Is It Time for a System Checkup?

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How’s your small group system?  Winning?  Workable?  Wobbly?  Weak?

Is it time for a system checkup?  We’ve all been to the doctor for a checkup.  Most of us have taken our car in for an oil change that includes an “18 point inspection.”  Have you ever put your small group system through a diagnostic checkup?  What questions would you ask?

Here are three that need to be asked:

  1. What business are your small groups in?  This is a Peter Drucker question and although he asked it about business, it is a very good question for us to be asking.  At its heart, it is a question about the purpose of your groups.  What are you trying to do with them?
  2. What are you going to call “success”?  Some might ask, “What will you call a ‘win’?”  The key here is to define in advance what it will look like when you succeed at the business your groups are in.
  3. How’s business?  This follow-up question is one we need to be asking about our group systems.  We ought to be able to evaluate whether we are actually succeeding at what we’re trying to do.  In other words, we should be asking if we’re seeing any fruit?

Do these make sense?  Can you see how your answers to these questions will provide an important foundation for further diagnosis?  For example, until you have determined what your small group ministry is actually designed to do you will have great difficulty evaluating whether you are winning or losing!  And until you are ready to declare that success will be ______________________, you won’t be able to intelligently determine whether your ministry is actually doing what it needs to do.

Does this make sense?  Now…can you see how your answers to these questions are simply the beginning?  Only after you know what you’re trying to do, what it will look like to succeed, and whether you’re succeeding at what you’re trying to do, will you be ready to evaluate what might be more effective.

Ready for that step?  Join me next to learn how to do an assumption hunt.

P.S. For more on asking great questions, Peter Drucker’s Managing for Results is a fantastic resource.

Future

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