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The journey that transformed me into a certified Purpose Launchpad Mentor. MY FIVE AWAKENINGS

March 22, 2021

Author:

Cesar Viera D.

(
Purpose Launchpad Mentor
)

Imagine that you have found the location coordinates of a great treasure. You know it has great value and you are anxious to go out and look for it, but the place where you are is unknown to you and you lack the tools to orient yourself. This is how many people feel today when they have an idea: full of enthusiasm, but not knowing how to transform it into reality.

Businessmen, housewives, artisans, entrepreneurs, everyone… we all need someone who, compass and map in hand, can accompany and guide us along the way. Someone who not only understands the problem that needs to be solved, but more importantly is moved by the higher purpose behind the idea and feels joy in seeing it fulfilled. That someone is a
Purpose Launchpad Mentor
(PLM).

I invite you to learn about the five awakenings I experienced to become a Purpose Launchpad Mentor in this, the year of my transformation.

The Home

Since 2015 I have been helping companies in strategy development, continuous improvement, digital transformation, agility, innovation and leadership.

Inspired by Porter, Humphrey, Deming, Brown, Ries, Osterwalder, Appelo, Drucker and other modern geniuses, I have designed combinations of methodologies and tools that have helped business leaders create greater value, differentiate and transform through an innovative, digital and customer-focused approach.

My first awakening

In early 2019 through the TED Talks platform I watched an 18-minute talk in which the speaker sought to reconnect entrepreneurs with that passion they felt when they started their businesses, rediscovering the reason they started it all. The talk had been filmed in September 2009, a time when the business world was still struggling to cope with the great crisis of the previous year. That TED Talk was my first awakening to new ways of thinking about how to generate transformational change in companies, and how this mindset was also valid to drive new initiatives, ventures and startups.

The speaker was Simon Sinek and his talk addressed the central theme of his recent book “Start with Why” in which he relates his theory that the companies and leaders that generate transformational causes that last and inspire people to mobilize and commit, are those where there is a purpose, a why.

I was amazed to hear Simon talk about the Golden Circle, how companies and people get stuck in their “What” and “How” but very few discover, define, live their “Why”, their purpose. How this philosophy influences the way we live and do business. The connection it makes to Rogers’ law of diffusion of innovation was what blew my mind and made me see the piece of the puzzle I was missing.

At that moment I understood that any short or long term strategy, any attempt at innovation and transformation has to start with purpose. Without it we are a ship at the mercy of the ocean simply trying to stay afloat. From that moment on, I integrated these concepts into my tools and new models of innovation development, strategic thinking and leadership for people and organizations emerged. It all starts with purpose.

With this clarity and hungry for more lights to illuminate my path, I stumbled upon what would be my second awakening.

My second awakening

2020 will be a year recorded in history for the presence of the black swan called Covid-19. A virus that brought an unprecedented pandemic that disrupted our lives, our markets and our way of seeing and doing things.

In this context, the Exponential Organizations model came into my life in May. An ExO Sprint led by
Francisco Palao
y
Corina Almagro
changed my life forever. I met other modern geniuses like Ismail and Diamandis (creators of Singularity University), creators of Open Exo and a whole ecosystem focused on taking organizations to another level (10x they call it). Starting from the purpose (here called Massive Transformer), the disruptive concept of abundance and through a methodological umbrella that draws on existing innovation methodologies to accelerate initiatives and products that transform the business model or allow us to create a new one.

My toolbox was still being completed now with the ExO, IDEAS and SCALE Attributes. Connecting and managing abundance. My brain was still exploding.

From this point on, and honoring the concept of exponentiality, everything happens faster.

My third awakening

Shortly thereafter, my third awakening occurred. Francisco is once again the messenger and creator of a disruptive concept, taking exponential ideas and putting them at the service of noble causes, inspiring a community that is driven by its purpose.

In July 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, I entered into partnership with
Purpose Alliance
the global community that seeks to empower extraordinary people to create the future. Together with my colleague and friend Alberto Zurita, I organize the Purpose Challenge “The Future of Work” chapter in Ecuador.

Witnessing how purpose, exponential tools and global causes can mobilize people definitely changed my perspectives and led me to question and reflect a lot about what people, companies and society really need to transform themselves primarily in this new reality.

After the Purpose Challenge in Ecuador, I enrolled in several others internationally, playing different roles as a participant, mentor and advisor. With six Purpose Challenges under my belt, I have become almost a veteran. Each experience has been different and enriching. I’ve had the privilege of playing all roles in the
Purpose Challenge
I have had the privilege of playing all of them, but it is the mentor role that led me to my next awakening.

My fourth awakening

My fourth awakening has been the need to bring this community, its tools and methodologies, to my reality and that of my clients, connecting and accelerating the development of innovative initiatives. In some cases strengthening the current business and in others disrupting with new business models. The Exponential Innovator certification in October 2020 was the next step in strengthening the exponential approach and how to bring it to organizations and startups. Thanks to
Corina Almagro
my exponential mindset was complete.

Bringing this change of mindset to my environment and to my clients has not been easy. The concept of the immune system emerging to combat innovation applies here.

Cultural Transformation Plans, Strategic Planning focused on growth with key results, Innovation Programs and disruptive challenges (Edge) have been the deliverables I have been able to generate. Great advances to seek above all to create innovative ideas that can evolve into new business models, transformation of current models and even the birth of startups. Getting to the generation of core or edge initiatives just as we do in a Challenge when we arrive at a disruption session guiding the teams has been undoubtedly one of the best feelings. However, ensuring the continuity of the teams with a guide that allows them to develop their initiatives and take them from chick to eagle, make them viable and cross the chasm to the market, remained an unresolved issue.

My fifth awakening

But the next and most recent awakening was coming. The fifth awakening for me has been the certification as a Purpose Launchpad Mentor, initiated in February 2021 under the direct guidance of
Francisco Palao
.


Purpose Launchpad
is an open and structured meta-methodology, which drives our ideas and way of thinking, allowing us to move forward in an orderly and safe way towards our goals for both entrepreneurs and companies. With it we managed to evolve from a first stage with the idea and purpose, to sustainability and exponentiality generating the greatest possible impact.

With an agile iterative approach, it covers eight axes analyzed through the tool that helps measure progress, the Launchpad Assessment. It shows the initiative radar that places us in one of the three phases and allows us to work to advance along the axes uniformly without neglecting any of them, using a set of tools suggested for each of the axes in all phases.

Achieving and maintaining an open, exploratory and disruptive mindset is always the first step to creating something special. Today as a certified mentor I hope to continue awakening and helping to awaken others, businessmen, entrepreneurs, dreamers, all those who want to bring an idea to reality and turn it into a profitable, scalable and impactful business.

Finally,

It’s been a long road from Golden Circle to Purpose Launchpad, from strategic consultant to mentor, from working with entrepreneurs to working with dreamers, inside or outside a company.

I want to keep waking up. Thank you
Purpose Alliance
for being my alarm.

Until the next awakening!

Cesar Viera D.

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