The Right Answer to the Wrong Question

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Here are a few of the most common grouplife questions:

  • Where can I find more leaders?
  • How can I find more apprentice leaders?
  • How can I help groups birth faster?
  • Where can I find better coaches?
  • How can I get more adults to sign up for a group?

Ever asked any of those questions?  I have.  What if it turned out that every one of those questions…are the wrong question?

Hope you’re wondering about that.  It may be a little scary, but I believe that at least three, and maybe all five, of those questions are the wrong question.

Peter Drucker said that “the important and difficult job is never to find the right answers, it is to find the right question.  For there are few things as useless–if not dangerous–as the right answer to the wrong question.”

Scary, isn’t it?

Wondering which questions I think are the wrong questions?

Here’s one for starters.  I’m convinced that “Where can I find more leaders?” is the wrong question.  When you ask that question, you’re continually searching for identifying characteristics.  What if it turned out that the right question is “How can I create easy ways for people to connect without a leader?”

What are some other questions that you’re asking that you’re wondering about?

What do you think? Have a question? Want to argue? You can click here to jump into the conversation.

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7 Comments

  1. Ross Ramsey on August 26, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    Alright you have my attention.   I would like to call you on this?



  2. Anonymous on August 26, 2011 at 10:50 pm

    It does make you think…doesn’t it? May have a window early next week. Email me and we can set up a call.

    mark



  3. Anonymous on August 26, 2011 at 10:50 pm

    It does make you think…doesn’t it? May have a window early next week. Email me and we can set up a call.

    mark



  4. Elise Minor on August 30, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    “How can I create easy ways for people to connect without a leader?”  – Great question and am super curious about some of the answers/suggestions.

    Here’s mine… How do you foster and environment conducive to vibrant and dynamic leader interaction?



  5. Anonymous on August 30, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    That is a great question…and the right question.

    mark



  6. Pastor Rod Kesselring on September 1, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    OK, Mark.  I get the question but does it not raise a lot more difficult questions like how do I structure, maintain and pastor people in a community without leaders?  This is intriguing but it seems to say that we need to take all conventional wisdom of how groups operate and chuck it.  I am personally frustrated with these sam questions but this doesn’t seem to help come to a resolution just takes me down a bigger rabbit hole.  If you know what I mean.  I wold love to follow up on this 

    Thanks



  7. Anonymous on September 1, 2011 at 4:37 pm

    Thanks for jumping in here Rod! I think the key to Drucker’s line is that it’s dangerous to pursue answers without being sure that you’re asking the right questions. My point about the “where do I find leaders?” question is that the search for that answer produces a different thing than the search for ways to form groups that by their design might produce leader candidates (like a small group connection or a church-wide campaign with hosts, as opposed to leaders).

    Will it feel like a rabbit hole? Honestly, it might. But…once you suspect that the current questions are the wrong questions, it might be a rabbit hole worth investigating.

    mark