CLD 534 - Vision, Strategic Planning and Organizational Leadership Mentoring Questions

Questions about Values

  • What is the difference between conscious and unconcsious values, and what makes this information valuable?
  • What is the difference between shared and unshared values, and what makes this information valuable?
  • What is the difference between  personal and organizational values, and what makes this information valuable?
  • What is the difference between actual and aspiration values, and what makes this information valuable?
  • What is the difference between single and multiple values, and what makes this information valuable?
  • What is the difference between congruent and incongruent values, and what makes this information valuable?
  • What is the difference between good and bad values, and what makes this information valuable

Questions about Mission

  • What is the difference between the mission (purpose) of the church and the vision of the church?
  • Describe the difference between a church where everyone knows the mission/purpose, and church where few know the mission/purpose.  Which best describes our church?
  • How does the act of writing clarify a church's mission?
  • You can get a good start on  developing and clarifying your church's mission statement by answering these questions (Saffold):
    • What adjectives describe what you find most exciting about this organization? Why?
    • What end results would you be most willing to sacrifice time and effort to produce? Why?
    • What words describe what is most emotionally moving about this organzation? Why?
    • What makes ministry in and through our church exciting for you?
    • When you are enjoying yourself as you serve in and through your church, what do you value most?
    • What is the single most important thing our church has contributed to your life?
    • If our church did not exist, what would be missing?
    • If you had two wishes for our church, what would they be?
    • Describe a time, in your experience, when you experienced very good church leadership?

Questions about Vision

  • Which comes first, mission or vision?
  • Someone has said that vision is mission plus five years.  What is your vision?  Your church’s vision?
  • God invited Adam to name the animals, and whatever Adam named them was apparently just fine with God.  What does this say about vision?
  • Where does vision come from?  
  • Vision sometimes forms in the hearts of those who have a holy dissatisfaction with the status quo (Stanley).  What holy dissatisfaction grips your heart?
  • There is always a moral element (conviction) to vision (Stanley).   What high calling fills you with vision?
  • Vision is a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that it should be (Stanley).    What preferred future do you see for your church?
  • For a vision to become a reality, someone must often put his or her neck on the line (Stanley).  What might vision cost you in our church?
  • Vision requires visionaries, people who have allowed their minds and hearts to wander outside the artificial boundaries imposed by current realities (Stanley).  Where does your mind and heart wander outside artificial boundaries?
  • A vision encourages unity (Malphurs).  Give an example of where this has happened in your church?
  • A vision creates energy (Malphurs).  Give an example of where this has happened in your church?
  • A vision provides purpose (Malphurs).  Give an example of where this has happened in your church?
  • A vision fosters risk taking (Malphurs).  Give an example of where this has happened in your church?
  • Making vision measurable is crucial.  Why?
  • Why is making vision measurable so difficult?
  • What is—or should be—the relationship between personal vision and the ministry organization’s vision?
  • What should a leader do when her or his personal vision clashes with the ministry organization’s vision?
  • Do you think so-called “non-visionaries” can become visionary?  If yes, how?

Questions about Strategic Thinking and Planning

  • What is the value of good questions in the strategic thinking and planning process?
  • What is the difference between a good solution-oriented question and a closed question?  Provide examples.
  • Unhelpful questions tend to 1) focus on the past, and 2) assign blame.  Solution oriented questions, on the other hand, are 1) future oriented, and 2) invite fresh thinking.  Which option comes most naturally for you?  Why?
  • Somebody has written that the quality of the question has a direct bearing on the quality of the solution.  Why?
  • What is problematic about leaders moving too quickly to provide solutions?
  • What is the relationship between strategic thinking and strategic planning?
  • When one steps into an existing strategic planning process, where should one start?

The Abilene Paradox (Harvey, J.B.) is often used to explore various elements of the strategic thinking and planning process.  The story is as follows:  Six people were sitting on a porch one hot August night about 100 miles from Abilene, Texas.  The temperature was 99 degrees, and so was the humidity.  Suddenly they piled into a sedan without air-conditioning, heading for Abilene.  They were driving over unpaved roads, to buy ice-cream, to cool them off.  As they traveled through the soupy weather, road-dust wafted into the vehicle, coating their skin.  Each wondered “whose dumb idea was it to go to Abilene.”  The trip back provided little relief.  They became more agitated as they returned home.  The internal din of “Whose dumb idea was it?” increased to a roar as the ice-cream melted, piling stickiness to the coat of dust.  When they arrived home they piled out of the vehicle as quickly as they had piled in.  Immediately they started finger pointing.   As they quieted down, they all realized that no one had wanted to go.  They each had gone along for the ride, thinking it was a dumb idea but not wanting to say so.  

  • In what ways does the Abilene Paradox relate to the matter of strategic thinking and planning?
  • What assumptions does a good strategic thinking and planning process challenge?
  • What makes communication so vital to effective strategic thinking and planning?
  • Where (and how) should leadership emerge in leaderless groups?
  • In the Abilene Paradox, goals were never expressed.  What power does a thoroughgoing strategic thinking and planning process have regarding goals?
  • In the Abilene Paradox, there was no way of measuring the value of the accomplishment of the goal.  Technically, their goal was achieved—they got ice-cream.  But realistically, their goal was not achieved—they were more hot, tired, and bothered than before.  Why is measuring goal achievement so important?
  • In the Abilene Paradox, “group think” is a problem.  How does a thoroughgoing strategic thinking and planning process resolve this problem?
  • In the Abilene Paradox, the group settles on a dumb solution—drive 200 miles for ice-cream.  How does a thoroughgoing strategic thinking and planning process resolve this problem?
  • In the Abilene Paradox, a spur-of-the-moment decision results in long, hot, and uncomfortable trip.  Does strategic thinking and planning kill spontaneity (which is often a good thing)?  Or can thoroughgoing strategic thinking and planning processes incorporate spontaneity?
  • In the Abilene Paradox, nobody led the way in multiplying options.  How—and in what ways—does a thoroughgoing strategic thinking and planning process multiply options?
  • In the Abilene Paradox, group members seemed afraid to voice their opinions to each other.  How does a thoroughgoing strategic thinking and planning process resolve this problem?
  • A lot of ministry organizations tend to function like the Abilene Paradox.  Given things like the pace and individualism of our culture, people don’t know each other well.  How does a thoroughgoing strategic thinking and planning process resolve this problem?

Questions about Setbacks

  • Strategic thinkers/planners sometimes like to announce their initiatives with big, flashy announcements.  What are the pros and cons of this approach?
  • It is said that eventually all vision translates into work.  Vision entails unlearning some old ways and learning some new ones.  Why is unlearning and relearning difficult? Why do change efforts fail?
  • Someone has compared strategic thinking and planning in existing organizations to a family remaining in the house even as they renovate it, or to an airplane that is being refurbished in flight.  What are the implications of these illustrations for strategic thinking and planning?
  • Imagine a man at the bottom of a long, smooth hill.  The hill slopes gradually but the further one goes up the hill, the steeper it becomes.  The hill is covered with snow, the kind that is perfect for making snowmen.   The man starts rolling a snowball.  And the farther up the hill he goes, the larger the snowball becomes and the harder the job gets.  Eventually the snowball is huge—maybe a meter or two in size.  This is the push phase.  Just before the man reaches the top of the hill, he gets the feeling that if he relaxes even for a split second, the snow ball will begin to roll back down the hill, taking him with it.  When the man comes to the top of the hill, the snowball teeters on the peak.  The man cannot predict whether the snowball will roll back down the hill or start rolling with increased speed down the other side of the hill.  Then, slowly at first, the huge ball of snow starts rolling down the other side of the hill.  The farther it goes, the faster it rolls.  The man has to run to keep up to it.  And the faster it rolls, the bigger it gets.  This is the pull phase.  Describe the parallels between this man and his experience with his snowball, and the strategic thinking/planning process?
  • Although a vision may be the right one at the time it is formulated, rarely is it right for all time (Nanus).  What are the implications of this reality?
  • There are two kinds of learning in organizations (Botkin, Elmandjra, and Malitza): maintenance learning and innovative learning.   The first is designed to maintain an organization by increasing its ability to deal with known and recurring problems, whereas the second is the type of learning that brings change, renewal, restructuring, and problem reformulation.  Describe how your organization does maintenance and innovative learning.
    How do we know when it is time to revise the vision?
  • Creative people go through three distinct steps in solving problems: analysis of the problem, generation of ideas, and selection of the best solution.  What experience does your organization have with creativity?

Questions about Implementation

  • Cascading conversations carry an idea forward in ever broadening circles.  Law 1 of cascading conversation says, “You get what you talk about” (Wall, Solum and Sobol).  To what degree is this true?
  • Law 2 says, “The culture of a ministry team is a reflection of its leader.”  To what degree is this true?
  • Law 3 says, “You can’t walk faster than one step at a time.”  To what degree is this true?
  • Effective implementation relies on common strategic language.  Why is this true?
  • Effective implementation relies on repetition in communication.  Why is this important?
  • Effective strategic thinkers and planners continually get feedback from as many people as possible.  Why is this important?  
  • Effective strategic thinkers and planners pretest the communication plan and medium on real people.  Why is this important?
  • In any successful implementation plan, the circles of authority and responsibility must be of identical size.  Why is this important?
  • Successful implementation plans outline three factors: responsibility, authority, and accountability.   What is the relationship between these three factors?
  • Implementation plans need to be brief, specific, and measurable.  Why are these three qualities important?
  • Implementation plans require specificity.  Why is this important?