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The History of Avera’s Mission Leadership Development Program

By Bob Voglewede, Senior Vice President of Mission Services

I have been asked why and how the Mission Leadership Development Program was started. It’s a story worth sharing with Avera readers.

Avera’s Mission Leadership Development Program began in 1994. Sr. Colman Coakley, then President of the Presentation Health System [PHS], in response to a strategic planning mandate, charged the creation of a process or structure to assist leaders and managers in deepening their understanding of Mission, understood in a broad sense, and to exercise leadership in the spirit of Mission. With greater emphasis on the role of the laity in the Church and fewer and fewer Sisters in leadership positions, it was imperative that lay leaders grow in knowledge of and sensitivity to Mission. These executives and managers needed to be the “Sisters” of the future, men and women who brought an informed, dedicated mission spirit to daily discussions and decisions throughout the organization.

Early on it was agreed that PHS could not accomplish such an objective by means of a short-term program, at the end of which attendees would receive a framed certificate and then be heard to say, “See – been there, done that!” Rather, we should learn from the Sisters themselves, the people who had the spirit and values we were fearful of losing. Thus the question arose, “How do these women grow into the kind of people they are – conscious of God, compassionate and hospitable to the poor and powerless, sensitive to social justice, committed to preserving the healing ministry, and the like?”

People familiar with the development of Sisters in religious communities know that when a woman first joins such a group, she spends one or more years getting a grounding in the basics of religious life, as well as in the history and mores of her chosen community. She is introduced to prayer; she studies theology; she is guided in the development of her spiritual life. After those first years, called her postulancy and novitiate, she begins to devote more time to some form of active ministry. However, that doesn’t mean she no longer devotes time and energy to her religious development. In all the years to follow she will pray daily, read about or attend presentations on areas of theology, frequently share in the Eucharist, consult with a spiritual director and make an annual retreat of six to eight days. In short, she will never stop developing herself as a religious woman.

Given that modeling, leadership approved a mission leadership development program built on three initial principles:

  • First, leaders should begin by focusing on certain basics about mission and heritage.
  • Second, if this kind of development is important, people should have time for it, and an hour a month for eight or nine months a year seems a reasonable amount of time for people to give to it.
  • Lastly, leadership development shouldn’t be something people do for one year and then are finished; it needs to be a part of every year.

Such is how the program began. Over time, as the program grew, the Benedictine Sisters of Yankton became sponsors and the two health systems turned into “Avera,” additional guiding principles have developed.

  • As noted, the concept of Mission is used in a broad sense; it refers to more than just our Avera Mission Statement. Under the umbrella of Mission we attend to topics such as our values, our history, social justice, concern for the poor, the effect of first-world policies on third world countries, medical ethics, organizational ethics, spirituality, other world religions, the culture of Avera, Catholic Identity, The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Facilities, practices of leadership and the like.
  • Each year the program should have a different focus or topic for discussion. This helps avoid tedium and complaints of “same ole, same ole.”
  • The yearly material needs to be useable across the whole of Avera. This doesn’t mean that every year every person will have the same level of interest in the specific topic or that it will be equally useful to each person, but the material needs to be helpful to Avera leaders across the organization, i.e., to rural clinic leaders, city hospital managers, central office specialists, long term care supervisors, administrative council members, and the like.
  • Not all topics, books or sets of materials need to lead to immediate, concrete action, either in one’s department or facility, or in the community. A valid reason for discussing a given topic simply might be to raise awareness, to expand horizons. As some have said in recent years, “This was good material; I’m glad we discussed it; I never would have read it on my own.” Sometimes things will unfold in a community such that a day comes when concrete responses are needed and then one is ready to take appropriate action because of earlier MLD reading and discussions.
  • The philosophy or spirituality under-girding the material we use needs to be congruent with Avera’s identity and beliefs.
  • The program needs to use materials that aren’t overly pious or simplistic, since such quickly wear thin. The materials will be based on Christian or Catholic principles and will need to be respectful of people of other beliefs and cultures.
  • Program leaders must realize that they will seldom discover a perfect book, no matter the topic. Every publication will have drawbacks for somebody, e.g., it’s too long, too abstract, too repetitive, contains some offsetting comments, the author doesn’t have the right pedigree, it doesn’t give us answers, etc.
  • Finally, in terms of the sessions themselves, because our managers and executives need to be the ‘Sisters’ of today and tomorrow, these latter can demonstrate such leadership in the context of the sessions. Taking one’s turn facilitating MLD sessions and making sure that people discuss the heart of an assigned reading are ways to exercise such leadership.

Finally, over the past twelve years, Avera leaders have discussed the following topics:

  • The Basics of Avera Mission [Mission Basics]
  • The Ministry of Healing [Food For The Journey]
  • Challenges in Management
  • Ethical Issues in Managed Care
  • Personal Spirituality
  • Ethical Principles for Catholic Healthcare Facilities [The Ethical and Religious Directives]
  • Certain Social Justice Issues
  • Stages at the End of Life and How to Respond
  • A Return Visit to the Basics of Avera Mission
  • Religious Diversity in America [A New Religious America]
  • Various Spiritual Heroes [Eight Spiritual Heroes: Their Search For God]
  • Principles of Leadership [Heroic Leadership]
  • The Lives of Poor People [The Working Poor: Invisible in America]