Walking the Talk

Walking the Talk at Pilgrim Place

The senior leaders of a mission-driven organization want their staff to be excited about an initiative to improve quality. They want to deepen trust and increase commitment to such values as respect, teamwork and innovation. But how to get all the employees on board?

For Pilgrim Place, a retirement community for Christian leaders, the answer is simple: find out where employees are already moving - where they live out the values and where the excitement is real. Start with what's working today, the Claremont, Calif., community believes, and it will tap the energy to sustain culture change over time.

Pilgrim Place is the first CHHSM ministry to engage in Walking the Talk, a new consultative program that helps members leverage existing strengths to fulfill their missions. Pilgrim Place is working with CHHSM in a yearlong process to uncover, celebrate, and reinforce among staff the community's core values.

Those values are collectively known as FIRST: future-oriented, innovative, respect, service-driven, and teamwork. Pilgrim Place identified the values in response to the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging's Quality First initiative, a national program to gain public trust.

"The Quality First Team was organized for the purpose of creating ways to make our FIRST core values come alive as well as integrating our core values into AAHSA's Quality First initiative," says Sue Likens, Pilgrim Place's director of communications and marketing. "Through a yearlong process of meetings, exercises, brainstorming, and, importantly, feedback to and from all departments, our hope is that the Quality First Team will create a long-term plan that will lead to a higher level of staff trust and staff engagement that results in service that consistently excels," she adds.

Appreciating What's Present

The project is guided by a group of employees from across Pilgrim Place, with training and coaching provided by Daniel Pryfogle, CHHSM's director of consulting services and coordinator of Walking the Talk.

Pilgrim Place started with a one-day training in April with Pryfogle. Thirteen employees learned about Appreciative Inquiry, an organizational development approach that uses stories of peak moments to inspire continuous improvement.

The employees told stories of times when they felt most energized in their work at Pilgrim Place. They identified common themes running through the stories, then they created "Provocative Propositions" - goals to more faithfully practice the values embedded in their stories.

"Appreciative Inquiry uncovers then amplifies what's already working in the organization," Pryfogle says. "In Pilgrim Place's case, the values they want to impart are already present but not always apparent. Rather than impose the values from on high, which never really sticks, we start from below through a kind of organizational dig. The stories we tell bring the values to the surface. And once those values are unearthed, we leverage them to do more."

Trust, for example, which is key to Pilgrim Places's values of respect and teamwork, showed up in the stories employees told about peak moments. Trust is also an area in need of improvement, according to the community's latest employee satisfaction survey. So, based on the stories shared, the group imagined ways of strengthening trust.

"In other words, the employees reminded each other how they have trusted in the past, and then they encouraged each other to trust even more," Pryfogle explains. "The goals they set are not pie-in-the sky fantasy but are very practical - within reach because, to a certain degree, the goals are already in practice."

The Pilgrim Place team was energized by the experience. For some of the participants, this was the first time they had been involved in thinking about the development of the organization as a whole.

"The opportunity for our employees to reflect on the value of Pilgrim Place's mission and their roles in the ministry of the organization was very affirming," says CEO Bill Cunitz.

Pryfogle is supporting the team as it conducts Appreciative Inquiry sessions across the organization. The CHHSM contract includes follow-up conference calls with the team at the 90-day, six-month, and one-year marks. In between, Pryfogle coaches team leaders via e-mail and phone. Pilgrim Place will evaluate the impact of the project next spring through its annual employee satisfaction survey.

"Creating and maintaining a work environment that attracts employees committed to excellence is a high priority at Pilgrim Place," Likens says. "We believe that the leadership of the Quality First Team, especially in sharing the Appreciative Inquiry process with all members of the staff, will play a significant role in making that happen."

Walking the Talk

The Pilgrim Place project models an asset-based approach to leadership and organizational development. And it's a good example of what Walking the Talk is all about: accompanying member ministries in ways that draw attention to the energy and wisdom that is available to help them walk more faithfully.

"Rather than perceive our organizations as problems to be solved, we assume that something good is at work and, moreover, the resources to help us be better are already here," Pryfogle says.

Through custom-designed engagements, Walking the Talk helps leaders and their organizations integrate faith-based values with business strategy. The traditional consultative services of leadership training, board development, and strategic planning take on a different cast in Walking the Talk.

"We're trying to let go of the notion of consulting as fixing things," Pryfogle says. "Theologically, that means affirming God's abundant gifts. In business terms, it's about appreciating our assets. We don't ignore problems, but we are conscious of how important our starting point is. A positive approach generates energy by reminding us of blessings even amid struggle."

While Pilgrim Place has identified several areas in need of improvement, the Walking the Talk engagement is fundamentally not about remedying those issues for the retirement community.

"It's really about saying yes to the good work already underway," Pryfogle says. "It's about growing the community's knowledge of its strength, passion, and calling. This kind of knowing, discovered in story and deepened in practice, leads to transformation."

To find out how Walking the Talk can benefit your organization, contact Daniel Pryfogle at 919-460-7069 or e-mail pryfogled@chhsm.org. To learn more about the program, go to http://www.chhsm.org/leadership/walking/.