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Never Too Busy A staff day away is not a luxury, it is a necessity. The end of an academic year is a good time to plan one. What follows is an agenda for a staff of sixteen people we had the good fortune to lead. It went from 9 am to 3 pm, taking place in the home of a staff person’s relative. It can be adjusted for a staff of any size and makeup, and with some adaptations, for any other working or ministering group. Parish Café After some time for refreshments, rebonding and an initial prayer, each staff member found a place around one of the four card tables set up for the occasion. The tables were covered with a table cloth, a sprig of flowers, some butcher paper over the table cloth for note-taking and doodling, along with magic markers and crayons. Following the model of the World Café (Brown and Isaacs, BK Publishers, 2005), everyone was asked the same question, “How can we become a more effective staff?” Before the session began, we had trained four staff persons to be a “host” at each table. They welcomed people to their table, explained the process and then asked people to reflect for a moment on the question, encouraging them to make any notes or drawings they wished on the butcher paper. The host then invited people to share their insights around the table. After fifteen minutes, the host summarized what was shared and then all but this person got up and found another place, no two people going to the same table. With this new group, the same process was repeated but with a new question: “What is God asking of us at this time?” Once again, each person reflected on the question, making notes or doodling on the butcher paper, and then shared responses with others around the table. For a third time, again after fifteen minutes, all but the hosts changed tables and the next question was announced: “What do we have to do to get there?” At the end of this third round each individual was asked to write on a post-it the answer to this question: “What is one thing I would be willing to work on to improve the staff?” (It helps to have a facilitator shepherding the staff through this process.) Discovering Common Ground After a break, all the staff members reassembled to share what was on their post-it. As one person read a response, others who had something similar shared their idea as well. All of these similar post-its were lined up on the wall and over the list a “subject” post-it was added. From the group of sixteen, four common topics were uncovered: Communication, Prayer, Affirmation, Empowering. Those listed under each “subject” met to determine what was the desired outcome or end point and what were ways of getting there. Some of the actions coming out of the small groups included: an overnight staff retreat, a morning prayer caucus, sending a one-page email each day to at least one other staff person, a short “newsletter” each week to all the staff members, each person “giving away” to someone else one thing they do each week. A Roundtable Discussion After lunch one person from each “subject” group volunteered to be the “point person” so that all the good ideas and commitments generated would not be lost. For the last hour of the session, everyone gathered in one large circle to talk over what happened over the day, to share their answers to the morning’s questions, and to speak truth to one another. Two ground rules for the discussion were that whatever was spoken stayed in the circle, and try to bring out the best in each person. The day ended with everyone choosing a “prayer partner,” that is, one other person to meet with throughout the month as a way to keep the results of the day alive. The commitment was to come up with “one thing I am willing to change to make all that we talked about today happen and thus make us a better staff.” Tom Sweetser, SJ & Peg Bishop, OSF This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (www.pepparish.org) Parish Newsletter - April, 2009 A Service of the Parish Evaluation Project Milwaukee, Wisconsin Reproduced on the OPRFM website with permission |
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