I like setting up chairs.<\/p>\n
At our church I\u2019ll sometimes go into a room that\u2019s being prepared and help set up the chairs. Our operations team must think I\u2019m a little bit obsessive about how those chairs get set up for meetings, but the truth is, I just enjoy doing it (I tell them that, but they don\u2019t believe me).<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s my secret to why: Setting chairs is something that has a before, a clear actionable goal in the middle, and an end. It\u2019s something that can get done and get done right. There is an objective finish line. It\u2019s a tame problem, and 99% of my work and life is made up of wicked problems.<\/p>\n
Exploring Wicked Problems: What They Are and Why They Are Important<\/em> is a book by Joseph Bentley and Michael Toth in which they explore the challenge of wicked problems. By wicked they don\u2019t mean evil, they mean unsolvable. The biggest, most important problems in our world and in our lives, they say, are not problems that can be fixed (tame problems) but complicated messes that can and should be<\/em> worked on. And they suggest that the best way to work on an unworkable mess is to isolate one part of the mess that can be addressed and to create a coalition of people to go about solving that.<\/p>\n This idea was quite valuable to me, and in some ways was a threshold concept. In my work there rarely<\/em> is a finish line. So much so that when I encounter Nike Ads with the slogan \u201cThere IS no finish line\u201d<\/em> (dating all the way back to 1977), I find myself with a bit of a twitch. Because even when there is<\/strong> a finish line\u2014like a Sunday service or an event or a decision coming up that will get \u2018done\u2019\u2014there\u2019s always<\/u><\/em> a part that could have happened better, or a piece of the mess that we haven\u2019t addressed. And then, when the mess IS addressed and seemingly cleaned up, we later return to it and discover that, somehow, it got messy again.<\/p>\n As Mr. Incredible bemoans in the film Incredibles \u201cNo matter how many times you\u00a0<\/em>save the<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again.\u00a0<\/em>Sometimes<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>I just want it to\u00a0<\/em>stay saved<\/em>!\u201d[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>I’m someone who has a “fix it” orientation and I\u2019m always working at solving problems. But the fact that they either don\u2019t stay solved, or more often can\u2019t ultimately become solved, drives me up the wall.<\/p>\n John Lassiter, former Chief Creative Officer of Pixar understands that frustration when he talks about wicked problems (he doesn\u2019t call them that) in animation. An animated film is made up of thousands of steps that the artists could keep iterating and improving without end. It\u2019s a mess, and can become less of a mess, but at some point, you just have to call it. \u201cWe don\u2019t actually finish our films\u201d Lassiter says, \u201cwe release them.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n As Steve Jobs famously said (and Seth Godin has made a cottage industry out of), \u201creal artists ship.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n Exploring Wicked Problems<\/em> was a timely book for me. Here are three reasons why<\/p>\n 1. My NPO:<\/strong> I\u2019m tackling a wicked problem when I claim, \u201cThe Church On The Way needs a more robust culture of intergenerational leadership partnership to engage, equip, and empower rising generations for ministry leadership.\u201d <\/em>I KNOW this isn\u2019t a problem that can be finally solved. If it was, many leaders and churches before me who have tackled a similar challenge would have fixed it. However, it\u2019s helpful for me to understand better that though I won\u2019t solve this problem, I can determine which parts<\/em> of the problem I will choose to get after.<\/p>\n 2. My professional\/church life:<\/strong> Like I said, in my work there is no finish line. People are never finished. Ministry is never perfect. And leading staff can be like herding cats. It\u2019s helpful to understand that this is normal and instead of living in frustration that I can\u2019t fix everything (and when I do, that it doesn\u2019t stay fixed) that a big part of my call is to continue to work on things that can never get done, and to find new discoveries and solutions along the way with the people I\u2019m called to work with.<\/p>\n 3. My personal life:<\/strong> Recently I\u2019ve encountered some family challenges that represent the most wicked problems I\u2019ve ever faced. As hard as it is to accept that these things will not get fixed, they can be engaged, parts of them can be improved, and we will find a way forward.<\/p>\n Only God will finally fix everything. I can only hope to bring all the broken and messy parts of my life as close to Him as possible, trust that He alone has the solution, and then partner with Him in the process. And I can remind myself that in the end God will \u201cwipe away every tear from (our) eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.\u201d <\/em>(Rev 21:4 NIV).<\/p>\n No more mess!!!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n But until God fixes it all, my messes will remain unsolved. There may never be a finish line in my work or in my life. The day I die there will be much left undone and unfixed. But until then I\u2019ll keep working on it. As Robert Browning said \u201cAh, but a man\u2019s reach should extend his grasp, or what\u2019s a heaven for?\u201d[4]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Ok, it\u2019s time to go find some chairs that need to be set up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Brad Bird. Incredibles<\/em> (Emeryville, CA: Pixar Animation Studios., 2004)<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less<\/em> (New York: Crown Business, 2014), 200.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable<\/em> (New York: Penguin Books, 2010).<\/p>\n