Why Vision Masters Need to Master CPR
On the Fast Track to Funding #1
In my previous post, The Tale of Two Endings – The Power of a Promise Fulfilled, I discussed the power of making and keeping promises to generate investor trust. But there’s something equally important in the realm of having effective meetings – and not just with investors, but with anyone else you do business with. There is a tool I use in every area of my life to generate trust, stay aligned with my principles and produce meaningful results. In fact, it can be key to your fast track to funding.
Now I know some of you have tried lot’s of productivity tools in the past, such as following Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People or using one or more of the droves of productivity tools out there.
But productivity tools generally lack one very important component.
Can you guess what that is?
They don’t consider trust. That is, they don’t help your team trust you and they don’t help you trust your team.
It’s true that three of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People do engender trust (the three related to working with others), but they don’t generate trust directly. The dictionary definition of trust is a “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone.”
A “firm belief” — a belief that survives even after being tested by circumstances.
In practice, trust is the persistent willingness to allow someone else to hold, protect and nourish something precious to you.
The method called “CPR” generates trust exceptionally well.
And since getting things done (and getting funding) requires working with other people, and working with other people requires trust, you’ve got to master CPR.
Would you think such a process could be helpful in driving innovation, keeping projects on track and on time, keeping your team focused and maintaining mutually profitable relationships?
Well, the good news is that there is such a tool and I use it in virtually every area of my life.
Yes, it’s that effective!
It’s called a CPR and that stands for Context, Purpose and Results (not what you thought).
But like “cardio-pulmonary resuscitation,” CPR does breathe life into your projects.
Now bear with me as I explain and illustrate this powerful method. It won’t seem like trust is the result, but trust me, you’ll get it in the end.
First, you pre-create desired outcomes (results) by stating them clearly and boldly (as if they’ve already occurred) and then you create a context and purpose that supports achieving the results.
It’s the context and purpose that create trust, as you’ll see.
Say you want to lose weight and be healthier. If you begin with that generalized desire, you might end up losing some weight and feeling healthier. Then again, most people don’t, do they? They lose the weight, then put it back on. They get a healthy lifestyle going for a while and then slowly fall back into old unhealthy patterns.
But now suppose you begin with a very specific outcome such as:
“In 100 days I’ve lost 25 pounds.”
Those are measurable results. You can track your progress and immediately notice if you got off track by dipping into the chips at a party.
But measurable results, though essential, are not sufficient. You need something to pull you back when you’re slipping or when circumstances change. And you need something compelling that your friends and co-workers can remember clearly when the details are forgotten, even after temporary setbacks.
You need guiding images and emotions to help you and them say “no thanks” to those temptations. This is where context and purpose come in.
Purpose: I reach the right weight for my height so that I’m healthy and vigorous and with that return to the kind of person I’ve always wanted to be.
Context: Young again
That’s the key: context and purpose will guide you and your friends when you’ve forgotten about the details; and when temptations … ah, tempt.
Let me show you how this process works in business, such as an important meeting with an investor…
Results come first, it’s about outcomes – what specifically is to be accomplished in this meeting?
Results:
- Our investor trusts us and we trust him/her
- Our investor agreed to invest $1,000,000
- He/she receives 30% equity share
- He/she receives a position on the board of directors
- We show him/her appreciation
- The team is hopeful about the future of the company
- We enjoy our time together
Purpose is next. It has to do with why you are scheduling the meeting in the first place – what will achieving the results stated above mean for your business? Here’s an example:
Purpose: to raise enough capital to get the company past its next major milestone, so that our team and our investors know that we have a predictable future, and with that, we can raise additional capital and create an exciting future for ourselves, our families, our customers, our investors and our community.
Context is last (but not least.) It’s your attitude about the event. If there are multiple participants, it’s the attitude that you want all participants to have. It’s not the same as the purpose or a list of desired results. Some people call this your “way of being” about the event. It’s the mindset (a mix of feelings, memories, and expectations) that colors and surrounds your approach to the event.
Context: Confidence in our future together
Context has to be larger than the purpose and the purpose has to be larger than any of the results. CPR is a gift. Context is the wrapper holding the purpose and purpose is the box that holds the results.
Let’s explore how this process works within your C-Team . . . especially in the relationship between the Vision Master and the Execution Master
In “The Big Night,” immigrant brothers Primo and Secondo run a failing restaurant. The two characters perfectly illustrate the Vision Master and Execution Master that we’ve been discussing for some time. Primo, the elder, is a visionary chef who painstakingly creates traditional Italian cuisine day after day, convinced that his customers (Americans in a seaside town) will eventually come to relish his creations. Secondo manages the business, pays the bills, handles sales and marketing, frets about how they’ll fail and tries to convince Primo to just give the customers the kinds of Italian food they already want, simple kinds of pasta, meats, and sauces.
Nearby, another Italian restaurant, “Pascal’s” is enormously successful, though by all accounts the fare is mediocre. Pascal just gives the people what they already want. Primo insists that success lies in re-educating the customers’ palates. Secondo sees the financial success of “Pascal’s” and tries to convince Primo to compromise a little, be a little more like Pascal.
Do you see the problem that Primo and Secondo have?
They don’t have a shared context and purpose for getting the results they seek.
Primo’s purpose is to change the customer’s palates. That’s what he’s out to accomplish.
That gives him a result of painstakingly creating exquisite, extraordinarily high-quality food.
His context might be “Michelangelo’s David – something extraordinary”
Secondo’s desired result is financial liquidity. He sees that as his primary responsibility.
That gives him a purpose of being “popular” so they’ll make enough money to make the business succeed.
Secondo’s context would be “Spaghetti and meatballs”
If you’re a Vision Master trying to build a trusted partnership with your Execution Master or vice versa, I encourage you to see the film and see how these different characters find their way together. One of the vital things the film exposes is what happens in a business partnership when there is not alignment to a shared context and purpose.
But there is something else that creeps in when context and purpose are not aligned.
Trust dies.
The Vision Master starts to believe that the Execution Master is undermining his visionary plan. The Execution Master starts to believe that the Vision Master is uninterested in the practical realities surrounding the business.
So here’s how a C-team uses a CPR to guide a meeting with an investor:
Begin by asking, what result(s) are we really trying to get?
Results need to be stated in an “already achieved” way and need to be specific and measurable. For example:
- Our investor trusts us and we trust him/her
- Our investor agrees to invest $1,000,000
- He/she receives 30% equity share
- He/she receives a position on the board of directors
- We show him/her appreciation
- The team is hopeful about the future of the company
- We enjoy our time together
Once you’ve stated specific and measurable results as if they’ve already been accomplished, you can determine what your purpose and context will need to be to have achieved those results.
Then ask, what is the over-arching purpose for generating the stated result(s)?
The purpose is why you want to achieve the stated result(s):
- Why is it important that we generate $1M in capital this year?
- What will it mean to our business, our employees, our families?
- What will it mean to our investors, customers and community?
It’s important that your C-team hold a common purpose, because if they don’t, you’ll find key people working at cross-purposes. If you have a common purpose and everyone knows it, trust increases.
What it means is that at any given moment you need alignment around a specific purpose that summarizes the results you all want. Here’s the one for a company raising funds:
Purpose: to raise enough capital to get the company past its next major milestone, so that our team and our investors know that we have a predictable future, and with that, we can raise additional capital and create an exciting future for ourselves, our families, our customers, our investors and our community.
Then ask, what is the context surrounding this purpose?
Your team needs to hold a common “attitude” so that each person is aligned with each of the others mentally and emotionally, which fosters a commitment to do what it takes to get results.
Context: Confidence in our future together
That’s the process:
- Specific, measurable Results you will produce within a specific time
- A Purpose that all those results serve
- An empowering Context – the attitude that colors and surrounds the purpose and results
C – P – R.
“C” (context) is conceived last but is the most important.
Interestingly, this same process – alignment around context and purpose — lies at the heart of your relationships with potential investors. In my next post I’ll share with you a great set of practices to use when something goes awry in the “big meeting,” and you’ll see why a good CPR can help you get the meeting back on track before trust is lost with your investor.
Key Takeaway: Alignment among the C-team is vital to your success and a key aspect of trust-building both within your team and with third parties. Alignment can be fostered with a CPR and you can use the CPR for every important business objective, from hiring people to running successful meetings. CPR-structured meetings build and maintain trust because you’ll have a purpose and context that your team will share and remember deeply. The CPR, held clearly in mind, will generate mutual trust between members of your team and between you and your investor.
Where do you stand with investors and funding? Even if you think you’re fundable, here is a sure-fire way to find out. Even if you know you’re fundable, this exercise creates trust between you and me. Download our complimentary “Are You Fundable” kit. It even comes with a completion session with an Intelliversity Advisor so you know your next, best steps.
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