Cary, N.C., Dec. 11, 2009 - Integrating the earthly and spiritual in daily life is tough for anyone. For faith-based agencies charged with doing good while operating as a business, it’s particularly tricky.

 

But Emmaus Homes in St. Charles, Mo., challenged itself to do just that.

 

Serving adults with developmental disabilities since 1893, Emmaus engaged Signal Hill Principal Daniel Pryfogle to help connect sound management practices with the agency’s faith heritage. The project goal is to demonstrate how an intentional focus on integration of spirit and work strengthens leadership, heightens employee morale, and improves the performance of the business.

 

The key to integrating spirit and work at Emmaus is practice — or, more specifically, “appreciative practices,” which are habits and exercises that help leaders identify and use resources near at hand for individual and organizational growth.

 

“These resources — such as trusting relationships, healthy work patterns, energy to do good — are the strengths of Emmaus. They represent the legacy of the agency’s faith heritage and the continuing vitality of its spirit,” says Daniel Pryfogle, who is assisting Emmaus through the agency’s church-related professional association, the Council for Health and Human Service Ministries of the United Church of Christ (CHHSM). “Our work with Emmaus is about cultivating habits that help leaders draw upon these resources daily.”

 

Pryfogle and his CHHSM consulting colleagues Carol Tilley and Shirley Nelson initially introduced a core team of Emmaus leaders to appreciative practices in April 2008. Since then, Pryfogle has facilitated monthly phone calls with the core team to reinforce the practices. The team members, in turn, are training their peers across Emmaus. A group of 30 “Spirited Leaders” use appreciative practices, including the organizational development tool Appreciative Inquiry, to facilitate meetings, plan activities and deliver services.

 

The focus of the “Spirit at Work” initiative, Pryfogle says, is simply to build upon what’s working in the organization. That’s entrepreneurial. It’s also spiritual, he says.

 

“In that habit of noticing what’s working and leveraging it, we’re integrating spirit and work,” he says. “We’re getting in touch with the abundance that Emmaus is blessed with, and we’re being very smart about how to work with that abundance.”

 

This strength-based approach is at the heart of CHHSM’s consulting program, a venture set up and coordinated by Pryfogle. Through this internal consulting practice, skilled facilitators assist CHHSM members with culture formation, board development, team-building, program evaluation, fund development, marketing and communications.

 

The results at Emmaus have been positive, says Diane Heuvelman, residential associate director and a member of the core team.

 

“It’s made me a stronger leader because I can focus on what’s going well,” she says. “We can use that momentum to move forward and still address problems but not make the problems the focus.”

 

Judy Panzeri, director of operations for Emmaus’ St. Charles campus, agrees.

 

“At a not-for-profit, everybody is dealing with the real problems of limited resources,” she says. “And Appreciative Inquiry directs the conversation to encourage and promote the use of existing resources.”

 

But even the best techniques can fall short without regular practice. That’s why Pryfogle holds monthly phone calls to help the Emmaus staff build upon what they have learned, share the practices with coworkers, and integrate this approach into Emmaus’ culture.

 

“The monthly phone calls are an opportunity for us to practice what we preach,” Pryfogle says. “In the course of 60 minutes we’re always asking what you might call ‘spirit questions’: Where’s the energy? What’s the motivation? Why are we doing this? But we’re also asking ‘work questions’: What’s the next step? How do we accomplish this? How do we piggyback on what’s already moving?”

 

That ongoing support strengthens Emmaus leaders, who in turn help their agency to more fully integrate spirit and work.

 

“What’s great about Daniel is he is very proficient at asking really good, provocative questions, and that’s something that has really been good as far as keeping things rolling,” Panzeri says.

 

“The calls keep us moving as a core team and focused on what we need to do next,” Heuvelman adds. “Daniel kind of keeps our feet to the fire and makes sure we’re moving along.”

 

ABOUT SIGNAL HILL

 

The Signal Hill Company, a leadership and communications consultancy, serves nonprofits, congregations and social enterprises throughout the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 1999, Signal Hill uses narrative-based practices to help leaders draw upon the power of their stories and multimedia approaches to get the stories out. Learn more about Signal Hill at www.signalhillspot.com.