Today I want to talk to you about how to dream, debate, and decide. Now we all face challenges in our churches and approach finding solutions in different ways. Sometimes we act quickly and move forward with our first idea, but it doesn’t work well and we are back to square one. Or sometimes we go to the other extreme and we procrastinate and procrastinate and never actually get anywhere. In trying to find the perfect solution, our indecisiveness delays an action plan. Using this grid will help you both find a great solution without moving forward too quickly or taking too long. So let’s take a look.
First, dream. Now to dream we just want to write a potential solution in each of the boxes on this 9-box grid. At this point, you are brainstorming possible ways to resolve a challenge or a conflict. No idea should be off the table. Once you fill these in, I can almost guarantee you, you probably won’t decide on your first idea or your last idea, it will probably be somewhere in between.
Here’s where we do that. Next is this debate phase. We talk through the options and weigh the pros and cons of each and we narrow down our choices to the top two or three realistic solutions.
In the next step we decide on the solution and we take action. If it doesn’t work as planned, we can go back to the debate phase and work through another option.
While there are some decisions that do require more time and research and some that require immediate action, this framework can be useful in making efficient and informed decisions. So, now that you understand how to dream, debate, and decide a solution to any problem, what are you going to do about it?
