We all love to TALK. But we need to try to identify the ACTION STEP.
It’s often said that successful people have a “bias toward action.” They’re wired to DO something. TRY something. Move forward. Don’t overanalyze.
I’ve collected a few examples of when simply asking for an action step has led to good results.
Evangelism in the early church
“What should we do?” was the crowd’s response to Peter’s sermon in Jerusalem (Acts 2). A question that resulted in some clear instructions of how they could begin a journey of following Christ. Thousands of people did.
I wonder what that scene would have looked like if they hadn’t asked the question?
Wartime relief
We have friends serving as missionaries in Ukraine. When the war broke out, they left to a neighboring country with many others. I asked them, “What can we do to help?” A simple question that they credited with spurring them on to raise funds from churches globally for Ukrainian refugees. I heard they raised over $100,000 at last count.
Business marketing
I own a web development agency. When we lay out someone’s homepage we always ask them the question, “When your ideal customer lands here, what do you want them to do?”
We’ve found this to be the best way to get to the bottom of what they really want to accomplish.
Community building
In 2017, a group of community leaders sat around a table in a coffeeshop in our town while the director of a nearby community foundation explained some of their programs to us. At one point, I asked the question, “So what can we do with this in order to better our community?” This resulted in the creation of a local community endowment fund that has donated thousands of dollars back into our community to support local non-profits.
In retelling the story, that foundation director always credits me with asking the question that led to the creation of the fund. I didn’t think anything of it. But I tend to a practical man and I suppose I get impatient when meetings are all talk and no action 🤷♂️
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