive for. Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives also demonstrate a company’s commitment to outcomes beyond year-over-year growth, Bierig said.

But, he continued, making these kinds of initiatives “invaluable to a company” requires mindful steps that go beyond “checking a box.” Simply putting training courses or internal mentoring programs into place is not enough. Instead, company leaders need to be sure these types of programs have “meaningful organizational impact,” Bierig said, by “digging another layer deeper.”

L&D programming platforms like GrowthSpace can help, he said, by “starting with your company’s ‘why.’” From there, it’s a matter of prioritizing objectives and figuring out who to achieve them.

“We’ve developed a simple yet effective methodology to ensure learning solutions are accurately mapped to business needs,” Bierig offered. “We have found that objective and outcome-driven growth and development initiatives are what drive true business impact. This has made us outcome-obsessed.”

The approach GrowthSpace uses has been dubbed “POP,” for “population,” “outcome,” and “program type.”

GrowthSpace first asks, “For which population is your company in most need of focused development?” Of course, they also ask “why?”

Then, GrowthSpace moves on to ask, “What business outcomes are a priority?” Putting those priorities in place then leads to the development of curated programming that will “move the needle” for a given company.

In addition to providing a GrowthSpace client case study, Bierig also provided survey data from companies the platform works with. By asking “why” and engaging in GrowthSpace’s “POP” process, those organizations have seen up to a 10% reduction in employee attrition, more than a 10% increase in readiness for promotions, and up to a 10% increase in worker productivity, among other highlights.

“​​These numbers are probably jumping out at you, as they have a real tangible ROI,” Bierig told the From Day One audience early in his presentation. “And you might be asking yourself, ‘how?’”

By the end of his talk, however, they were most certainly asking “why?”

Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, GrowthSpace, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.

Michael Stahl is a New York City-based freelance journalist, writer, and editor. You can read more of his work at MichaelStahlWrites.com, follow him on Twitter @MichaelRStahl, and order his first book, the autobiography of Major League Baseball pitcher Bartolo Colón, at Abrams Books.