Group 6 Discernment FEB 2013

GROUP SIX SESSION SEVEN

DISCERNMENT February 2013

The Identity of Catholic Health Care Leaders “As Catholic health care leaders, we understand ourselves as called to be part of a ministerial tradition that ultimately takes its inspiration and direction from the healing mission of Jesus. As part of this tradition, we are committed personally and professionally to the spiritually grounded values that guide our work in responding to human suffering.”

The Work of Catholic Health Care Leaders

“As Catholic health care leaders, we work to integrate core values into organizational structures, policies, and behaviors; to link discernment to strategic decision making, innovation, and team composition; to incorporate Catholic social teaching into organizational life; to develop and insure accountability for ethical policies, practices, and behaviors in our clinical settings; to develop and insure accountability for ethical policies, practices, and behaviors in our organizational relationships; to bring the benefits of health care to the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society; to respect and attend to the whole person of patients, physicians, associates, and volunteers; and to work collaboratively with Church authorities and Church agencies.”

DISCERNMENT AND VALUES-BASED

STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING Page

Discernment – Linking Spiritual Insight to Strategic Decision – Making

1

The Innovation Imperative – “Come Holy Spirit” 11

Project Leadership Roles in Innovative Endeavors 24

Reflections 28

Listening for Bells and Seeing Bell Stands: Integrating Discernment into Decision-Making

34

Strategic Decision-Making, Innovation, and Team Composition in the Light of the Triangle

40

Individual and Communal Experience Taxonomy of Decision-Making When to Use the Discernment Process Summary of “Discernment and Strategic Decision Making: Reflections

for a Spirituality of Organizational Leadership,”

41 42 44

Assessment Tool for Discernment in Strategic Decision-Making

51

Two Classic Discernment Stories

52

Discernment Assumptions: Spirit as Source and Lure

54

Quotations on Discernment

56

Action|Feedback Integration Indicators Examples

59 60

Reflections: Theological Reasons Why Discernment Is Important The Relationship Between Leadership Development and Leadership Formation

66 67

Discernment

Linking Spiritual Insight To Strategic Decision Making

André L. Delbecq

Santa Clara [email protected]

©9 09

Discernment

•  “Discernment is a process that allows a person to see, without confusion and ambiguity, what differentiates things….The better our discernment, the clearer our choices.” Wolff (2003, 3)

•  “Seeking the freedom to make choices which lead to the fullness of our own and the organization’s potential for greater service.” Delbecq (2006)

Strategic Decision-Making: A Pillar Of Leadership

Pivotal Leadership Roles are to Facilitate: •  An Unfolding Vision •  Determine Appropriate Strategic Choices •  Sustain Implementation Under Adversity

Strategic Decisions

•  Both Means and Ends Are Unclear at the Beginning

•  And Remain Tentative Even At the End of the

Decision Process Requiring Shared Discovery and Pooled Judgments Contrasted to Expert Decision Making

Strategic Decisions More Than Rational/Technical Sequences

•  Requires Personal Integration To Avoid Truncating The Process - Fear, Impatience,Undue Control

versus - Psychological,Ethical,Spiritual Maturity •  Requires Pooled Judgment Within A Community of Trust

–  Complex Issues –  Unanticipated Consequences –  Loose Organizational Coupling For Implementation

Discernment: The Older Mother Of Decision Making

Listening to “The Will Of God”

–  Requiring stillness,humility and patience

Deep, Subjective Insight –  Reaches into heart of beliefs and inner self

Beyond Emotional Intelligence The Gift of Wisdom

Foundational Assumptions

•  Dichotomy Between Sacred And Secular Is False –  God Dwells Within Us And Creation

•  God Is Immanent –  If We Listen We Can Hear The Transcendent Through

Inner Silence

•  Discernment Is a Holistic“Experience” –  Involves Mind, Heart And Spirit

Parallels Across Traditions

•  Reformed Christian Tradition –  “Veni Creator Spiritus” in Lutheran, Anglican,

Pentecostal Traditions •  Jewish Tradition

–  Creator God Who Shares Wisdom and Acts in History •  Taoist

–  Chi Permeating The 10,000 Things •  Hindu

–  Non-dualism Etc.

A Christian Mystic Everyone who seeks meaning in life must learn to

listen with all their capacity in order to recognize the single voice that bears a thousand names. It is the voice spoken to us from the center of our personal being.

Frank Houdek, S.J.

Hindu Reflection

He is God, hidden in all beings,

their inmost soul who is in all. He watches the works of creation,

lives in all things, watches all things.

The Upanishads

Taoist Perspective

•  Look, it cannot be seen ---it is beyond form. •  Listen, it cannot be heard --- it is beyond

sound •  Grasp, it cannot be held --- it is intangible

" " " " " " "Tao Te Ching

Prevalence Of Failed Strategic Decisions

•  More Than Half The Time Strategic Decision Making Fails

Paul Nutt, 1999; Ohio State University

Causes Of Failed Leadership: Over-reliance on Expertise

Assuming from past practices –  Bounded By Past Personal “Expertise” –  Bounded By Prior Organizational Practices Hindered by Deep Conceptual, Experiential, Preferential Precedence –  Precipitous Closure

Under-attending the Voices Of Others

Stakeholder input not sought from those impacted

Social and political forces underestimated Conflicting viewpoints not reconciled Barriers to action underestimated Outside sources of information not sought

Failing to go outside organizational experience Precipitous resort to persuasion and power “Temptation from Light” - Ignatius of Loyola

Search Behavior Truncated

•  Limited options considered •  An early solution is uncritically promoted •  Attention focused on select informants/examples •  Experimental approach avoided

Non - confirming information ignored Search Behavior is More Important Than Brilliance" Herbert Simon"

Values Not Brought to Bear

•  Values and Ethical Issues Not Attended •  Relation to Mission Not Made Overt •  Ontological Questions Ignored

Sophisticated Technocratic - Rational Perspectives Remain Deficient

Succumbing to Hubris

Effective Leaders Receive the "Greatest Criticism"

Bales, Harvard

Pooled Judgments Shown Superior to the"Superior Individual

Difficulties Manifest Even In Mature Leaders Who Are

•  Within Boundaries Of Ethics And Law •  Not Subject To Serious Psychological

Impediments •  In High-Performing Organizations (in the present tense)

Discernment Seeks

•  Freedom from one‘s own biases, defensiveness, preferences, narrowness, anxieties, fears, etc.

•  Freedom for others inclusive of their needs and gifts

•  Organizational freedom to aspire to stretch goals The Desire for Noble Purpose Connecting Mind and Heart Ignatian “Magis”

Why A Structured Process?

•  Orders Our Decision Making •  Ensures Consideration Of All Relevant Factors •  Elicits A Multiplicity Of Perspectives •  Includes Our Spiritual Instincts And Intuitions •  Increases Ability To Articulate The Rationale For

Our Decisions -Connecting Heart and Reason

Elements Of A Discernment Process

PRECONDITION: A Contemplative Inner Disposition

•  Is A Gift Of The Spirit •  Builds Regular Prayer/Meditation •  Leads to Detachment From The Ego

Beginners Mind - Indifference-Openness Learned Through Daily Spiritual Disciplines

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Patience In Discovery Of The Underlying Problem •  Identify and engage stakeholders •  Discover relevant dimensions associated with

the central question •  Attention to spiritual “insight” as well as

rational thought •  Reconcile competing interpretations where

possible Separating Problem Exploration from! Solution Search Herbert Simon!

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Engage Hard Work To Gather Information Regarding

Solution Elements •  Elicit Insight From “Outside” Expertise And Prior

Experience •  Cooperate With Legitimate Authorities •  Be Patient Building Shared Solution Framework •  Continue Feedback With Those Impacted Embed Problem Solving In “Truth” (Even When Uncomfortable)

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Continually Sift and Winnow Decision Process Through

Salient Moral/Values/Ethical Concerns •  Human Dignity •  Common Good •  Justice With Attention to Poor and Marginalized •  Rights And Responsibilities •  Individual/Professional/Organizational Values •  Commitment To Those Served •  Congruence With Organizational Mission

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Returning Over And Over To Shared Reflection And Prayer Sensitive To Consolation And Desolation •  Informed By Scripture And Wisdom Sources •  Remaining Open Sharing Spiritual Reflection as a Group Discipline •  Avoiding Undue Haste

(Emptiness, Indifference, Beginners Mind) What would be the more noble path? Are we willing to step outside prior preferences? How are we being spoken to through people, events,

authority?

The Bhgavad Gita

With your heart intent on me, discipline

yourself with spiritual practice.

Depend on me completely.

Listen and I will dispel all your confusion.

Key Distinction

Without shared prayer, meditation/

contemplative practice, reference to scripture, and attention to values a group decision process IS NOT discernment.

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Flexible Implementation With Attention to

Double Loop Learning •  Testing For “Fruits Of Spirit” As Well As

Performance Indicators •  Sustaining Courage and Hopefulness But

Allowing For Possible Withdrawal

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Follow-Up And Review

•  Was the Decision Properly Arrived At? •  Was Decision Well Implemented? •  What Have We Learned That Informs Other Endeavors? Accepting The Empirical Risks Associated With Innovation and the Possibility of Failure a

Closing Caveats: Discernment As Mystery

–  God Is Mystery; Love And Trust Are Required –  Outcome Is Directional, Not Specific –  Does Not Eliminate Uncertainty Or Suffering –  Experience the Paradox of Humility and Greatness

We Do Not Become Seers Or Prognosticators Outcomes Are Not Guaranteed

The Innovation Imperative

“Come Creator Spirit”

André L. Delbecq

Santa Clara University [email protected]

©4 1 2010

Innovation is a Primary Challenge

•  Rates of Change Are Accelerating •  Cost Reduction and Quality Improvement

Must Be Simultaneous •  World-wide Access to Information •  Increased Competitive Pressure The most important criterion

associated with excellence

A Comparative Advantage

•  Accounts for 60% of profitability •  Primary influence on perceptions of quality

and market leadership •  Avoids conceding market to competitors

– Creates Barrier For Entry

We Know A Great Deal About Successful Innovation

•  Automotive •  Agriculture •  Aerospace •  Technology

Innovation Is No Longer A Mysterious Process

Negative Responses To Innovation

•  Unwanted Externally Imposed Demand •  Disruptive Burden

Innovation As A Spiritual Gift

Antiphon

Veni Creator Spiritus Come Holy Spirit

Translated by Luther Present in Anglican Rite

Honored as Calvinist Hymn Central Insight to Evangelicals and Pentecostals

God in History in Jewish Tradition Uncreated Energies in Orthodoxy

Chi (10,000 things) in Eastern Tradition

Spirit Of God in All Things

•  Not Confined To Salvation History •  Creative Spirit Acting

–  In All Institutions –  In Every Heart Of Every Person (Abraham Heschel: “I am not ordinary..”)

A Leadership Consolation

•  The Spiritual Energy Is Already Available To Our Organizations – Cast Aside Fear And Anxiety – Embrace Co-Creation

Empirical Distribution of Innovative Energy

Cardinal John Henry Newman

To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have

changed often. The only evidence we have of life is growth. Those who resist growth unwittingly suppress the

capacity for life, and in the process they also close off our God-given quest for perfection.

Key Takeaway

We Must Reverence The Spiritual Energy Of Innovation As A Manifestation Of God’s Own Energy

Barriers to Innovation

•  Overly Centralized Planning – Their Problem

•  Vested Interests in Present Problems – Their Power

•  Inadequate Slack Resources – Their Money

Myths Regarding Innovation

•  Innovation is a Plan –  It is a culture and a continuing process

•  The Magnitude Of Organizational Wealth is Critical – Behaviors and empowerment are more

important

Who Are the Innovators?

•  Ordinary Managers, Staff, Professionals and Workers

•  Those Doing The Work Learn Best How To Improve The Work –  “Local Knowledge” –  “Tacit Knowledge” –  “Hands On Knowledge”

“Volunteers With Passion”

Realities to Comprehend

•  Incremental and Radical Innovation Must Develop Simultaneously

•  Innovation Must Cross Organizational Levels and Functions

•  Innovation Relies on “Deep Local Knowledge”

Key Takeaway

There Is No Success Story Associated With Centralization

Requires Structural Solutions

Substituting Organizational Arrangements and Processes for Politics and Heroics

The Well-Documented Step-Process Sequence

•  Commonly Understood Innovation Sequence –  Shared Visioning –  Problem Identification –  Solution Development –  Pilot Experimentation –  Implementation

Step 1:Shared Visioning

•  Scouting the Future –  Driven by Client Need and Benchmarking

•  Sharing Scenarios in “Offsite Forums” –  Across Levels and In All Functions

•  Allowing A “Directional Vision” To Emerge With Multiple Paths for Feasibility Investigation

Key Takeaway

An Important Paradox Successful Organizations Innovate Preemptively Avoiding Crisis But Haste and Frantic Behavior is Not Characteristic of the Holy Spirit (Bi-focal Discipline)

Frequent Errors

•  Engaging in Visioning Infrequently – Only when facing crisis – Failing to anticipate in slow time

•  Visioning Vested In Elites •  Premature Closure Around Early Choices

– Failure to use creativity techniques – Unduly limiting number of feasibility studies

thereby closing off serendipity

Step 2: Feasibility Studies

•  PROBLEM EXPLORATION –  Extensive client involvement –  60% acceptance attributes identified by users

•  SOLUTION DEVELOPMENT –  Nominations through gatekeepers –  Interviews and walk-thru’s (Not just literature) –  50% solution components from external sources

Frequent Errors

•  Restricting feasibility studies to limited set of

visioning choices •  Relying on filtered information from select

informants •  Over-structuring information probes •  Failure to return to informants for verification •  Inadequate sharing with other stakeholders

Key Takeaway

Search Behavior Is More Important Than Brilliance

Step 3: Pilot Studies

•  Alpha Test With Early Innovators Co-development With Users

•  Beta Sites With Average Adopters Transfer Costs Underestimated by 40% Demand Overestimated by 60%

Number Of Sites

TIME

ALPHA TEST

IMPLEMENTATION IMPERATIVES

BETA SITES

EARLY ADOPTERS

AVERAGE ADOPTERS

LATE ADOPTERS

Frequent Errors

•  Delaying “action learning” with early adopters while seeking design consensus

•  Inferring from the “specialist point of view” following alpha tests and avoiding beta test realities

Key Takeaway

•  Action Orientation and Experimentation Must Become Core Values

Step 4: Program Implementation

•  Enter the policy and power arenas •  Determine from Beta Sites whether

innovation is: – Niche Improvement – Warrants a Major Program

Investment Strategies for Implementation

+

_

b

a

1 2 3 4

Implementation

Major Technology Transfer Choices “A” Curve - Robust Organization-Wide Transfer High Training Costs “B” Curve - Incremental Growth in Niche Program

Implementing a Major Program

•  Facilitating “Hand Off” For Market Capture Efforts –  Seek leveraged resources –  Sustain effort and investment through learning curve –  vs. –  Quasi independent slow growth effort for niche

program

Frequent Errors

•  Failure to pass baton from development team to implementation team

•  Unrealistic roll-out without adequate support for each wave of adopters

•  Zero incentives and penalties associate with adoption

The Degree of Support For Average Adopters More Predictive Of Success

Than Technological Superiority

Key Takeaway

Failure to Harvest First Mover Advantages

“The” More Expensive Error

Summary

•  Many playful and dispersed efforts in slow time – Redundant experimentation – Driven by empowered volunteers – Guided but not controlled by orderly process

•  Requires easily accessed mini-funds

Summary cont;

•  Focused efforts in accelerating time – Requiring well-resourced implementation

efforts

Requires Financial Reserves For BOTH

Mini-grants Major Program Implementation

Veni Creator Spiritus

•  If this were easy, it would be done everywhere.

The Imperative

The World is Moving So Fast These

Days That Those Who Say It Can’t Be Done Are

Generally Interrupted By Someone Doing It!

H. E. Fosdick

Project Leadership Roles in Innovative Endeavors

André L. Delbecq Santa Clara University

©3 09

List Adjectives Associated With An Innovation Leader

Positive Negative

Positive Negative

Enthusiastic Arrogant Committed Inflexible Passionate Outspoken Creative Scattered Diplomatic Insensitive Communicator Impatient Risk Taker Demanding Team Builder Intolerant Focused Opportunistic Flexible Power Seeking

Champion Profile

•  Outspoken, Confronting •  Rule Breaking, Iconoclastic •  Power/Control Seeking •  Driven, Passionate •  Action Oriented

Caveat: Issue Specific

Champion Career Stage

•  Scientific or Administrative Peak Moment •  Often Early in “Position” or “Organization”

Statesperson Profile

•  Strategic Thinker •  Influential in Organization •  Politically Discriminating •  Effective Communicator •  Trusted Exemplar of

Values •  Well Networked

Who Is The “Alpha” Dog?

•  A Critical Relationship And Chemistry

Statesperson Career Stage

•  Organizationally Senior •  Politically Active and Networked •  Prior Development Experience

Coordinator/Facilitator Profile

•  Well Developed Internal/External Networks •  Social Orientation •  Facilitation Skills •  Low Power Needs

Coordinator/Facilitator Career Stage

•  Technically Adequate •  Early Or Late Career Stage

Technical Support Role

•  Budgets, Forms, Documentation

•  Compliance •  Bureaucratic Buffering •  General Support

Often Part-Time Assignment

Summary

•  60% Innovation Success Depends On External Boundaries

•  Need For Complementary Roles Not Perceived By Champions

•  Roles Must Be “Elicited” •  Simultaneous Roles Not Empirically

Evident

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Leadership Formation Program A Reflection from the Christian Tradition Spiritual authors give attention to the unrecognized influence of various factors upon the mind. Indeed, it is making an assessment of things in a quite transparent manner, unsuspecting the impulses at work upon it. … The first step in forming a discerning mind is becoming aware that one’s thoughts are not entirely one’s own. (Thus) The first step in forming a discerning mind is becoming aware of the pre-conceptions and urgencies that conduct the mind toward an all-too-tidy consistence marked more by its narrowness than its wisdom. … If the mind is uncultured and narrow in its interests and if it is easily moved by impulses of which it is unaware, then the bias with which it interprets reality will be quite imperceptible to it.

Reflection on Origen, First Principles 4.2.2 Mark A. Macintosh, Discernment and Truth, New York, Crossroad Publishing, 2004 p.83

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Leadership Formation Program A Reflection from the Sufi Tradition In our ordinary state of being, both the outer demands of life and the inner processes of thinking and feeling alternatively monopolize our attention to such an extent that we cannot sustain true consciousness. The personality is governed by the world. All its inner events are tied to outer events and things.

Kabir Helminski, Living Presence

You have scattered your awareness in all directions and your vanities are not worth a bit of cabbage. The root of every thorn draws the water of your attention toward itself. How will the water of your attention reach the fruit? Cut through the evil roots, cut them away. Direct the bounty of God to spirit and to insight, not the knotted and broken world outside.

Rumi – Mathnawi V 1084 – 86

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Leadership Formation Program Wisdom is not what you know about the world but how well you know God.

Henry Blackaby

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Leadership Formation Program A Reflection from the Ignatian Tradition

There is an absolute prerequisite for the discernment of which we speak. That prerequisite is conversion: the radical inner transformation of a person which is sometimes referred to as metanoia, a Greek word meaning “change of mind and heart”. … For discernment, when all is said and done, is nothing else but being guided by the Spirit: seeing the world, and what we must be and do in the world, no longer with our own eyes, but with the eyes of the Spirit. …Conversion is not a giving away of something that we can well afford to lose. It goes much deeper than that. It is a putting away of something of what we are: our old self, with its all too-human, all too-worldly prejudices, convictions, attitudes, values, ways of thinking and acting; habits that have become so much a part of us that it is agony even to think of parting with them, and yet which are precisely what prevent us from rightly interpreting the signs of the times, from seeing life steadily and seeing it whole.

Pedro Arrupe, Essential Writings, Maryknoll, New York, Orbis Books, pp 95-96

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Leadership Formation Program A Reflection from the Christian Tradition

The true gift of authentic spiritual perception is discernment as a new habit of knowledge or intellectual virtue, such that the mind of the person really does sense and judge things with a new insight and wisdom. …. The sign of authentic spiritual growth is an enlargement of one’s freedom, a deepening of one’s own habit of wisdom through steady companionship with God.

Mark A McIntosh, Discernment and Truth, New York, Crossroad Publishing Company, 2004 p 109 – 110

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Leadership Formation Program A Reflection from the Hindu Tradition With your heart intent on me, … discipline yourself with spiritual practice. Depend on me completely. Listen, and I will dispel all your doubts; you will come to know me fully and be united with me.

The Bhagavad Gita, 7: 1 Translated by Eknbath Easwaran,

Nilgiri Press, 1985

Discernment  February  2013  

Listening for Bells

and Seeing Bell Stands:

Integrating Discernment

into Decision-Making

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Discern, Discerning, Discernment

§  Common Connotation – Subtle, sensitive, and thoughtful work – Nuanced perceptions, acute observations,

discriminating awareness – Raises “judgment” to a higher level

§  Spiritual Traditions – Discipline of perceiving and cooperating with

spiritual influences – Aligning spirit in us with spirit in the situation

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Positioning Discernment

§  Taxonomy of decision-making. Note the distinction between decision-making as an individual and group process.

§  Discernment elements permeate the whole

process of strategic decision making.

Discernment  February  2013  

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Positioning Discernment

§  Strategic Decision Making – Organizational Wisdom

§  Strategic Ethical Decision Making – Ethical Wisdom

§  Strategic Ethical Decision Making with Discernment Elements – Spiritual Wisdom

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

When to Use the Discernment Process.

§  Use it

§  Don’t use it

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

HAVE IT READY

§  Since Spirit is present in every situation, discernment skills that seek to connect the Spirit in us with the Spirit in the situation are always potentially useful.

§  Develop the skills and keep them sharp by use.

Discernment  February  2013  

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Reporting on Pre-session Work

Having read the article as background, having worked with the assessment tool,

and having heard Andre explain the process,

share your experience of discernment

in strategic decision making.

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Two Classic Discernment Stories

§  The Legend of the Bells

§  The Woodcarver

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Core Assumption of Discernment

§  What encourages you to adopt this assumption that Spirit is at work in us and in every situation asking for cooperation.

§  What makes you hesitant to adopt this assumption that spirit is at work in us and in every situation asking for cooperation.

Discernment  February  2013  

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Discernment Elements

§  Entering with an contemplative inner disposition

§  Over and over again returning to prayer and reflection

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Entering with an Contemplative Inner Disposition

– Planning and Preparation – Need for a reminder – Reminders and the back of the mind – Leaning on a tradition before we know for

ourselves

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Entering with an Contemplative Inner Disposition

§  Open a Space – “Allah knows, I don’t.” – “Sometimes we hold on to what we think is

true so strongly that when truth itself knocks on the door we will not open.”

– Beginner’s Mind – Every thought says “I” – What we identify with dominates us. – “I have knowledge, but I am not my

knowledge.”

Discernment  February  2013  

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Entering with an Contemplative Inner Disposition

§  Set Up a Listening Post – Phrase values as a “call”

§ E.g., Where is dignity calling to us? – Phrase values as comparatives

§ E.g., Where is greater cooperation calling to us? – Greater unity, increased trust, increased

justice, greater mutual security, more meaningful work, lessen inequality, greater hope, greater harmony

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Over and over again returning to prayer and reflection

§  Private Prayer

§  Public Prayer

§  Spirit Communion Between Self and Situation

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Over and over again returning to prayer and reflection

§  “The old advice holds: Act upon the little

light you have and more will be given. Resist such action because the light is dim and because you want more certainty in advance and the light will grow dimmer.”

§  “At a deep level, what are we seeing and hearing – does this situation have a dream of itself?”

Discernment  February  2013  

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP CENTER

Over and over again returning to prayer and reflection

§  Dialogue and the Group – Spirit in the Group Process – Discussion and Dialogue

§  Stakeholder storytelling – Spirit in the people of the situation – What questions do you want to ask?

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STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING

CULTURE

INNOVATION DISCERNMENT

TEAM COMPOSITION

TRADITION

DISCERNMENT

DISCERNMENT

INDIVIDUAL & COMMUNAL EXPERIENCE

DI

DISCERNMENT All Rights Reserved February 2013 Ministry Leadership Center

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Individual and Communal Experience:

Taxonomy of Decision-Making

1. Routine decision-making - means and ends codified 2. Creative decision-making - ends known, means have to be discovered 3. Strategic decision-making - both means and ends have to be discovered 4. Expert decision-making 5. Consultative decision-making 6. Shared decision-making 7. Shared strategic decision-making 8. Shared ethical/strategic decision-making 9. Shared ethical/strategic decision-making with discernment elements

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Individual and Communal Experience:

When to Use the Discernment Process?

(Reformatted from Dan O’Brien, “Ascension Health: Organizational Ethics Discernment Process – Overview”)

Use It:

The [discernment] process is intended to be used when making major

decisions, for example:

• when deciding when, whether and where to commit significant

resources for capital projects;

• when deciding whether to add or eliminate an entire service or

department;

• when deciding whether to make significant changes or reductions in

staff.

There are numerous indicators for when the discernment process may be

appropriate, such as:

• when a decision will have significant impact on those we serve or

on our associates,

• when it will have extensive financial impact on the organization;

• when there are significant differences of opinion among leaders

regarding a major decision to be made;

• when there are many and complex stakeholders;

• when the decision will impact multiple dimensions of the

organization, its operations and culture;

• when there is significant ambiguity about our values or about

ethical principles concerning the major issue.

DISCERNMENT All Rights Reserved February 2013 Ministry Leadership Center

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Don’t Use It:

Likewise, there are numerous occasions when the discernment process

should not be used, such as:

• for ratifying a decision that has already been made;

• when the team doesn’t have the ability or the will to devote the time

needed for proper discernment;

• when appropriate preparations have not been made;

• when there is just one choice to be made (even if there is one

decision to be made, there should be multiple choices);

• when the decision is already clear to all the known stakeholders;

• when the decision to be made will not have significant impact on

the organization, its operations and culture or on its associates.

Have It Ready While it is true that the discernment process should not normally be used

for routine decisions, an effective structure for decision making will provide a

good framework for making any decision, anytime, anywhere, whether alone or

with others. It provides a structure for discovery, for openness, for creativity, for

being able to communicate and to exchange ideas. And while a leadership or

management team ought not to use it for every decision to be made, periodically

practicing the discernment process in less complex matters can present an

opportunity for developing the skills to manage more complex decisions where

discernment is necessary.

What would you want to add to this advice? What would you want to subtract from this advice? What would you want to multiply (underline, emphasize) in this advice? What would you want to divide (distinguish, nuance) in this advice?

DISCERNMENT All Rights Reserved February 2013 Ministry Leadership Center

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Summary of Andre L. Delbecq, Elizabeth Liebert, John Mostyn, Paul C. Nutt and Gordan Walter, “Discernment and Strategic Decision Making: Reflections for a Spirituality of Organizational Leadership,” in Spiritual Intelligence at Work: Meaning, Metaphor, and Morals, Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Volume 5, 139-174.

Christian Discernment Developing eyes to see and respond to what God is doing. No dichotomy between secular and sacred. Applies to individuals and institutions The centrality of freedom Not to do what one wants But to be free of “smallness of spirit” and embrace “expansiveness of spirit

Contemporary Strategic Decision Making Developmental A decision in which both ends and means have to be discovered. Typical causes of decision process failure Premature commitments Urgency and time crunches Overemphasis on Analytic Evaluations Over-reliance on past failure-prone practices Over responding to selected claimants Underestimating barriers to action Prematurely setting a direction Insufficient search and innovation Misusing analysis

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Integrating Discernment into a Decision Making Process Key Element #1: Entering the Decision Process with a Reflective Inner Disposition Discernment Tradition Difficult first step Ask for greater inner freedom to follow what is discerned “Indifference” to everything but what is discerned as the call Lose and regain this disposition Strategic decision making tradition Openness, but not stressed as a preparing orientation Key Element #2: Patience in the Discovery of the Underlying Nature of the Decision

Issue

Discernment Tradition Renew one’s inner disposition and detachment from personal preferences Strategic decision making tradition Make sense of possibilities Scouting for ideas externally Co-create vision with key stakeholders Takes time and dialogue

Visioning takes time and willingness to delay precipitous action

Key Element #3: Undertaking the Hard and Time-Consuming Work of Gathering Information Discernment Tradition Not well developed in this tradition Strategic decision making tradition Benchmarking – integrated benchmarking Stimulating innovation Reconciling Differentiated Concerns Sharing power in the evolutions of solutions Token participation Delegated participation Complete participation Comprehensive participation Intervention = demonstrating the necessity of acting

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Key Element #4: Identify the most salient moral/values/ethical concerns. Human Dignity Common Good Justice Key Element #5: Returning Over and Over Again to Shared Reflection and Prayer Discernment Tradition Anchor to deal with “unknowing” See the truth as going in the right direction, sensing the rightness of the direction consolation and desolation as guides Strategic decision making tradition Incubation Not convinced of the value of reflective centering Key Element #6: Tentative Decisions and Attention to Outcomes Discernment Tradition Await inner and external confirmation Inner – gifts of the Holy Spirit External – gifts for the Holy Spirit for the institution Greater unity Increased trust Increased justice Greater mutual security Sense of meaningful work Stronger connection to core values Greater harmony Shalom Reasonable period of time Confirmation/disconfirmation Proceed Strategic decision making tradition Attention to outcome evaluation Double loop learning Discernment contributions Patience Avoid undue haste Holistic impact of the decision

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Key Element #7: Follow Up and Review Future Reevaluations Both traditions: be open to continuous change What both traditions share Culture of engagement Involvement of all Openness and safety to speak Listening and adjustment Creativity and courage Norms for avoiding undue haste Incorporate emotional and analytical Incubation and reflection What the discernment tradition contributes Spiritual should be included Prayer/mediation can open leaders to an inner freedom that is a release from compulsions and distortions Spiritual criteria for the rightness of a direction which allows for more holistic approach Leader might experience new sense of self and engage in appropriate Asceticism Leader responds to sense of call to servant leadership

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Individual and Communal Experience:

Assessing the Strategic Decision-Making Discernment Process in your Organization

Please describe briefly a recent value-based discernment decision-making process that you were part of. ____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Now please refer to the key elements outlined in Andre’s presentation and article and describe how they did or did not enter into the decision-making process. Key Element #1 1. Precondition: Entering the Decision Process with a Contemplative Inner Disposition Did this take place? ________ If “Yes”, please describe how this was evident. _______________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ If “No”, please describe how this might have been incorporated into the process. ___________ ___________________________________________________________________ Key Element #2 2. Patience in the Discovery of the Underlying Problem Did this take place? ________ If “Yes”, please describe how this was evident. __________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ If “No”, please describe how this might have been incorporated into the process. ___________ ___________________________________________________________________

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Key Element #3 3. Hard work of gathering information regarding the solution elements Did this take place? ________ If “Yes”, please describe how this was evident. ___________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ If “No”, please describe how this might have been incorporated into the process. ___________ ___________________________________________________________________ Key Element #4 4. Identify the most salient moral/values/ethical concerns Did this take place? ________ If “Yes”, please describe how this was evident. ___________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ If “No”, please describe how this might have been incorporated into the process. ___________ ___________________________________________________________________ Key Element #5 5. Returning Over and Over to Shared Reflection and Prayer Did this take place? ________ If “Yes”, please describe how this was evident. ___________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ If “No”, please describe how this might have been incorporated into the process. ___________ ___________________________________________________________________

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Key Element #6 6. Tentative decisions with attention to outcomes Did this take place? ________ If “Yes”, please describe how this was evident. ___________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ If “No”, please describe how this might have been incorporated into the process. ___________ ___________________________________________________________________ Key Element #7 7. Follow Up and Review Did this take place? ________ If “Yes”, please describe how this was evident. ___________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ If “No”, please describe how this might have been incorporated into the process. ___________ ___________________________________________________________________

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Page 1

Discernment Framework (from Andre Delbecq)

Patience in the discovery of the

underlying problem

Hard work of gathering

information regarding the

solution elements

Identify the most salient moral/ values / ethical

concerns

Tentative decisions with attention to

outcomes

Follow up and Review

Entering with a Contemplative Inner Disposition

Returning Over and Over to Shared Reflection & Prayer

• Need for the “beginner’s mind”• Builds on habit of regular prayer / meditation• Leads to detachment from the ego

• Sensitive to consolation and desolation• Remaining open• Avoiding undue haste (what would God have us do? Are we willing to step outside prior

preferences? How is God speaking through people, events, authority• Prayer is opening and adjusting • Sharing spiritual reflection as a group discipline

• Identify & engage stakeholders• Discover relevant dimensions

associated with central question• Attention to spiritual insight as

well as rational thought• Reconcile competing

interpretations

• Elicit insight from outside expertise and prior experience

• Cooperate with legitimate authorities

• Be patient building shared solution framework

• Continue feedback with those impacted

• Search behavior is more important than brilliance

• Human dignity• Common good• Justice with attention to

poor and marginalized• Rights & responsibilities• Commitment to those we

serve

• Flexible implementation with attention to double loop learning

• Testing for Fruits of Spirit as well as performance indicators

• Sustaining courage and hopefulness but allowing for possible withdrawal

• Orientation of experimentation

• Was the decision properly arrived at

• Was decision well implemented• What have we learned that

informs other endeavors• Monitor the subtle cues

(energy, enthusiasm)

Strategic Decisions (ends and means unknown)

What does the situation dream for itself?

Prayer – Patience -- Work Need freedom from projection and for emerging possibilitiesDiscerning is the art of attending to and acting with Spirit to make situations better.

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Two Classic Discernment Stories The Temple of the Bells

The temple had stood on an island two miles out to sea. And it held a

thousand bells. Big bells, small bells, bells fashioned by the best artisans in the world. When a wind blew or a storm raged, all the temple bells would peal out in unison, producing a symphony that sent the heart of the hearer into rapture.

But over the centuries the island sank into the sea and, with it, the temple

and the bells. An ancient tradition said that the bells continued to peal out, ceaselessly, and could be heard by anyone who listened attentively.

Inspired by this tradition, a young man traveled thousands of miles,

determined to hear those bells. He sat for days on the shore, opposite the place where the temple had once stood, and listened – listened intently with all his heart. But all he could hear was the sound of the waves breaking on the shore and the sound of the wind rustling through the trees. He made every effort to push away sound of the waves and wind so that he could hear the bells. But all to no avail: the sound of the sea and wind seemed to flood the universe.

He kept at his task for many weeks. When he got disheartened, he

would listen to the words of the villager who spoke with passion of the legend of the temple bells and of those who had heard them and proved the legend to be true. And when he heard their words, he would recommit himself to listening – only to become discouraged when weeks of further effort yielded no results.

Finally, he decided to give up the attempt. Perhaps he was not destined

to be one of those fortunate ones who heard the bells. Perhaps the legend was not true. He would return home and admit failure.

It was his final day, and he went to this favorite spot on the shore to say goodbye to the sea and the sky and the wind and the trees. He lay on the sand, gazing up at the sky, listening to the sound of the sea and the wind. He did not resist the sound that day. Instead, he gave himself over to it and found it was pleasant and soothing. He became aware of the waves and the wind in a new way. Soon he became so lost in the sound that he was barely conscious of himself, so deep was the silence that the sound produced in his heart.

In the depth of that silence, he heard it! The tinkle of a tiny bell followed

by another and another and another … and soon every one of the thousand temple bells was pealing out in glorious unison, and his heart was transported with wonder and joy.

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The Woodcarver

Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand of precious wood. When it was finished, all who saw it were astounded. They said it must be the work of spirits. The Prince of Lu said to the master carver: “What is your secret?” Khing replied: “I am only a workman: I have no secret. There is only this: When I began to think about the work you commanded, I guarded by spirit, did not expend it on trifles, that were not to the point. I fasted in order to set my heart at rest. After three days fasting, I had forgotten gain and success. After five days, I had forgotten praise or criticism. After seven day, I had forgotten my body with all its limbs. By this time all thought of your Highness and of the court Had faded away.All that might distract me from the work had vanished. I was recollected in the single thought of the bell stand. Then I went to the forest To see the trees in their own natural state. When the right tree appeared before my eyes, The bell stand also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt. All I had to do was to put forth my hand And begin. If I had not met this particular tree There would have been No bell stand at all. What happened? My own collected thought Encountered the hidden potential in the wood; From this live encounter came the work Which you ascribe to spirits. The Way of Chuang Tzu, ed. and trans. by Thomas Merton, pp. 110-111.

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Discernment Assumptions: Spirit as Source and Lure

1. A dimensional model of human persons

• physical • psychological • social • spiritual

2. The dimensions are:

• always present • mutually interactive • distinctive in their laws and operations

3. How we know and relate to these dimensions: a continuum of subtlety

• Social --- Physical --- Psychological --- Spiritual 4. The distinctive laws and operations of Spirit

• Spirit indwells in the physical, psychological, and social dimensions without displacing anything of those dimensions. Therefore, Spirit cannot be known as a separate reality existing along side of the physical, psychological, and social realities.

Not “Where’s Waldo?”

Salt-in-water teaching

• When Spirit is received by the reality in which it indwells, it

elevates, raises, perfects that reality to be all that it can be.

Illuminates the mind, inspires the will, gladdens the heart “I sat beneath the blossoming lemon tree in the

courtyard, joyfully turning over in my mind a poem I had heard at Mt. Athos: ‘Sister Almond Tree, speak to me of God.’ And the Almond tree blossomed.”

Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco. Simon and Schuster, 1965.

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• Spirit is known by the effects it produces. Therefore, it can be

understood as a source.

o Gifts of the Spirit: Traditional – Isaiah 11:2-3 wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude,

knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord

o Gifts of the Spirit: According to Paul: 1 Cor. 12: 8-10 expression of wisdom, expression of knowledge, faith,

healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning spirits, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues

o Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22-23)

Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Long-suffering, Humility, Fidelity, Modesty, Continence, Chastity

• Spirit seeks the cooperation of the physical, psychological, and

social dimensions in which it indwells. Therefore, it can be understood as a lure.

o The purpose of initial and ongoing discernment

• “Act upon the little light you have, and more will be given.

Resist such action because the light is so dim and because you want more certainty in advance, and the light will grow still dimmer.” – John Cobb, “Spiritual Discernment in a Whiteheadian Perspective,” in Harry James Cargas and Bernard Lee, eds., Religious Experience and Process Theology (Paulist Press)

5. When we translate these understandings of Spirit to the area of discernment within the task of ethical/strategic decision-making, we begin by asking how to attend and respond to the lure of the Spirit in the situations we are deliberating about.

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Quotations on Discernment

(1) Certain attitudes of the personality are like the outstretched wings of a bird which catch the wind in such a way that they are lifted into heights of the sky. Vultures soar into the blue until they are invisible, mounting in a spiral, but never moving their wings. Their outspread wings, while motionless, are kept adjusted to the higher currents of air in such a way that they are lifted ever higher. Certain attitudes of the personality are like those outstretched wings of the bird. Prayer is adjusting the personality to God in such a way that God can work more potently for good than he otherwise could, as the outstretched wings of a bird enable the rising currents to carry it to higher levels. Henry and Regina Weiman (2) Prayer strives to penetrate through what to the eyes of unengagement must be baffling and repellent, too hard to understand, too cruel to endure, too meaningless to use, in order to discern the lines of the emergent work, the future of Man being shaped and in order to engage the one who prays with what is being wrought. Allan Ecclestone (3) Be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet. Franz Kafka (4) All things, animate and inanimate, have within them a spirit dimension. They communicate in that dimension to those who can listen. Jerome Bernstein (5) “People have an “intuition of immediate occasions as failing or succeeding in reference to the ideal relevant for them. There is a rightness attained or missed, with more or less completeness of attainment or omission.”

Alfred North Whitehead, Religion in the Making, (60-61)

(6) “If we believe that God is in fact present in us as the ground of the deepest sense of rightness, then we will need to trust that sense of rightness, while recognizing that in its conscious form it by no means purely expresses God’s aim. If we trust it and act upon it, … we will gradually develop the capacity to distinguish the rightness more clearly. The old advice holds. Act upon the little light you have, and more will be given. Resist such action because the light is dim and because you want more certainty in advance, and the light will grow dimmer.”

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John B. Cobb, “Spiritual Discernment in a Whiteheadian Perspective,” in Religious Experience and Process Theology, ed. By Harry James

Cargas and Bernard Lee (New York: Paulist Press.)

(7) Discernment is waiting with a disposition of welcome. Simone Weil (8) In every present situation there is a possibility reaching out for actuality, an emergent future. This possibility is a lure to make the situation everything it can become. It wants the situation to achieve excellence, to reach its maximum enjoyment. This lure, according to process philosophy, is characterized as a call to beauty. Beauty is always a combination of intensity and harmony. When a situation is so harmonious that it has screened out all intensity, it verges on triviality. When a situation has so much intensity that it has screened out harmony, it verges on discord. The lure is to so balance harmony and intensity that triviality and discord are avoided. In order for this to happen, people must discern and cooperate with the lure. Human cooperation, therefore, is not the imposition of previously determined path of action but a process of listening and responding to what the situation is already trying to become. Take, for example, the imperative to “love justice.” As the biblical prophets understood it, justice requires that the poor and oppressed be included within the same societal orbit as those who benefit more from communal existence. Incorporating those who are disadvantaged, or reaching out to minorities banished from social and political life, adds nuance and contrast that brings aesthetic depth to human community [intensity]. It also brings the risk of disruption and cultural turmoil [discord]. But whenever humans attempt to maintain mere uniformity [triviality] in their social experiments, they risk an equally offensive banality. Every movement from triviality to more intense beauty, especially in our social life, risks going through what Whitehead calls the halfway house of chaos. Difficult is the road that opens out into wider beauty. John F. Haught, God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution

(Westview Press, 2000), 134.

(9) This reflection comes from Aniela Jaffe, an associate of Carl Jung. She tells about a time Jung was entertaining a visitor who was interested in UFOs, as Jung himself was. But Jung couldn’t find his file on UFOs. All he had to do was contact her and she would tell him where the file was.

“But that way would never have entered his head. Whenever in a similar impasse this convenient solution was suggested, he rejected it. This was not due to his dislike of the telephone and other modern gadgets, but to his basic attitude to everything that happened: he preferred to let things develop in their own way. ‘Don’t interfere!’ was one of his guiding axioms, which he observed as long as a waiting and watching attitude could be adopted without danger. …This attitude of Jung’s was the very reverse of indolence; it

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sprang from a curiosity about life and events that is characteristic of the researcher. They happened and he let them happen, not turning his back on them but following their development with keen attention, waiting expectantly to see what would result. Jung never ruled out the possibility that life knew better than the correcting mind, and his attention was directed not so much to the things themselves as to that unknowable agent which organizes the event beyond the will and knowledge of man. His aim was to understand the hidden intentions of the organizer, and, to penetrate its secrets, no happening was too trivial and no moment too short-lived.” Quoted in Murray Stein, In Midlife (Spring Publications, Inc., 1983), 144.

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Action|Feedback: Integration Indicators

During our session on Discernment, you might have heard a story, an idea, a strategy that hit home. It might have been from one of the presenters or one of your colleagues. It might have been in the large group, in the small group, during attitudinal adjustment, free time, or meals. But when you heard or read it, it resonated with you,

you were attracted to it, you sensed its importance, you felt it had your name on it, you wanted to know more about it.

Most likely, this story, idea, or strategy has personal and professional potential. It is a candidate for action|feedback. So: (1) Identify the story, idea, or strategy. (2) Elaborate its meaning. (3) Describe its applicability to your leadership. (4) Design an action|feedback step.

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Action|Feedback: Examples of Entering with an Contemplative Inner Disposition

If you are going to have a meeting where discernment will be integrated into the process and outcome, it is necessary to enter that meeting with a contemplative inner disposition. There are two mental skills associated with a contemplative inner disposition – opening a space and setting up a listening post. Below are four exercises that can be used at the beginning of meeting that will include discernment. One involves helping people open a space and three help people to set up a listening post. If they are appropriate, adapt them and use them in upcoming meetings as your action|feedback. .

Example One: Opening a Space:

Leader:

Before we begin our meeting today, we want to take a moment and establish the frame of mind we want to bring to our deliberations.

We all have experience and knowledge in situations like these, and so we come with a lot of opinions. Our knowledge and experience and our position in the organization makes us think a certain way and see things from a certain perspective. It is good at the beginning to surface these assumptive perspectives as we begin this analysis and decision-making.

Let take a moment of silence to get in touch with what we bring here today. Then let us share those thoughts and feelings with one another.

Colleagues go around the room and articulate the ways of seeing and hearing they come with. Leader:

“Just saying these perceptions out loud gives us some distance on them. They are our strengths and now we can relate not only from them but to them. In the language of Peter Senge, an organizational expert, we can “hold our assumptions out at arm’s length.” This means we know when we are using them and when we decide not to use them. This is important. We are opening a space between ourselves and the perceptions we carry. This allows us the freedom to be attentive and receptive to new things that might emerge. As we go forward in our discussion, let us feel free to return to this insight about “opening a space” and allow it to contribute to our work.”

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Example Two: Setting Up a Listening Post Leader reads:

Everything Has a Deep Dream of Itself

I’ve spent many years learning how to fix life, only to discover at the end of the day that life is not broken. There is a hidden seed of greater wholeness in everyone and everything. We serve life best when we water it and befriend it. When we listen before we act. In befriending life, we do not make things happen according to our own design. We uncover something that is already happening in us and around us and create conditions that enable it. Everything is moving toward its place of wholeness always struggling against odds. Everything has a deep dream of itself and its fulfillment. Prose passage by Rachael Naomi Remen (My Grandfather’s Blessings (p. 247) redone as a poem by Meg Wheatley in Finding Our Way (p. 230)

Leader:

“We will look at the situation we are reviewing from many points of views – medical, financial, organizational, etc. We bring our experience and expertise to this challenge. But let us also look and listen to this situation from the point of view in this reading from Rachel Remen. We want to discern the deep dream the situation has of itself. We want to see and hear all the potential that is yearning to be actualized. We want to be attuned to the deep values present in the situation and seeking expression.” “So when we dialogue during this meeting, it might be helpful if we lead into what we are saying acknowledging what we are seeing and hearing. For example,

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“From the point of view of a seed of greater wholeness …” “From the point of view of befriending what is already happening …” “From the point of view of what is struggling against all odds to be born …” “From the point of view our values …” “So I hope this will be a helpful addition to how we dialogue and discuss during this time. It is meant to keep us in line with our identity and mission as make decisions. As a guide to this possibility, these four phrases are on the top of our agenda.”

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Example Three: Setting Up a Listening Post Leader: There are a number of significant decisions we will be exploring in this meeting. As we do our deliberating, we want to make sure we attend and respond to the deeper call that is present in the situations we will be considering. We want to take this time at the beginning to remember some of the ways we have to listen and see in order to hear and perceive what Spirit is asking us to cooperate with. One way of listening and seeing would be to use our values as lenses and stethoscopes on the situation. They will allow us pick up glimmers and barely discernible beats of dignity, compassion, excellence, etc. When we do, we can attend and expand those glimmers into greater light and attend and expand those barely discernible beats into audible music. When we allow our values to influence our seeing and hearing, what will be some of the things we will be listening and looking for? People name the values they bring and what things these values will make them sensitive to in the situation. After these values have been collected, Leader: “We could add to these some indications Andre Delbecq mentions that show we are going in a direction instigated by Spirit.

• greater unity based on increasing effective interdependence • increased trust • increased justice • greater mutual security • a sense of more meaningful work • progress for the most marginal • greater harmony • greater hope

We have a lot to listen for, a lot to watch for.” We must remember one crucial fact of discernment. If we see and hear the values reflected and surmise the Spirit grounding of these values and do not make them explicit by naming and expanding on them, these values openings will close down. If we name and expand on what we see and hear, the Spirit grounded values will grow and become more influential. As we go forward in our discussion, let us name and develop the values we are perceiving and which we want to cooperate with.

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Example Four: Setting Up a Listening Post Leader: “We are going to discuss and make decisions about a pressing situation. Our heritage suggests that as we analyze and strategize about what to do, we also try to discern the situation in terms of its spiritual and social potential. To prepare for this, I want to read a classic discernment story. It does not have spelled out recommendation, but it might evoke things in us, ways of thinking and acting we want to incorporate into our process.” Have one person read the story. Or go around the group and have one person read a paragraph and then the next person read the next paragraph, etc.

The Temple of the Bells

The temple had stood on an island two miles out to sea. And it held

a thousand bells. Big bells, small bells, bells fashioned by the best artisans in the world. When a wind blew or a storm raged, all the temple bells would peal out in unison, producing a symphony that sent the heart of the hearer into rapture.

But over the centuries the island sank into the sea and, with it, the temple and the bells. An ancient tradition said that the bells continued to peal out, ceaselessly, and could be heard by anyone who listened attentively.

Inspired by this tradition, a young man traveled thousands of miles, determined to hear those bells. He sat for days on the shore, opposite the place where the temple had once stood, and listened – listened intently with all his heart. But all he could hear was the sound of the waves breaking on the shore and the sound of the wind rustling through the trees. He made every effort to push away sound of the waves and wind so that he could hear the bells. But all to no avail: the sound of the sea and wind seemed to flood the universe.

He kept at his task for many weeks. When he got disheartened, he would listen to the words of the villager who spoke with passion of the legend of the temple bells and of those who had heard them and proved the legend to be true. And when he heard their words, he would recommit himself to listening – only to become discouraged when weeks of further effort yielded no results.

Finally, he decided to give up the attempt. Perhaps he was not destined to be one of those fortunate ones who heard the bells. Perhaps the legend was not true. He would return home and admit failure.

It was his final day, and he went to this favorite spot on the shore to say goodbye to the sea and the sky and the wind and the trees. He lay on the sand, gazing up at the sky, listening to the sound of the sea and the wind. He did not resist the sound that day. Instead, he gave himself over

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to it and found it was pleasant and soothing. He became aware of the waves and the wind in a new way. Soon he became so lost in the sound that he was barely conscious of himself, so deep was the silence that the sound produced in his heart.

In the depth of that silence, he heard it! The tinkle of a tiny bell followed by another and another and another … and soon every one of the thousand temple bells was pealing out in glorious unison, and his heart was transported with wonder and joy.

Leader: “As we listen to this story, what are some of the things it evokes in us that we want to remember as we enter into this process of analysis and strategy.” This story has a track record of evoking material. So most likely people will come up with what they got out of it and what they think is valuable. But asking a group this type of question is often risky. What if no one says anything? You might want to have shared the story with one or two members beforehand and see what they hear. Then you can begin by saying, “I shared this with Tom yesterday to see if this would be appropriate, and Tom tell us your response.” If you plant a response, tell the group how the response was planted. Never plant and hide. Also, since you chose the story, it is fair to have your “take-away” ready at hand to share. You might not want to be the first to share, but if no one is coming forth, you can be the first. Here are some usual take-aways:

- Believe possibilities you can’t immediately see - If at first you do not discern the deeper call, don’t give up - Take heart from people who have had the experience - Don’t listen directly for the deeper call: discern it in the noise

of the more available perceptions - Listen to your heart -

Leader: “We gain some important insights from this story. As we go forward, let us feel free to return to the story and allow it to contribute to our discussion.”

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Reflection:

Theological Reasons Why Discernment Is Important

The chair of the ad hoc committee convened by the system CEO to draw up a list

of recommendations begins the meeting with a prayer/reflection exercise. After the prayer, the facilitator tells the group she may call them to prayer and silence during the decision-making process itself. This activity is for a reason. The Catholic tradition believes the Spirit of God is present throughout human life. This divine presence sustains life even as it calls to people to cooperate with making the present situation all it can be. Therefore, strategic decision makers are not alone in their deliberations. The creative Spirit of God is present with them and in the situation they are considering.

This is quite a faith assumption; and, in our secular culture, many would say an outrageous and unwarranted assumption. People jump to immediate misunderstandings. Some think the Spirit of God is going to make a dramatic appearance and give them an answer. This answer will be completely worked out and given to them in detail. Others resort to petitioning the Spirit because they think it will substitute for the hard and careful work they have failed to do. But the Spirit of God does not end run human capabilities or make up for human foibles. Rather it works in subtle but not imperceptible ways.

Therefore, a theological reason why we are concerned with discernment is that it

is a way to recognize and cooperate with the activity of the Spirit of God. This activity always works “in and through” the visible and available dimensions of the gathered people and the situation under consideration. Also, it takes the form of a lure. It is an invitation looking for response. Discernment makes possible partnering with the Spirit for a better world.

Rachel Remen captures this theological assumption in secular language. “There

is a hidden seed of greater wholeness in everyone and everything. We serve life best when we water it and befriend it. When we listen before we act. In befriending life, we do not make things happen according to our own design. We uncover something that is already happening in us and around us and create conditions that enable it. Everything is moving toward its place of wholeness, always struggling against odds. Everything has a deep dream of itself and its fulfillment.”

Catholic Health Care is concerned with discernment because it is how humans

cooperate with the Spirit of God to build a better world. What are other reasons – social/psychological and theological – why discernment

is important?

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Reflection:

The Relationship

Between Leadership Development and Leadership Formation Andre Delbecq

(Tradition on the Move: Leadership Formation in Catholic Health Care

eds., Laurence J. O’Connell and John Shea. Forthcoming.) A leader is measured by the quality of decisions arrived at. At lower levels leaders serve as “experts” and so individual decision-making is prominent. However as discussed above, increasingly at all levels and particularly at senior levels, the role of the leader is to manage a decision making process that is inclusive of others requiring the pooling of judgments in order to arrive at strategic solutions. Here we will focus on “strategic decisions” where both the nature of the problem and the elements of the solution need to be discovered over time. This genre of decision is most important to senior leaders and most prone to decision failure. Typical topics in a Leadership Development program dealing with decision-making might include:

• Categories of decisions (routine – where means and ends are codified; Creative – where ends are known but means must be discovered; Conflict Resolution – where means are proposed but ends are debated; Strategic – where both the nature of the problem and the solution outcomes must be discovered)

• Individual and group cognitive and affective processes influencing decision-making • Techniques for enhancing creativity (brainstorming, nominal groups, delphi pooling,

etc. • Techniques for solution search (both internal to the organizational and external

inclusive of contemporary technology) • Techniques for conflict resolution • Utilization of outside experts (advisors, consultants, experts) • Protocols for moving through an innovation sequence (visioning, problem

exploration, solution search, experimentation, implementation) • Normative decision processes that are part of an organization’s culture • Typical sources of distortion and error

Again it is likely that readers will have participated in some form of Leadership Development associated with effective decision-making. To begin, it is important to note that more than half the time studies show that strategic decision-making in the very best contemporary organizations fails. Failure is associated with the tendency to regress to “expert” patterns of decision-making, assuming from past experience and prior organizational practices. This leads to precipitous closure on a solution comfortable for the leader and the participants. Negative outcomes are also associated with failure to listen carefully to other stakeholder voices (those who will be

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impacted by the decision, those who disagree with the decision and those who will exercise authority in connection with the decision). Closing out these voices leads to premature closure with only limited options having been considered. The leader then engages in uncritical promotion of this early solution focused on personal preferences and those of select informants. In other instances search behavior for lessons in other organizations is truncated and experimental approaches and action learning are not engaged. All of these distortions are seen in the behavior of well - trained and skilled individuals. Obviously strategic decisions call for particularly elevated psychological and spiritual maturity. What can Leadership Formation contribute to the avoidance of these pitfalls? We will discuss just three topics central to formation programs that bear on decision-making.

• The achievement of “indifference”, the “beginners mind” through meditative and contemplative practices

• The criticality of patience and deep listening • The classic discipline of discernment

Discernment is a spiritual discipline that seeks freedom from subtle pressures that distort strategic decision making for both individuals and organizational stakeholders. On any occasion when faced with a difficult problem the human mind is subject to bias. The source of bias might be fear, a need for power, a tendency to compete, etc. In our normal state of consciousness we are barely aware of these forces acting within our consciousness. Expert decision-making provides check lists and protocols in its codification of “best practice” to help a professional avoid such entrapments. But when we deal with strategic decision-making where ends and means must be discovered, often under conditions of organizational threat or performance downturns, these “sub-conscious” ghosts are particularly dangerous. The normative state needed to deal with the unaware mind is clearly stated in the great traditions. For example, in the Christian tradition Ignatius of Loyola admonishes a need for “indifference”, his term for being preference free in seeking to discover the will of God and the well being of those one serves. In the Buddhist tradition one speaks of the need for “emptiness” or the “beginners mind”. Of course, neither tradition believes that we can enter decision making “without thoughts” or “without emotions”. Rather, the great traditions understand there is a need for spiritual disciplines that allow us to become aware of our deep inner thoughts and feelings; disciplines that allow the true self to be alert to potential distortion and find freedom to be open to truth. Spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation, contemplation and continual re-examination of consciousness and events gradually free individuals from the domination of mental distortions that the undisciplined mind is hardly aware of. However, it is not just freedom from distortion but the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that is sought through discernment and its

Discernment is a spiritual discipline that seeks freedom from subtle pressures that distort strategic decision making for both individuals and organizational stakeholders.

© 2013 DISCERNMENT All Rights Reserved February 2013 Ministry Leadership Center

Sacramento, CA

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accompanying spiritual disciplines. Once the mind is stilled and intentions purified another wisdom can be accessed, an enlightened way of knowing, understanding and being present to the challenges. A leader and a group that engages in discernment often experience unexpected insight and enlivened motivation that transcends prior knowing leading to new courage and hopefulness. Strategic decision-making requires great patience and active learning throughout a long discovery process. It is well and good to prescribe in decision theory that one should remain in the problem nexus without discomfort, but the false self is impatient and wants to resolve discomfort by premature actions. It is well and good to prescribe deep listening to all stakeholder voices, but the false self prefers to listen to itself or some sub-set of favorite individuals. Thus, we see leaders tending to dominate, persuade and force rather than creatively and patiently resolving conflicts. As one moves through the complex sequences of strategic decision- making we can trace the value of spiritual maturity at each step. When “visioning” such maturity is open to creative re-conceptualization of ends and finds freedom to be concerned with noble purpose. When engaging those who will be impacted in problem exploration such maturity is capable of deep listening and remaining centered on real unresolved needs rather than provider or organizational convenience and preference. When exploring potential solution elements such maturity is naturally open to incorporating the thinking of others, whether counsel comes from inside or outside the organization. Such maturity is comfortable with experimentation and pilot testing of alternatives rather than prematurely selecting a single course of action, trying to force its implementation on the organization. Such maturity welcomes double loop learning and does not scapegoat innovation team members when things do not unfold as planned. Such maturity brings new resources to groups in difficulty and is able to be flexible when encountering setbacks and difficulties. In short, in every phase of strategic decision-making the spiritually mature leader has a greater openness to truth, a greater capacity for deep listening, greater patience, and a more generous willingness to incorporate the gifts of others. Leadership Formation provides learning and spiritual disciplines that decrease the pitfalls so often reported in studies of strategic decision failure. Thus, the discernment tradition overlays spiritual insight and supportive spiritual practices on sophisticated decision-making sequences. Further, Leadership Formation not only seeks to have a leader understand discernment but provides case situations and project contexts wherein discernment is experienced and practiced in the rough and tumble of complex organizational strategy.

A leader and a group that engages in discernment often experience unexpected insight and enlivened motivation that transcends prior knowing leading to new courage and hopefulness.