Charles Curran, “The Catholic Identity of Catholic Institutions” Theological Studies 58 (March 1997), pp. 90-108.
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From Culture to Mission
Rev. David T. Tyson, CSC
Provincial Superior, Indiana Provice
Congregation of Holy Cross
The purpose of this session will be to provide a framework for further discussions on how the cultural characteristics of organizations can affect the implementations of the mission.
We will identify the characteristics of an organization’s culture, the need for culture change, being an agent of change, and the process of changing a culture.
The participants will be asked to examine the culture of their Catholic Charities unit in light of the theoretical framework presented, and their experiences.
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Portfolio Decision Making
REv. Thomas Doyle, C.S.C.
Vice President, University Relations
University of Portland
Overview:
This session attempts to assist board members and administrators in considering their organizational structure and some of the inherent advantages and challenges that this unique structure presents to leadership. I will suggest that, loosely speaking, most Catholic Charities have strong organizational similarities to for-profit diversified conglomerates. As such, the role of Catholic Charities leadership is two fold: 1) effective management of individual programs and 2) choosing the optimal mix (portfolio) of programs to achieve your mission. This session will focus on leadership’s second role.
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Values-Based Decision Making
Joseph Holt
Director for Executive Ethics
University of Notre Dame
Dimensions of Values-Based Decision Making: Context, Engagement, Leadership, Process and Sustenance
Click here for PowerPoint slides from Joe Holt's March 2009 presentation
Our session will cover the topics just below this paragraph relevant to values-based leadership and decision making within Catholic Charities. All readings mentioned below are recommended as a stimulus to your own thinking on the topics we’ll cover, but are not required for participation in our discussions; please read as much or as little as your schedule allows. (The Jim Collins and William Pollard articles mentioned below, from the Leader to Leader Journal, may be accessed free of charge online at http://leadertoleader.org/knowledgecenter/journals/free_articles.html -- the Collins reading is in the Summer 1996 issue and the Pollard reading is in the Spring 2000 issue. If that link doesn’t work, go to www.leadertoleader.org
and follow the link to Knowledge Center, then the link to Leader to Leader Journal, and then conduct a search under Search Journals by the authors’ respective names. For copyright reasons, we are regrettably prevented from providing hard copies of those readings to you.)
- Recalling the Larger Mission Context of Decision Making and the Role of the Laity in It
- Establishing the Organizational Context of Decision Making: Vision, Mission and Values
- Engaging Employees’ Values: A Prerequisite to Successful Fulfillment of the Mission and Implementation of Values-Based Decision
- The Role of the Leader in Values-Based Organizations
- The Role of the Leader in the Values-Based Decision-Making Process
- Parting Thoughts On Remaining Aglow But Not Burning Out
The objectives of our session are as follows:
- Underline the importance of the mission of the Church as the horizon of values-based decision making within Catholic Charities agencies
- Emphasize the distinction between ministry and mission and the growing importance of laity in carrying out both the ministry and mission of the Church
- Outline the three-fold leadership task of envisioning, embedding and sustaining in the formation of the organizational context for values-based decision making
- Clarify the role of vision, mission and values statements in the values-based organization
- Indicate the need to go beyond a statement of core values to reinforce those values in concrete and specific ways through policies, practices, etc.
- Illustrate the importance of distinguishing unchangeable purpose and values from ever-changing strategies, policies, and practices
- Emphasize the importance of aligning mission and employee values as a necessary precondition to successful implementation of values-based decisions and accomplishment of mission
- Articulate the distinction between the objective and subjective dimensions of work and the need to foster excellence with respect to each
- Suggest a conception of leadership in values-based nonprofit organizations that involves legislative rather than executive skills and requires humility and will;
- Outline a general approach to values-based decision making that is consistent with the legislative style of leadership
- Briefly emphasize the importance of regularly finding quiet moments apart from the flurry of workplace obligations to keep God’s larger purposes in mind and heart
The remainder of this pre-work document will begin to flesh out the sub-topics we’ll consider under each of the major topic headings given above and suggest readings and reflections relevant to the sub-topics.
Recalling the Larger Context of Decision Making and the Role of the Laity Within It
There is an important difference between basing decisions on the core values of an organization—in which case those values drive the decision making process-- and making a decision on some other basis and then confirming that it is consistent with or at least not in conflict with those defining values. In the former case, the core values of the organization are a forethought in the decision making process; in the latter case, they are brought in almost as an afterthought to bless a decision made on other grounds.
In the case of Catholic Charities, local agencies may vary to some degree in the articulation of their vision, mission and core values or principles, but the vision, mission and values statements of each agency harmonize with those of other agencies; and the vision, mission and values statements of all agencies harmonize with the mission of the Catholic Church from which they derive.
The mission of the Church will receive extensive consideration in other sessions comprising your program. At the beginning of our session we will briefly recall it as the backdrop of values-based decision making in local Catholic Charities agencies. We will say a word also about the increasingly critical role of the laity in carrying out the mission of the Church within Catholic Charities and beyond.
With respect to the importance of the host mission of the Church to the work of your agency, I suggest reflecting on the following hypothetical situation:
If you were offered a donation that would double your annual budget for years to come, but only if you agreed to become and remain completely secularized, with no lingering traces of your Catholic past save the services offered themselves, would you accept the donation? If so, why and what do you think would be lost as a result? (Why is it important that your agency remain Catholic Charities rather than [Name of Your Town] Charities?) If it isn’t, why isn’t it? How would you answer if asked why it is important that your agency remain Catholic Charities and not [Insert Name of Your Town or City] Charities?
What are the implications of your answer for the further question of how best to measure the success of your organization’s work?
Establishing the Organizational Context of Decision Making: Vision, Mission and Values
Consistently effective values-based decision making within an organization requires, among other things, that the organization is solidly grounded in its vision, mission and core values (or guiding principles). This grounding effort involves the threefold leadership agenda of envisioning (conceiving and articulating the vision, mission and values of the organization), embedding (integrating the vision, mission and core values into the culture, strategy, policies and practices of the organization), and sustaining (taking measures such as grooming values-based successors to ensure that the organization remains solidly grounded).
In connection with the overall effort to establish a values-based context that is support of particular values-based decision making efforts, I invite you to read Collins, James C. "Aligning Action and Values" Leader to Leader. 1 (Summer 1996) (Collins is author of Build to Last and Good to Great.)
Collins describes vision as including the mission of the organization, its core values and its greatest aspirations. Different experts in this area use these terms in different ways. I recommend against getting too caught up in the terminology. It is more important to identify what bases ought to be covered overall by the vision, mission and values statements, and to ensure that your organization has covered all such bases well somewhere. Whether a particular base is covered in this statement rather than that one is far less important.
For purposes of strategic decision making, I do point out that some authors helpfully describe the mission statement as covering what an organization does while the vision statement covers the organizations reason for being, why its work is important and what desired future the organization is working to achieve (one writer who takes this approach is Mark Lipton, in “Guiding Growth: How Vision Keeps Companies on Course,” an excerpt from his book by the same title on the Working Knowledge page of Harvard Business School; the excerpt and an interview are available online for those who may be interested at
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/3342.html).
On this understanding, the mission would cover what products or services the organization offers, identify who those products or services are offered to, and identify the geographic area in which the organization operates. (Please consider why it is important for your particular agency to have clarity with respect to both mission and vision. We will discuss your respective views of that question.)
With that in mind, in connection with the Collins reading, please focus on and come prepared to discuss the following points:
- the relative amounts of time spent on articulation and aligning vision, mission and values
- identifying and correcting misalignment (time will not allow us to cover this, but it would be helpful to ask employees at your agency in a safe environment to identify where they think you are doing a good job of living your core values or guiding principles and where they think you could be doing even better)
- creating mechanisms for alignment (can you think of any specific policies or practices in place in your organization for reinforcing your core values?)
- discovering your organization’s core values (do candidates come readily to mind for your “Mars Group”? What values do those candidates embody? Which of your organization’s core values would an observant and objective visitor to your organization describe as realized in the manner in which you carry out your work, and which would he or she suggest are aspirational rather than realized?
- Both Collins and Pollard (whose article is mentioned more fully below) emphasize the importance of distinguishing that which should from that which should not change in an organization. Collins states, “Your core values and purpose, if properly conceived, remain fixed. Everything else—your practices, strategies, structures, systems, policies and procedures—should be open for change.” Can you think of an instance in your own organizational decision making in which there has been a lack of clarity and agreement as to what should and what should never change?
Harmonizing Mission and Employees’ Values: A Prerequisite to Successful Fulfillment of the Mission and Implementation of Values-Based Decision Making
Successful fulfillment of an organization’s mission and implementation of the organization’s values-based decision requires harmony or alignment between the values and goals of the organization and the values and goals of those employees who are being counted on to fulfill the organization’s mission consistently with its core values or guiding principles. This harmony benefits the organization, but also those served by the organization and those who work at the organization itself.
This view is consistent with the understanding of the three-fold moral significance of work as articulated in Economic Justice for All, the U.S. Catholic Bishops letter on the U.S. economy:
“97. All work has a threefold moral significance. First, it is a principle way that people exercise the distinctive human capacity for self-expression and self-realization. Second, it is the ordinary way for human beings to fulfill their material needs. Finally, work enables people to contribute to the well-being of the larger community. Work is not only for one's self. It is for one's family, for the nation, and indeed for the benefit of the entire human family….”
In connection with the manner in which effective alignment of an organization’s mission can enhance employees’ sense of serving a purpose beyond earning a paycheck and so also enhance their dignity and self-realization, I invite you to read Pollard, C. William "Mission as an Organizing Principle" Leader to Leader. 16 (Spring 2000): 17-21 (Mr. Pollard is former Chairman and CEO of ServiceMaster Company).
Please note the difference Mr. Pollard emphasizes between Shirley’s and Olga’s experience of work—even though they were involved in the same objective task of cleaning. What particular decisions have you made and could you make in the future to create workplace experiences for your employees that are closer to Shirley’s than to Olga’s experience? The manner in which Mr. Pollard contrasts the work experiences of Shirley and Olga recalls the distinction, found in the writings of John Paul II and elsewhere in Catholic teaching, between the objective and subjective meanings of work. The objective meaning of work pertains to the concrete task performed—heart surgery, mopping, marketing, counseling, etc.— and includes the concrete effects of such work on those affected by it—arteries are unclogged, floors are clean, good counsel is given, etc.; the subjective meaning pertains to the spiritual and/or moral significance the worker attaches to her work. Two people can perform the same objective task but attach very different meaning to it.
On finding meaning through their work in a faith context by participating in a larger mission or purpose, consider also the following passage from John Paul II’s encyclical, Laborem exercens:
Awareness that man's work is a participation in God's activity ought to permeate, as the Council teaches, even "the most ordinary everyday activities. For, while providing the substance of life for themselves and their families, men and women are performing their activities in a way which appropriately benefits society. They can justly consider that by their labor they are unfolding the Creator's work, consulting the advantages of their brothers and sisters, and contributing by their personal industry to the realization in history of the divine plan.
I suggest that it is helpful to distinguish between the objective and subjective dimensions of excellence in work. The objective dimension involves excellence in craft and adequate training and equipment and excellence in objective results (i.e. the task is done well in a technical sense and confers concrete benefits). The subjective dimension involves excellence in motive or intent, i.e. the task is done well in a spiritual or moral sense—e.g. performing surgery with great care in order to relieve the patient’s suffering rather than to make a name for oneself in medical circles or to make a bundle, etc.
It is then worth pondering— though we won’t have much time to do so together as a whole group—the ways in which you foster both objective and subjective excellence in the work done at your agencies (Shirley, for example, had the equipment and training she needed—objective—and a larger meaning or purpose to keep her motivated—subjective).
Other faculty members in our program will discuss Pope Benedict’s encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, in greater depth with you. I offer the following passage from that encyclical as illustrating the need for both objective (professional competence) and subjective (“formation of the heart”) excellence in the work of Catholic Charities:
“Following the example given in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Christian charity is first of all the simple response to immediate needs and specific situations: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for and healing the sick, visiting those in prison, etc. The Church's charitable organizations, beginning with those of Caritas (at diocesan, national and international levels), ought to do everything in their power to provide the resources and above all the personnel needed for this work. Individuals who care for those in need must first be professionally competent: they should be properly trained in what to do and how to do it, and committed to continuing care. Yet, while professional competence is a primary, fundamental requirement, it is not of itself sufficient. We are dealing with human beings, and human beings always need something more than technically proper care. They need humanity. They need heartfelt concern. Those who work for the Church's charitable organizations must be distinguished by the fact that they do not merely meet the needs of the moment, but they dedicate themselves to others with heartfelt concern, enabling them to experience the richness of their humanity. Consequently, in addition to their necessary professional training, these charity workers need a “formation of the heart”: they need to be led to that encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others. As a result, love of neighbour will no longer be for them a commandment imposed, so to speak, from without, but a consequence deriving from their faith, a faith which becomes active through love (cf. Gal 5:6).” (31)
Please note also the manner in which Mr. Pollard describes the mission of an organization as a principle for the organization’s self-correction:
“Our beliefs do not mean that everything in the business will be done right. We experience our share of mistakes. But because of a stated standard and our reasons for that standard, we cannot hide our mistakes. They are brought into the open for correction and, in some cases, for forgiveness.”
Can you think of an instance in which your vision, mission or values statements have served as a principle for self-correction within your agency? Such instances highlight the guiding function of such statements.
Mr. Pollard also makes a statement that is helpful to keep in mind with respect to managing a diverse workforce effectively: “It is a leader’s responsibility to set the tone, to learn to accept the differences of people, and to foster and environment where different people can contribute as part of the whole and achieve unity in diversity.”
His statement touches on the Judeo-Christian virtue of hospitality without naming it. I suggest the virtue of hospitality is helpful to keep in mind when making decisions relevant to working with and for an increasingly diverse workforce. You are invited to read the excerpts in Appendix A to this pre-work document from Reaching Out, by Henri Nouwen, on hospitality and to reflect on the ways in which your agency is both Catholic (i.e. Roman Catholic) and catholic (universal or all-embracing). To the extent we succeed in being both upper-case and lower-case Catholic, people of diverse faith and other backgrounds will feel at home in what they know to be a Catholic organization.
The Role of the Leader in Values-Based Organizations
The shape and effectiveness of decision making processes within an organization will be affected to a large degree by the leader’s conception of his or her ideal role within that organization. In this section, we will briefly consider the conception of the leader articulated by Jim Collins in an excerpt from Good to Great and the Social Sectors. Please note the distinction he suggests between executive and legislative leadership skills and the greater appropriateness of the latter in the nonprofit context. Note also the twin characteristics he emphasizes in “Level 5” leaders: humility (ambitious for their organizations rather than themselves) and will (inclined to do whatever it takes to achieve their ambitions for their organizations). Though time will not allow us to discuss this extensively, it may be profitable to reflect on the effects of (A) a leader in a nonprofit setting adopting a strong executive rather than a legislative style of leadership, and (B) a leader lacking either personal humility or professional will.
The Role of the Leader (and Others) in the Values-Based Decision-Making Process
The importance of a leader’s style is perhaps no where more important than in the manner in which he or she engages others (or not) in decision making. Time will not allow us to consider this topic in depth, but I will offer some brief reflections on it. I would also like to make available an article and some questions for those who would like to explore this topic on their own beyond our session. Those who are further interested are invited to read “What You Don’t Know About Making Decisions,” by David A. Garvin and Michael A. Roberto, Harvard Business Review, September 2001. The authors state that “Decision making is arguably the most important job of the senior executive and one of the easiest to get wrong.” They suggest that leaders get decision making wrong if they take the advocacy rather than the inquiry approach to the decision making process. I suggest that the legislative style of leadership urged by Collins requires the inquiry rather than the advocacy approach to the decision making process. If time allows you to read the article, please note the major differences between those two approaches, ask what the upside/downside is to each approach, and ask how the decision making process typically followed in your agency handles “the ‘three C’s’ of effective decision making: conflict, consideration, and closure.”
(On the subject of conflicting opinions, on this side of the Fall workplace harmony and organizational effectiveness will always require a constructive approach to those whose views differ from our own, both within our own organization and beyond. Moreover, the manner in which we handle disagreement within and beyond our own organizations reflects and reinforces our operating values, for better or worse; the challenge in a values-based context is to handle disagreement in a manner that reflects and reinforces the core values we profess. Time will prevent us from exploring the important topic of how to have fruitful discussions with those who hold conflicting opinions. Those who are interested in the topic, however, are invited to read the Catholic Common Ground Initiative Principles of Dialogue, available at http://www.nplc.org/commonground/dialogue.htm. These Principles were originally formulated to foster productive exchanges among those who hold different views within the Catholic Church, but the wisdom they contain may be applied within individual Catholic Charities agencies and in discussions held by those inside the agencies with others—e.g. recognizing no one has a monopoly on the truth, presuming those with whom we differ are acting in good faith, putting the best possible construction on positions, being cautious in ascribing motives, etc.)
Finally, consider how the decision making process typically followed at your agency would fare under the litmus test suggested by Garvin and Roberto in the areas of multiple alternatives, assumption testing, well-defined criteria, dissent and debate and perceived fairness (p. 116).
Parting Thoughts on Remaining Aglow But Not Burning Out
Many in Catholic Charities have noted increasing pressure on you all to do more and more work with fewer and fewer resources. This pressure can lead to burnout or other negative consequences. I propose that we devote the final portion of our session to personal best practices for “remaining aglow without burning out” in your work (and in your lives in general). In preparation for that portion of our discussion, please consider what particular beliefs or practices (individual or communal) you find most helpful in maintaining your energy, motivation, peace, commitment, etc. at work. As with all of the questions above, nothing need be written or handed in but I will ask for volunteers to share their “best practices.”
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