"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone may say, “You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble. Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless?" (James 2:14-20).
Over the past few posts, we have focused on the importance of clarity of our schools' mission statement and beliefs (and/or values, pillars, characteristics, etc.) and shared understanding about the language contained therein.
Not only is repetition key but so also is developing the collective understanding of what these words mean and entail.
Much like this message in the letter of James, mission statements (beliefs, values, pillars, characteristics, etc.) are dead without action.
And, for the actions stemming from these keystone messages to be consistent and not open to the potentially contradictory interpretations of individuals across our communities, we must build shared understanding about what these words mean.
As an example, take the Diocese of Cleveland's Office of Catholic Education's (OCE) root belief “Collaboration is a force multiplier.”
First, it is imperative that we repeat this language so that it sticks into the long-term memories of OCE staff. If it occupies working memory head space, chances are good that it will be pushed aside in moments of stress, busyness, or a focus on other things.
We must overcommunicate clarity and reinforce clarity and re-reinforce clarity.
Second, assuming that all OCE personnel know this belief, if we don’t take time to develop a shared understanding about what collaboration means in the OCE, then we can have varying approaches to living it out. One person might take this to mean that every email, every project, every task needs to have a proofreader, thought-partner, and/or co-generator. Another might take collaboration to mean a divide and conquer approach with clear boundaries of the separation of duties between and among OCE members. A final person might think of collaboration as telling others what they are going to do in advance of doing it – not for feedback but to put on the airs of living out the “belief” of the group.
Please take two points away from this illustration.
First, continue to reinforce the language of the important statements across your campuses. Keep repeating them. Over and over and over...and over and over...
Second, building shared understanding can result in many ways, two of which follow. One, you can spend time dialoguing about what these words mean to you, working to a collective definition across stakeholders and groups. Two, you can assess the behaviors of the community to evaluate the extent to which shared understanding exists. How many people collaborate? What are the ways in which people are asked to collaborate? How often does collaboration occur? If collaboration isn’t taking place, you can interrogate why not? What are the obstacles?
As we do this, we will prove that these words aren’t just platitudes or poetic phrasing meant to attract but not retain members of our schools. Instead, they will be the authentic manifestation of the core beliefs, values, and purpose of our ministries.
Shared language and shared understanding.
Clarity and coherence.
Faith and works.
Mission and beliefs and values and pillars and characteristics and action.
