Question: What do you do when you have devised a successful TV format, delivered seven popular series of the show and are now looking to take it to a new level?
Answer: replace the adults with young people.
When I heard that this was what the BBC was planning to do with the BAFTA award-winning show, The Apprentice, I wondered how it was going to come across, and whether it would be' dumbed down' for young people.
Having watched the first two episodes, it is with some relief that I can report that the twist to the format is working. There are a few elements which are obviously for the purpose of TV entertainment, such as making them all wear business suits (some of which seem to be on the large size, making the young people look even younger!) but the challenges seem to be typical of the programme and they haven't been made easier for teenagers.
As I watched this week I couldn't help thinking that Lord Sugar was showing us how to work with young people effectively. He gave each one respect, didn't talk down to them (any more than he usually does to the candidates anyway!) and he expected them to be able to do the task he asked them to do.
In some ways, the young people come across better than the usual candidates as they don't have so much ego or arrogance, and even show much more openness to working as a team and listening to each other's contributions than the adult candidates sometimes do.
What would happen if church leaders took on a group of teenagers for a season and asked them to help with their leadership tasks? By this I mean giving them genuine leadership responsibility, not simply asking them to take the collection in the service or to give the reading. I think we would discover that the young people we have, no matter how few, would surprise us by their natural abilities, their willingness to learn and the speed at which they develop and grow in confidence.
It must be time for us to invest in young people as leaders while they have these teenage traits rather than waiting for them to be ten or twenty years older, where, let's face it, everything takes a little longer to process.
Answer: replace the adults with young people.
When I heard that this was what the BBC was planning to do with the BAFTA award-winning show, The Apprentice, I wondered how it was going to come across, and whether it would be' dumbed down' for young people.
Having watched the first two episodes, it is with some relief that I can report that the twist to the format is working. There are a few elements which are obviously for the purpose of TV entertainment, such as making them all wear business suits (some of which seem to be on the large size, making the young people look even younger!) but the challenges seem to be typical of the programme and they haven't been made easier for teenagers.
As I watched this week I couldn't help thinking that Lord Sugar was showing us how to work with young people effectively. He gave each one respect, didn't talk down to them (any more than he usually does to the candidates anyway!) and he expected them to be able to do the task he asked them to do.
In some ways, the young people come across better than the usual candidates as they don't have so much ego or arrogance, and even show much more openness to working as a team and listening to each other's contributions than the adult candidates sometimes do.
What would happen if church leaders took on a group of teenagers for a season and asked them to help with their leadership tasks? By this I mean giving them genuine leadership responsibility, not simply asking them to take the collection in the service or to give the reading. I think we would discover that the young people we have, no matter how few, would surprise us by their natural abilities, their willingness to learn and the speed at which they develop and grow in confidence.
It must be time for us to invest in young people as leaders while they have these teenage traits rather than waiting for them to be ten or twenty years older, where, let's face it, everything takes a little longer to process.
Andy
