Walking the Talk

Moving from Fixing to Blessing

Last year I spent a full day in a skilled nursing facility in California. I had visited the community previously, but this day I picked up on something I hadn't noticed before. The nursing home radiated an unmistakable, palpable sense of joy.

The employees smiled. They laughed. They kidded with each other as they went about their tasks. They were hospitable and flexible, patient with the residents and generous with their attention. Even at day's end, though tired, they were still joyful. Clearly, they delighted in the work.

How could this be? Their industry is heavily regulated, and for good reason. Problems of poor care abound. The difficulty of managing a nursing home is further compounded by reimbursement issues, staff turnover, and a reliance on low-paid CNAs to deliver the bulk of care. Surrounding the operational challenges is the reality of the nursing home: this is a place where people will die.

I have experienced the weight of these challenges while visiting other nursing homes. Here, too, something was palpable: clinical distance, joyless regimen, anxiety about the next inspection, resident isolation and loneliness.

But something else was at work in this California community -- and I want to stress "at work." I suspect that these employees have ways of being outside the nursing home that prepare them for work in the nursing home. I am thinking of faith traditions, family rituals, and hobbies, practices that sustain them through the very difficult job of working in a place where people die. But there was something about how these employees approached the work itself, how they were at work, that suggested they were not just entering the work with a few helpful principles to get them through the arduous task of caring for the dying. They were actually in the work in a different way, and that way of being and doing charged the atmosphere of the nursing home. I am drawn to call that way "blessing."

When I asked the executive director what was going on, he said the employees were encouraged to bring their whole personalities to the work. They bring their gifts - I heard, for example, two activity leaders singing beautifully with karaoke - their passion, their desire for meaning and excellence. They were present as whole people, and so they engaged the residents of the community as whole people, even though they are sick and dying. That integrated way of being and doing is an example of what I have in mind when I use the word "blessing."

Are there problems in this community? Of course there are. Are there messes to be cleaned up, equipment to fix, inefficiencies to address, new procedures to put in place to deepen the quality? Surely there are. But I see these "fixing" tasks being pursued in the context of blessing, which means a few things:

1. Being blessed means the resources for the community's improvement reside in the community. (Focusing on fixing means looking outside the community for the answers.)
2. Being blessed means the work of leadership is not to cajole employees into being good but to notice the good work already underway and to create an environment where that good work flourishes. It is to embrace and participate in the wholeness already present. (Focusing on fixing means regarding the community, and its members, as problems to be solved.)
3. Being blessed means that the work of the board can shift from watchdog to generative trustee of the mission. Noticing the good work already underway, the wholeness already present, the board would ask, What possibilities do these gifts suggest for our continuing to live into the mission and vision? (Focusing on fixing binds the board to merely a critical way of being -- looking for problems and holding management accountable for problems. That manner of governance is ultimately not satisfying for board members, though it may for a time fulfill certain ego needs, i.e. "I'm needed here because I can spot problems and implement solutions.")

There's a lot of theology to unpack around this movement from fixing to blessing. The gospel stories of Jesus' acts of healing are a good place to start. At first glance, the stories seem to be about fixing people. But I believe Jesus' healing work is really an appropriation of wholeness already present. So, for example, Jesus says to the woman who has been bleeding for years, who touches Jesus' garment in the midst of a crowd, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace."

This kind of healing doesn't make sense to the prevailing wisdom of the dominant culture. From a fixing, controlling or non-gracious standpoint, the woman's sickness must be because of her sins, or her parents' sins. Her "return to health" would only come from moral and physical cleansing, if at all. But Jesus blesses her because, it seems, she is already blessed. She is already a child of God, and God "likes" her, to use theologian James Alison's wonderful phrase. So Jesus says to her "Go in peace." In other words, "Go with shalom; live in the wholeness that is yours."

What does leadership look like when we say yes to God's delight in us? What would leading out of blessing, which means leading out of abundance rather than scarcity, look like for your staff and board members? Are you drawn to inquire into such questions? If so, please call me at 919-460-7069 or send me an e-mail. CHHSM is eager to support you in this exploration.

Daniel Pryfogle is CHHSM's director of consulting services and coordinator of Walking the Talk, a new consultative program for members. Learn more about Walking the Talk here.