Home  Spirit/Ethics Shifting structures
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By Margaret Benefiel
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This spirituality support facility uses prayer to cope with organizational problems.
The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, founded in the mid-'70s in the Washington, D.C., area, offers long-term programs for spiritual directors and retreat leaders, as well as short-term retreats and workshops. From the beginning, Shalem has sought to integrate its contemplative approach to spirituality not only into its program offerings but also into its life as an organization.
Over the years, Shalem has changed its structures and processes to accommodate new needs. For example, in 1995 staff members undertook an extensive examination and discernment about their internal structure. Discerning that a team structure would fit their philosophy and relationships better than the traditional hierarchical structure they had inherited, they made the transition to teams. The restructuring resulted in a program team overseeing Shalem's programs, a business team overseeing the business side of Shalem, and an executive team stewarding Shalem's overall health and future vision.
Staff members felt that the transition to teams was very successful, despite the bumps along the way. Productivity and morale increased, as did the sense of teamwork and shared ownership. Diane Paras, fundraiser at the time, attributed the ability to change to the staff's spirituality:
"We believe we recognized the need for this change and were able to accommodate it because of the contemplative dimension of our time together. As a praying community, listening in unison to God's call, spirituality in the workplace became more than a topic of conversation, more than a shared desire. It was our struggle to function in the workplace contemplatively that brought us to the team structure. Only by taking an open, flexible and trusting stance could power and responsibility be shared to such a great extent."
The later significant growth of Shalem staff and programs led to the need for a different, more ordered staff decision-making structure, but the essential value of a prayerful process of discernment in meetings, including frequent times of silence, has never been lost.
In 2000, when founder Tilden Edwards retired after 27 years of service, the transition to the new executive director had been prepared for by more than a year of prayer and discernment. Visitors to Shalem's website were invited to pray for the process of selecting a new director, and the search committee did its work with an attitude of prayerful discernment. Applicants for the position were asked to write about their sense of call and the place of prayerfulness in leadership, as well as about specific skills they had for the job. The interview process for finalists included prayer with the search committee and questions about how the candidate would nurture spirituality in Shalem's organizational life.
When the new director stayed less than two years, the temptation for Shalem staff and board was to ask, "Why did God let us down?" or "What did we do wrong?" Instead, because of their years of deep attentiveness and prayer together, despite the bumps and challenges, Shalem coworkers were able to remember that the discernment process is not a template that guarantees certain results. They were able to turn to God again and ask, "What is God doing here?" While the process of filling the interim position and eventually the permanent position wasn't always easy, staff and board members were reminded that God continued to walk with them.
Over the years, Shalem coworkers have learned that structures and processes, leaders and leadership roles, are shifting and temporary. Trusting the Ground of all being helps them flow with the shifts and changes that are necessary in the life of any institution.
Margaret Benefiel, Ph.D., author of "Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations" (from which this column is drawn), works with healthcare leaders, nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies to help them develop spiritual leadership. Visit her website at www.ExecutiveSoul.com.
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