SELECTED QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, AND COMMENTS

DENNIS CONCORAN Pastoral Associate, Christ the King Parish, Randolph, NJ

My question relates to the importance of language when you’re discussing strategic planning. When you’re dealing with people experienced in this field, they use terms like “input,” “output” and “direct develop.” Did you find you were able to translate some of that language so it could be understood by people in the Church world and be used as a resource going forward?

important, as well as delivering results and seeing them through. After all, if you look at the saints, they were contemplatively results-driven.

Jim Friend

We can’t live just in the ecclesial world or just in the business world. There has to be a nice blend. We as a Church have to be able to speak some business language from time to time, and yes, we had to do a little bit of tutoring along the way with some of the key performance indicators and things like that. I remember the first time someone at a staff meeting used “KPIs” -- key performance indicators. That kind of jargon just doesn’t fly off the tongue when you’re in an ecclesial setting. But it’s still important, and maybe we need to adapt it some way. I think as a Church we have to step up our game a little bit if we’re going to be effective in the 21st Century.

Bishop John Barres

Bishop Barres

That was one of Larry’s charisms. He was not into jargon. And frankly, what he taught us was that it’s about the tenacity to see it through. Are you really committed? And just the whole blend of charitable ecclesial communication, charitable collaboration, charitable input and consultation. Asking the right question is also

For years, the finances of our Special Learning Centers had not been adequately analyzed and addressed. So, as part of the strategic planning process, we got our boards of governors around it and they found an exciting path through it. In fact, they have made unbelievable progress and we made it very clear in our three Special Learning Center mission statements that their mission is an expression of the Catholic Church’s belief in the Gospel of Human Life.

JIM DUBIK Chair, The Leadership Roundtable

We’ve seen three models of ecclesial-lay relationships at this conference – yours, Archbishop Kurtz and Brian Reynolds, and Rev. Donnelly and Paul Butler. The Roundtable would like to encourage more leadership relationships like these, but I’m wondering, are they something so personal and unique it would hard to replicate? Or do you think it’s possible to engender them?

Jim Friend

I personally think it’s a matter of getting the word out and helping other bishops and other pastors see the benefit of these relationships. I wish another 900 people could have attended this conference. That’s the challenge for the Roundtable, I believe, to grow this conference and get more folks to attend because there’s such wonderful material that more people need to hear about.

Bishop John Barres

In strategic planning, grace builds on nature. We are all grateful for the human skills so beautifully articulated by this group in terms of the wisdom of strategic planning, the the proven best-practices of organizational behavior theory, and the “vision and execution” that a man like Larry Bossidy teaches you. Then, to let that be ignited by the Holy Spirit, to realize that Catholic strategic planning-- which sets the world on fire with the New Evangeliza- tion -- is Spirit-driven and we need to be radically contemplative, radically Biblical, radically Eucharistic, and mission centric. There is also the whole dimension of being financially responsible, to really look at financial picture carefully and proactively. I like the phrase “prioritized and integrated.” What are our priorities? How do the different priorities integrate and how do we deliver? A prioritized and integrated financial strategy is at the service of the New Evangelization. If we are taking care of the beautiful generosity and magnanimity of our Catholic people and we are responsible and transparent, then we are going to deliver the New Evangelization in all its dimensions, and execute the missionary spirit in a new and powerful way that meets the actual needs of a global world in the 21st Century.

FRED FOSNACHT President, MyCatholicVoice

It strikes me that Larry [Bossidy] is legendary in the field of execution, in measuring. How intentional were you in setting up measurements? I ask that question because I’ve always found it a problem to define success when you’re working in both the gospel and temporal worlds.

Jim Friend

One of the nice things about social media is that you really can measure your results. The metrics are all out there. We have a wonderful gentleman who owns a marketing company and is an expert in digital media and social media who is spearheading our social media efforts. But to answer your question, I think it really depends on the areas you’re delving into. When we sent out our tasking documents, which I mentioned earlier, to each of our committees, we tried to be as specific as possible about the answers we were looking for. We didn’t feed them the answers, of course, but we wanted true measurements and even some timeframes on how these committees were going to solve the problems we faced. There was one year when we needed to cut 10 percent of our expenses, so that became the benchmark for each of the secretaries: find ways to pare their budgets by 10 percent.

REV. THOMAS SMOLICH, S.J. International Director, Jesuit Refugee Services Member of the Board of Directors, The Leadership Roundtable

As you look at this whole Catholic schools issue, Bishop Barres, what’s the one thing that has made the difference in terms of the work you’ve done? And Jim, as you’ve moved on to this bigger stage, what’s the one thing, the one lever, that those of us who are interested in the future of Catholic education need to be looking at?

Bishop John Barres

Very simply, opening up to lay expertise and letting them know up front that they will have a substantial impact.

and with local advancement programs. With faith in the future, we’re trying to leverage development and enrollment on one front, quality of education and quality of staff on another front, while using technology to move the whole process forward. In year one, we were able to balance the budget for all our schools. And in year two, we’re looking at the first enrollment growth in probably a couple of decades. So the strategy seems to be working.

REV. KEVIN KENNEDY

Pastor,

Saint Ambrose Parish, Cheverly, MD

The common thread among all of the relationships discussed yesterday and today is trust. If you don’t have trust, you’re not going to have a good working relationship. That begets the question, how do you develop trust? Did that come naturally to you? Or was there something conscious in the process where you helped lead people to a deeper level of trust in one another?

Jim Friend

I’ll just add to that having strong, top-down diocesan support and a coordinated effort, followed by strong local leadership and empowerment with those boards of directors

Jim Friend

I think it helped that we had a weekly employee newsletter with a little piece on strategic planning to keep people current. And at different times throughout the year we had articles in our local Catholic paper that kept people apprised of our planning and our progress with strategic planning. You can never do too much communication. It has to be an ongoing effort if you want to build trust.

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management 2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH

Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014 www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting