GUIDED BY FAITH
Providence Cultivates Leaders for Formation Throughout Organization
Building on Legacy So Mission Can Flourish MARY ANNE SLADICH-LANTZ, MTS, JOHN SHEA, STD, and DARREN M. HENSON, PhD, STL Developers of Providence Forming Formation Leaders Program
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here is an ongoing appetite for formation programs and experiences, and it never seems to be enough. Participant evaluations of formation offerings consistently express the desire for more opportunities to connect one’s work and personal meaning to the mission of the organization. Many years ago, Providence St. Joseph Health, like most Catholic health care ministries, began programs we called “leadership formation” to equip our leaders with the working knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure Catholic health care would flourish for generations to come. It didn’t take long before a slot in one of our formation programs became coveted. What leaders experienced for themselves in formation, they then also wanted for their teams. We not only felt an obligation to respond, but we also had a deep desire to do so. We wanted to meet the demand that formation be made available to everyone throughout the organization. In order to grow our formation offerings, we first needed to increase our bench strength. To address this, the Providence Formation Institute team had to creatively respond to the groundswell of requests for formation throughout our seven-state, 120,000-caregiver footprint. Knowing that leading formation requires certain competencies and personal characteristics, we asked ourselves: How can we help others, especially mission leaders, get smarter and better at leading formation experiences so that Providence St. Joseph Health could remain faithful to its mission, while still responding to the signs of the times?
HEALTH PROGRESS
CULTIVATING LEADERS TO LEAD FORMATION
In 2017, the Providence Formation Institute responded to this call for formation by initiating Forming Formation Leaders, an 18-month program with nine two-day sessions and nine onehour individual coaching sessions. Offered to mission and other aligned leaders, the program provides opportunities to create and present formation experiences and to carry the formation agenda, which involves advancing formation practices into the workplace. To date, two cohorts (30 people) have been through the program, with a third cohort of 18 people currently participating in it. At the program’s conclusion, the leaders are invited into an organization-wide “Community of Formation Practice,” which gathers quarterly for a year — followed by ensuing biannual meetings — to continue to hone formation-leading skills and to share best practices and resources. The goals of Forming Formation Leaders are: 1) to get smarter and better at doing formation; 2) to share, develop and collect formation resource materials and experiences; and 3) to strengthen collaborative support and mutual learning among those leading formation activities. These objectives are achieved through interacting with established formation approaches; listening to and dialoguing with seasoned formation leaders; and
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SUMMER 2022
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