This may sound like the title of a Dr. Seuss book, but it’s actually a serious question.

My coach Jennifer recommended a book by Dr. Benjamin Hardy, based on the work of Dan Sullivan, who is an elite business coach. It’s called “Who Not How”, and it is a great explanation of the power of collaboration, and beyond.

If you have someone coming in to clean your house, you may not think of them as a collaborator, but really, they are, because they are making it possible for you to do other things in the time you would otherwise spend on cleaning.

We are brought up, especially here in North America, to think that we have to do everything ourselves – that it’s somehow cheating to leverage someone else’s network to get something done, for example. Dr. Hardy tells the story of wanting to get a book published, so he found someone with connections in the industry and hired him to help him, and things went much faster and smoother. They both benefited from this relationship, and were able to achieve so much more than each of them could have by themselves. 

Dr Hardy teaches that we need to ask better questions – not HOW can I get something done, but WHO can help me with this? He tells a story of an executive in a manufacturing business, based in China, who was hit with tariffs and wanted to open up a factory in India. By thinking about WHO, rather than HOW, he was able to do this in five months, which is apparently incredibly fast. He found people who could help him, rather than trying to do it all himself.

As someone who was socialised as a woman, this seems pretty obvious. We often rely on our friends and networks to get things done – anyone who has ever driven carpool or swapped babysitting can testify to this. But are we applying it in all areas of our lives? How many things are we doing on our own, in isolation, when collaboration would make much more sense?

I’m still working my way through this book, but I’m excited about all the things I’m learning. I’d love to hear how collaboration, finding the WHO rather than the HOW, has worked for you!