Rüdiger Sweere
Overview
One of my regular tasks at the Catholic Youth Agency in Bonn (Katholischen Jugendagentur Bonn gGmbH) is to help parishes and pastoral ministries develop new concepts and plan the reorientation of pastoral activities for young people. As an external consultant, I support volunteer committees in which the majority of members have known each other for many years. Typically, this means that the members’ different roles and the way they approach issues are often entrenched. It also means I have to be aware of the typical hierarchical structures inherent within parishes. These groups are usually supported over four to six evenings and weekends, with group sizes typically varying between five and twelve people. In this case study, I describe one such concept development workshop.
Staging
a. Preparation
I set up the training room in such a way that the tool, covered with a large cloth, was already lying in the middle of the room when the first participants arrived. Covered objects immediately create suspense and focus the participants’ attention on the main aspect – the tool. I use this suspense as part of my staging: at the beginning, no one knows what exactly is coming or what is going to happen. Another secondary effect is that there is no break needed to set up the tool and the moment I remove the cloth, I can immediately start with the activity.
b. Performance
When staging PerspActive, I invited the participants to imagine how the church guided its flock from birth to death – literally “from the cradle to the grave.” Different committees and members of the pastoral team were usually responsible for providing support during the different phases of a person’s life.
I then showed the participants the PerspActive ball and said: “Imagine that this is little Anna. She has just been become a member of our parish. She goes to the toddler group with her mother and is at the very beginning of a long life in and with our parish, a life that we will now playfully re-enact.”
I removed the cloth covering the tool and asked the participants to each take one end of the string. The ends of the strings were still tangled, so that the participants first had to organize themselves as a group to untangle the strings.
I made sure that the opening of the PerspActive tool was facing upwards as this was important for the collective group task. The correct orientation of the tool meant that the participants had to reposition themselves. I put the ball into the PerspActive and told the participants: “Now Anna is right in the midst of life in the parish. Your task is to guide her safely through her life with as few ‘setbacks’ as possible.”
c. Progression
The participants’ highly concentrated start was quickly followed by a sense of being overwhelmed and mutual admission of having lost the overview. They didn’t know which direction was forward, which was back, how they needed to move to reach the goal, or where actually Anna (the ball) was
Frustration ensued, some participants appeared to give up, saying they felt the task was impossible. A few individuals thought they had “the answer” and tried to complete the task without involving the others. Typically, the ball rolled back and fell out again at the starting position.
Noticing the participants’ frustration, I intervened, got them to put the tool down on the floor, asked them to look at it again from their different positions, and to say what they saw: “I would like you to take a short break. Put the tool down on the floor, put your strings on the floor, and take a step back.” I then asked the participants to look at the PerspActive from all sides and, with distance between them and the tool, to develop a strategy together. “What ideas do you have to approach the task collaboratively? What can help you to achieve success together? Make the most of the short break and discuss. You have five minutes for this. BUT: The tool must not be touched during this time.” Unable to touch the tool lying on the floor, the participants concentrated more on sharing ideas and focusing on a strategy to find a solution.
Transfer to the real World
| Elements in the learning project | Elements in the real world |
|---|---|
| Seminar room | Parish |
| Seminar group | People actively involved in pastoral work on the ground |
| Strings | Different ways of engaging with individual parishioners |
| Ball | An individual member of the parish |
Should things go well with the group and they complete the task without internal discussions and difficulties, I also intervene. Usually I slip into the role of a “shared nemesis” or a negatively associated role. In this particular learning project, I said, “Excuse me for interrupting. I have just received a call from the Vatican and need to inform you that the last five minutes in our training – that is, what little Anna has been doing in your parish for the last fifteen years – do not accord with canon law. You will have to repeat this time.”
This sentence from me was enough to throw the team off track. Their concentration evaporated! The team was no longer engaged in the task, but were consumed by their mutual frustration with the “troublemakers from Rome.” When the team continued the task, this frustration intensified, because my intervention had wrecked the group’s concentration.
d. Finish
This sequence of events – the group failing, then re-focusing on the solution – finally led to the desired success. After a lot of back and forth and after numerous discussions, the team jointly guided Anna successfully through her life without any setbacks. The coordinated approach worked and each participant assumed leadership and responsibility for Anna at the right time and to the right extent.
Note: I have yet to experience a run of PerspActive that was not ultimately successfully completed.
Reflection
The key question asked in the reflection was: “What did you experience? What made you successful as a team?” Since the participants were familiar with the reality in their local parishes and knew that there were always phases when they had lost sight of, or were unable to support, parishioners, the answer to the challenge was: “We simply need to coordinate better.” This was then quickly followed by a “BUT!” and a litany of obstacles.
Typically, during the reflection, the previously very active participants quickly find an explanation for why things didn’t work. This is the moment for me to call on individual, more passive participants and ask them for their assessment. In this specific learning project, some explained away their passivity by saying that they could neither see the ball during the process nor could they noticeably influence the process by pulling on their strings.
When transferring what happened to daily life in the parish, I asked the participants to write down briefly on a card which phases of the parishioners’ lives they were individually responsible for (children, youth, families, etc.). On another card they were asked to write down what their personal success strategies were for solving the challenge presented by PerspActive.
I concluded the reflection by linking these two cards and then evaluating them, including statements from their personal success strategies, such as:
• “I always said when I saw the ball.”
• “I did what others told me without knowing if it was right or wrong.”
• “Sometimes I provided input, sometimes I just listened.”
Each strategy provided an excellent basis to continue working on the topic.
Conclusion
PerspActive enabled the participants to experience how important it is to work hand in hand in supporting the members of their parish and to structure the transitions between the different stages of life. I use the tool as the basis for developing further concepts: PerspActive enables the teams to understand that parishioners need to be appropriately supported throughout the different stages of life and properly transitioned to the subsequent stages. This means that church personnel must let go, relinquish established structures and relationships, and trust without envy that their colleagues on the team will also be there with, and for, the parishioners in a trusting and benevolent manner. They must learn to rely on the fact that, even if they lose sight of “their” parishioners, others are keeping their eyes on and supporting them. At the same time, what they do in and for the parish remains an important factor for the system as a whole and they continue to influence it through their work. By acting together, they see the one team that succeeds because it works as one.
The mindset that developed out of the experience with the tool is now being used in further work units to develop a concept that identifies the various areas of activity with their respective steps and goals, appoints individuals to responsible roles, and defines the necessary framework in which this can succeed.