Challenge

I found that there was little commentary on this pattern interesting.

A "challenge with challenges" is that, in particular in tech community cultures, challenges can become a common practice that is used to get attention, or even become adversarial, rather than being productive to advance the group agenda.

Also, though I value the beginner's mind to offer challenging questions, the challenger really needs to either have some basic understanding of the topic, or the willingness & ability to listen and learn.

At one of our Rebooting Web of Trust events, Joe Andrieu requested that challenges need to be offered with "Grace & Curiosity". I like that framing.

I think of Challenge not in terms of challenging what others have said, but rather as challenging conventional wisdom, "the way we've always done things around here", and also self-challenging one's own assumptions, expectations and judgements.

 

A card for Curiosity has been proposed several times, and I've added it to my deck as one of my "blank" cards.

Anastasia Nicole, a writer on the hi-list writes:

"This is a timely conversation for me, as I find that I Challenge people when I disagree with their perspective, rather than seeking to understand.  Only when I am at my best self, facilitating and asking questions in service to the questionee and the overall group process do I embody a spirit of detached curiosity.

I have been reading the book "Think Again", and finding a lot of personal resonance in the idea of getting more training on how to question thoughtfully, in a manner that communicates empathy, builds trust and widens communication."

I'm thinking now that "Challenge Assumptions and Orthodoxy" might be a better title for the card.

Chris Corrigan replied: 

"I also remember discussing challenge and for me it comes from the literature on flow, that when a person or a group has a challenge, they are more likely to enter into a flow state in meeting it. I like to build little challenges into group work “come up with five ideas in three minutes” for example, or “using only natural materials, build an3d picture of the system.”

That’s how I think of challenge in the context of life giving conversation."

Brandon Williamscraig adds:

"I like the Challenge card because it reveals how people think about challenge as much as providing an opportunity to challenge something. When I pull it, I suggest it be understood as a process during which an existing structure will be subjected to unusual pressure. Some folks need encouragement to tolerate what may seem to them like confrontation in order to challenge assumptions and orthodoxy. 

In my experience, the best cards are the ones that are archetypally coherent, understood in all the ways they can be meant, and obviously presuppose the search for a deeper understanding of the pattern beyond the decision to be made at the moment. I have a Curiosity card too and love when it shows up in the same space as Challenge."