Logan Leadership

When you’re field testing something new, and it seems to be working effectively, the next thing you need to do is hand it over to someone else to let them do it without your involvement and see if it still works. I’ve done this on a number of occasions only to find that when I handed it off to someone else, it didn’t work. When I’ve examined what happened, I’ve come to realize that I was bringing something into the equation that I hadn’t written down or incorporated into what I handed off to the other person. I had been intuitively filling in pieces that hadn’t actually been part of the official process.

In yesterday’s blog entry, I outlined some of the advantages of pilot projects—starting small to test a ministry idea. Let’s say you do that. How do you know if it’s working? Here are a few ways to evaluate the success of your pilot project.

1. Goal achievement. That sounds simple, but it’s essential. Is this pilot project producing the results you were aiming for? (Note: this presupposes that you set clear, measurable goals ahead of time.)
2. Motivated team members. How easy is it for you to find—and keep—team members?