The Primes: How any Group can Solve any Problem

CORE PRIME

How do you help the group to focus on the right things and feel urgent about acting?

When you need to enlist others to achieve your outcome, you must employ the essential skill of enrollment to take people beyond mere compliance. They must be inspired by the possibilities of your vision, committed to the outcomes, and willing to act unreasonably, if necessary, to achieve them. Enrollment results in a felt creative tension among stakeholders. They know where they are, where they are going, and why the journey is important.

The CORE PRIME distinguishes five essential agreements that generate creative tension and establish deep and sustainable shared intent:

1. As Is—Stakeholders must see their current situation—the whole thing—as it really is as opposed to how they want it to be.

2. Environment—They must agree on what's happening around them—which they're unable to affect but which will affect them.

3. Stake—They must agree on what's at stake if they stay where they are and don't change.

4. To Be—They must agree on a vision of the future with which they have fallen in love.

5. Strategy—Finally, they must agree on how to break out of the “As Is” and chart a course toward the “To Be.”

The CORE PRIME is where everything begins and ends. It's immutable, and there's no room for interpretation. If you remove one of the five agreements, the whole thing falls apart. Not only ...