Can Your Model Make What You Dream of Making?

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Our Groups Team has been on a hunt to identify the activities (lead measures) that predict we will reach our goals (lag measures). Based on what we learned in The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, the hunt is forcing some very good conversations about which activities are actually important, which are merely nice to do, and which are a waste of time or sideways energy.

The hunt has also led me to what might even be a more foundational question: Can our small group ministry model make what we dream of making?

Put another way, "Can our small group ministry model (or system or strategy) produce the results (more and better disciples, more groups, more people in groups than attend on the weekend, etc.) we dream of producing?"

Can our small group ministry model (or system or strategy) produce the results (more and better disciples, more groups, more people in groups than attend on the weekend, etc.) we dream of producing. Click To Tweet

Now you might be tempted to ask, "How can we really know if your model will produce the results we dream of producing?"

But I think that question is a little bit of a smokescreen. As Peter Block noted in The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters, the motivation to question how something can be done often comes from a desire to delay.

4 questions to ask about the small group model we've chosen:

Instead of asking how or whether we can really know if our model will produce the results we dream of producing, we should be asking another set of questions:

1. What would have to be true for that approach to work? Or, “for the idea on the table to be a fantastic option?” I love these two questions from Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management (p. 12,The Design of Business).

Great Questions: What would have to be true for that approach to work? Or, What would have to be true for the idea on the table to be a fantastic option? —Roger Martin Click To Tweet

2. What’s the best way to…? I picked this up recently from Andy Stanley. Works great when you’re stuck with legacy solution that just isn’t working very well any more (from Andy Stanley’s Leadership Podcast,Introducing Change).

Great Questions: What’s the best way to…? —Andy Stanley Click To Tweet

3. What are we not doing that we should start doing right away? What should we immediately stop doing in order to allow for the emergence of the new? Bill Taylor, a co-founder of Fast Company, is a great source of ideas like this. (p. 123, Practically Radical)

Great Questions: What are we not doing that we should start doing right away? What should we immediately stop doing in order to allow for the emergence of the new? —Bill Taylor Click To Tweet

4. What 21st-century challenges are testing the design limits of our ______ strategy? Also, What are the limitations of our model that have failed to keep up with the times? Gary Hamel has been called “the world’s leading expert on business strategy.” (from The Future of Management)

What 21st-century challenges are testing the design limits of our ______ strategy? Also, What are the limitations of our model that have failed to keep up with the times? —Gary Hamel Click To Tweet

Need Help?

How to Choose the Best Small Group Model for Your Church is a 4 session that mini-course packed with some of my best thinking about choosing a small group model. You can find out more right here.

Further Reading

Image by Peter Miller

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