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

Discernment Linking Spiritual Insight to Strategic Decision Making The Innovation Imperative Come Holy Spirit Project Leadership Roles in Innovative Endeavors Reflections Listening for Bells and Seeing Bell Stands: Integrating Discernment into Decision-Making Strategic Decision-Making, Innovation, and Team Composition in the Light of the Triangle 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, Assessment Tool for Discernment in Strategic Decision-Making Two Classic Discernment Stories Discernment Assumptions: Spirit as Source and Lure Quotations on Discernment Action|Feedback Integration Indicators Examples Reflections: Theological Reasons Why Discernment Is Important The Relationship Between Leadership Development and Leadership Formation
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Discernment
Linking Spiritual Insight To Strategic Decision Making

Andr L. Delbecq Santa Clara University adelbecq@scu.edu 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 organizations 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 HolisticExperience
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 ones 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

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!

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)

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

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.

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

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
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The Innovation Imperative
Come Creator Spirit

Andr L. Delbecq Santa Clara University adelbecq@scu.edu
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
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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
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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.
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Key Takeaway
We Must Reverence The Spiritual Energy Of Innovation As A Manifestation Of Gods 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
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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
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Requires Structural Solutions
Substituting Organizational Arrangements and Processes for Politics and Heroics
The Well-Documented StepProcess 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
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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-thrus (Not just literature) 50% solution components from external sources
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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%
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Number Of Sites
AVERAGE ADOPTERS
EARLY ADOPTERS
LATE ADOPTERS
ALPHA TEST TIME
BETA SITES
IMPLEMENTATION IMPERATIVES
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
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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
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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
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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.
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The Imperative
The World is Moving So Fast These Days That Those Who Say It Cant Be Done Are Generally Interrupted By Someone Doing It!
H. E. Fosdick
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Project Leadership Roles in Innovative Endeavors

Andr L. Delbecq Santa Clara University
3 09
List Adjectives Associated With An Innovation Leader

Positive Negative
Positive
Enthusiastic Committed Passionate Creative Diplomatic Communicator Risk Taker Team Builder Focused Flexible
Negative
Arrogant Inflexible Outspoken Scattered Insensitive Impatient Demanding Intolerant Opportunistic Power Seeking
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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
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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
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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 ones thoughts are not entirely ones 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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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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Wisdom is not what you know about the world but how well you know God.
Henry Blackaby
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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 change of mind and heart. person which is sometimes referred to as metanoia, a Greek word meaning
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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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 ones freedom, a deepening of ones 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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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
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Listening for Bells and Seeing Bell Stands: Integrating Discernment into Decision-Making
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
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Positioning Discernment
Strategic Decision Making
Organizational Wisdom
Strategic Ethical Decision Making

Ethical Wisdom
Strategic Ethical Decision Making with Discernment Elements

Spiritual Wisdom
When to Use the Discernment Process. Use it
Dont use it
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.
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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.
Two Classic Discernment Stories

The Legend of the Bells
The Woodcarver
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.
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Discernment Elements
Entering with an contemplative inner disposition
Over and over again returning to prayer and reflection
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
Entering with an Contemplative Inner Disposition Open a Space

Allah knows, I dont. Sometimes we hold on to what we think is true so strongly that when truth itself knocks on the door we will not open. Beginners Mind Every thought says I What we identify with dominates us. I have knowledge, but I am not my knowledge.
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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
Over and over again returning to prayer and reflection Private Prayer
Public Prayer
Spirit Communion Between Self and Situation

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?
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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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TRADITION
CULTURE
DISCERNMENT
STRATEGIC DECISIONMAKING
DISCERNMENT
INNOVATION
DI
DISCERNMENT
TEAM COMPOSITION
INDIVIDUAL & COMMUNAL EXPERIENCE
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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
DISCERNMENT February 2013
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All Rights Reserved Ministry Leadership Center Sacramento, CA
Individual and Communal Experience: When to Use the Discernment Process?

(Reformatted from Dan OBrien, 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.
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Dont 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 doesnt 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?
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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 ones 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 Andres 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

Key Element #5 5. Returning Over and Over to Shared Reflection and Prayer
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Key Element #6 6. Tentative decisions with attention to outcomes

Key Element #7 7. Follow Up and Review

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Discernment Framework (from Andre Delbecq)

Entering with a Contemplative Inner Disposition
Need for the beginners mind Builds on habit of regular prayer / meditation Leads to detachment from the ego
Strategic Decisions (ends and means unknown)
Patience in the discovery of the underlying problem
Hard work of gathering information regarding the 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 Search behavior is more important than brilliance
Identify the most salient moral/ values / ethical concerns
Tentative decisions with attention to outcomes
Follow up and Review
Identify & engage stakeholders Discover relevant dimensions associated with central question Attention to spiritual insight as well as rational thought Reconcile competing interpretations
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)
Returning Over and Over to Shared Reflection & Prayer

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
What does the situation dream for itself?

Page 1
Discerning is the art of attending to and acting with Spirit to make situations better.
Prayer Patience -- Work
Need freedom from projection and for emerging possibilities
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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 Wheres 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 Gods 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 couldnt 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. Dont 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 Jungs 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 arms 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 Ive 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 Grandfathers 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 cant immediately see If at first you do not discern the deeper call, dont give up Take heart from people who have had the experience Dont 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. OConnell 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 organizations 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 Discernment is a spiritual discipline that aware of these forces acting within our seeks freedom from subtle pressures that consciousness. Expert decision-making distort strategic decision making for both provides check lists and protocols in its individuals and organizational codification of best practice to help a stakeholders. professional avoid such entrapments. But when we deal with strategic decisionmaking 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
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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 subset 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 A leader and a group that engages in discernment often organizational experience unexpected insight and enlivened motivation convenience and that transcends prior knowing leading to new courage and preference. When hopefulness. 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.
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Group 6 Discernment FEB 2013

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GROUP SIX

DISCERNMENT February 2013 The Identity of Catholic Health Care Leaders

The Work of Catholic Health Care Leaders

DISCERNMENT AND VALUES-BASED STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING

Linking Spiritual Insight To Strategic Decision Making

Strategic Decision-Making: A Pillar Of Leadership

Strategic Decisions More Than Rational/Technical Sequences

Requires Pooled Judgment Within A Community of Trust

Discernment: The Older Mother Of Decision Making

Deep, Subjective Insight

Parallels Across Traditions

Prevalence Of Failed Strategic Decisions

Causes Of Failed Leadership: Over-reliance on Expertise

Under-attending the Voices Of Others

Search Behavior Truncated

Values Not Brought to Bear

Difficulties Manifest Even In Mature Leaders Who Are

Why A Structured Process?

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Elements Of A Discernment Process

The Bhgavad Gita

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Elements Of A Discernment Process

Closing Caveats: Discernment As Mystery

We Do Not Become Seers Or Prognosticators Outcomes Are Not Guaranteed

The Innovation Imperative

Come Creator Spirit

Innovation is a Primary Challenge

We Know A Great Deal About Successful Innovation

Negative Responses To Innovation

Unwanted Externally Imposed Demand Disruptive Burden

Innovation As A Spiritual Gift

Spirit Of God in All Things

Cardinal John Henry Newman

Overly Centralized Planning

Vested Interests in Present Problems

Inadequate Slack Resources

Myths Regarding Innovation

The Magnitude Of Organizational Wealth is Critical

Who Are the Innovators?

Requires Structural Solutions

Substituting Organizational Arrangements and Processes for Politics and Heroics

The Well-Documented StepProcess Sequence

Step 1:Shared Visioning

Sharing Scenarios in Offsite Forums

Visioning Vested In Elites Premature Closure Around Early Choices

Step 2: Feasibility Studies

Step 3: Pilot Studies

ALPHA TEST TIME

Action Orientation and Experimentation Must Become Core Values

Step 4: Program Implementation

Investment Strategies for Implementation

Implementing a Major Program

Failure to Harvest First Mover Advantages The More Expensive Error

Veni Creator Spiritus

Project Leadership Roles in Innovative Endeavors

List Adjectives Associated With An Innovation Leader

Champion Career Stage

Who Is The Alpha Dog?

Statesperson Career Stage

Coordinator/Facilitator Career Stage