From Be-Do-Have to CPRA/CPAR

History: Be-Do-Have

EST (the predecessor of the Landmark Forum) taught a personal insight and management technique called Be-Do-Have. It starts with the following sequence:

In life we often think first about what we want to Have (such as physical things, or better health, etc.)

The things that we currently have determine what we Do.

What we are doing determines what we are Being (our attitude and context, etc.)

This sequence is referred to as Have-Do-Be.

The seminar participant is then encouraged to consider this alternate sequence:

At any given moment we are Being a certain way (our attitude and context, etc.)

What we are being determines what we Do.

What we do determines what we Have.

If you think about it, you probably see that This sequence more accurately deflects a cause-and-effect relationship in yourself and the world around you. This results in the insight:

To get what you want, all you need is to focus on what you are Being.

History: CPR

In the early days of MDI and its predecessor organisations, the Be-Do-Have technique was adapted into CPR.

CPR was based on the following sequence:

An Agenda for an event, program, project, etc. was given to a leader by higher-level leadership (often written in a syllabus or manual, etc.)

The leader then writes down Results that they want to be produced by carrying out the agenda.

The leader then formulates a Purpose, based on the requirement that all the results just listed must be producible by using the purpose as the overriding call to action.

The leader then creates a Context which, if held, will keep everyone on-purpose and ensure the agenda produces the desired results.

Just as before, the above sequence is reversed, and the same insight is made, resulting in the assertion:

To get the results you want, all you need is to hold your context.

Present Day: CPRA

In the present-day of MDI and some related organisations, the agenda is self-determined by the leader(s) and/or their teams. However the same process outlined above is used to create a CPR.

CPR vs CPRA

An important insight here is to observe that CPR can be done without an agenda. This makes planning and implementation more realistic and flexible. Often, only the results are known, but the best way to sequence the actions, or even identifying some of the needed actions, cannot be determined because some critical information is missing, e.g.:

Is this event run by me, or am I doing it within some other event run by someone else?

Can we rent the hall all day or only in the afternoon? Should we do the indoor part first and then do the outdoor part even if that means doing it at night?

Do certain things need to be skipped due to budget or time constraints?

In any of these situations, one should forget about getting an agenda first, and simply list Results; then do the Purpose and Context; and work out an agenda as needed information becomes available.

The great advantage of CPR over CPRA is that the former allows you to hold the context while working out the agenda.

Order Variant

In order to reflect the actual cause-effect relationship, the letters are sometimes reordered to CPAR:

(P) You serve a purpose consistent with that context (though it may differ from your intended purpose)

(A) You follow your agenda (as best you can, given your possibly unintended context and/or purpose)

(R) You get whatever results you get, according to the foregoing causative factors

This page was written in the "embarrassingly readable" markup language RHTF, and was last updated on 2025 Oct 25.

s.27