How To Choose The Best Challenge

One of the dangers of getting creative is attempting to do more than you can feasibly manage. If you are like me, you might think an idea is easier to implement than it actually is.

When I was leading a team, we would tackle challenges as they came, each with near-equal importance. We might say, “This is not working, what else could we do?” or “This would make a great improvement, let’s do it!” Then I would move on to the next thing.

After a while, we had a backlog of ideas we wanted to do, but we completed very few of them. The ones we managed to do were, more often than not, the easiest and quickest to accomplish, not the ideas that would make the most significant overall impact.

When you give equal value to all of your creative ideas, you create an environment that is frustrating for the leader and demoralizing for the team.

The problem with our backlog was me. My failure to prioritize the ideas left my team with no clear direction.

Without prioritizing, it was like I was saying, “Any hat will do, just pick one.”

The reason I failed to prioritize ideas had to do with my process for coming up with them. I took things case by case. Someone would come to me with a problem, and we would work on a solution on the spot.

This process is excellent for small, simple issues but terrible for big, systemic ones.

For the more significant issues, I needed the creativity of the team to help me 1) find some “wins” to celebrate and 2) identify which problems were affecting us the most.

Had I a tool with which to do that, I believe our team would have been less stressed and more effective at meeting the needs of the people coming through our doors.

Fortunately, you do have access to such a tool, thanks to the design firm of AJ&Smart. They created an exercise that celebrates the positive and identifies the negative in almost any situation.

Find out what is putting wind in your sails and what is dragging you down.

MinisExercise: Challenge Hunter

Who Thought Of It?

AJ&Smart

Why Do I Need It?

Challenge Hunter helps you identify your wins and losses and choose which ones to address.

What Do I Need For It?

• A whiteboard or a flip chart
• Post-its
• Felt-tip pens
• A timer people can see ( like a Time Timer)
• Some dot stickers for voting

How Much Time For It?

30 minutes.

How Many People Involved?

2–10 People per group

How Does It Work?

You will use the “working together — alone” method. In this method, your team works on the same problem at the same time without discussion. The result will be a collection of both wins to celebrate and challenges to tackle.

How Do I Do It?

• Draw a sailboat in water with an anchor on the whitespace.
• Give everyone a stack of sticky notes and a felt-tip pen (or sharpie)
• Set a timer for 10 minutes.
• Ask, what is moving us forward? Make sure you choose a specific topic you wish to address. (example: When it comes to people visiting our church for the first time, what are we doing well?)
• Ask each person to silently write 3–6 things they believe are moving the team forward. One idea per sticky note, using simple statements. (example: We are good at identifying new people without making them feel singled out.)
• Once the time is up, ask each participant, one-by-one, to stick their ideas on the board.
• Now reset the timer to 10 minutes.
• Ask the group, “What do you think is holding us back?
• Now, have the participants stick their stickies up at random.
• As the facilitator, you remove the duplicates. No discussion needed.
• Set the timer for 8 minutes and ask everyone to vote for their favorite idea. They each get eight votes.
• They may place as many dots on any idea (including their own) as they like.
• They may not discuss an issue or ask questions.
• After everyone votes, rearrange the ideas in order from the most votes to the least.
• Choose the challenge with the highest number of votes to begin.
• If there are multiples with the same number of votes, choose one.
• Rephrase the challenge into a “How Might We” question.

Some Additional Things To Consider

Don’t get bogged down about which problem to tackle. The goal here is to make progress on your challenges, not solve all of your problems at once.

Challenge Hunter is a great way to identify the problems your team is facing. However, it really shines is in identifying the one issue or idea you should tackle first.

When you feel there are some issues you need to address but aren’t sure which one to start with, try Challenge Hunter. You can do it with your fellow staff members or members of your ministry community.

Ministry Accelerator equips churches and non-profits to use their creativity to love God and love others.