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The theme of this year’s CHE Governance Leadership Conference—Radical Change…Enduring Mission—focused on the transformational changes that are impacting upon the health care industry, and how we must adapt to preserve and strengthen our ministry. To preserve our ministry, we must be true to our Mission. As leaders, we are truly guardians of that enduring Mission. For no matter how much change we face, and how much we attempt to manage that change, we will be successful and the Mission will endure over the long term…only when the Mission serves as our bedrock. For it’s the very thing we treasure, the very thing we want to endure, that paradoxically serves as the source of the endurance. The stories of our Sponsors are also themselves examples of amazing and unswerving endurance. The beginnings of each of our Sponsors’ religious communities speak of long and difficult journeys—from Europe, perhaps, or through difficult terrain to strange lands, unwelcoming places, almost uninhabitable dwellings. All of them lived in poverty and hardship as they began, and all began to serve within days of their arrival, most often in their own homes. Deadly epidemics, nursing in wartime, staying open during a national depression, growing ministries sometimes, transforming them at other times, and through it all, their endurance continued. The service they began and for which they gave their hearts, energies, and hopes endures in us. We’re still here…the Mission endures. As leaders…how do we serve as guardians of the enduring Mission? CHE’s Mission statement has endured, unchanged, over the last 10 years. A key phrase embedded in our Mission statement is being a transforming, healing presence in the communities we serve. In order for the Mission statement to serve as the basis for our stability, it requires "five C’s immersed in G." The first "c" is clarity of understanding—crystal clear clarity. It is a matter of a clear sense in all our colleagues’ minds as to exactly what our Mission is and exactly what it means. It was the wisdom of our foundresses and founders that spoke of Mission not from an institutional perspective, not as a hospital or a home health agency, but as a presence. They had the foresight to see that our Mission is not related to facilities, but rather to service. It is the clarity around our Mission, our reason for being, that will aid us in keeping the ministry stable in times of significant and radical change. It is the clarity around understanding of our Mission that will help us to be guardians and help that Mission endure. The second "c" is courage to be true to the mission. We must have the courage to fundamentally act out of hope, to allow the mission to show the way to be the guiding beacon in this time of transformational change. Consistent with our 2017 Long-Range Strategic Plan, we’re evolving into a person-centered delivery system, not one that is institutionally centered. Being person-centered allows us to be true to our enduring Mission of presence—that transforming, healing presence. Although we will have institutions such as surgi-centers, hospitals, and skilled facilities within our system, we must have the courage to be totally true to our Mission and focus on being person-centric. The third "c" is geared towards us as leaders. It is carriers of the mission message… the true evangelists for the Mission. For each of us, someone was the evangelist who told us the good news of our Mission in Catholic health care and invited us to experience it for ourselves. Now it is our turn to tell what we know…with our words, our actions, and our lives. As Margaret Wheatley described it in her opening address at the Governance Conference, it is important to not only clearly communicate the Mission, but to advocate involvement in its actualization. As she put it, "People only support what they help create." We are carriers of the Mission message and we not only articulate it, but we actively advocate involvement in its actualization. As carriers of the Mission message, we can help assure that the Mission is foundational , embraced, and enduring. The fourth "c" is collaboration to achieve it. At our conference, Roger Hughes referred to The Paradox – forces are impacting the future of hospitals which are paradoxically moving them toward greater integration and fragmentation at the same time. The most effective way to achieve integration and maximize the positive impact of fragmentation is through collaboration…collaboration with those who hold a Mission philosophy similar to ours. If we are to be successful in being that transforming, healing presence, we must collaborate, as we did when we came together to form Catholic Health East nearly ten years ago. The fifth "c" is consistency measurement in stewardship of the Mission. We must create a system of understanding the desired outcomes of living the Mission, how we measure our success in achieving it and what specific progress is being made. This is critical to our success in being guardians of the Mission. We also must celebrate the outcomes of those measures, as the celebration will prove to be motivating to our ministries, help to maintain focus on the Mission, improve performance, assure consistency, and ultimately strengthen it. Finally, immersed in G. If we are simply true to the five "c"’s, while acting as guardians of the Mission, this alone will not be sufficient. In order to be successful, we must practice the five "c"'s, while concurrently being immersed in God, or more specifically, wrapped by the providence of God. A belief that providence centers around the undying conviction that the Mission and the future viability of it is in some way held by God and filled with God’s favor. Vincent DePaul, whose teachings formed the charism of our Sisters of Providence and our Sisters of Charity, taught that providence includes a vibrant sense that a loving God will be present in the time and events stretching out before us. Although this is critical, he taught that in and of itself, it is not enough. As we focus on the future and the changes necessary to be successful in living the Mission, we will need the courage to not only to be true to it, but to take the plunge and make the changes necessary in God’s future, while taking risks and filled with hope. And while we take this plunge, we must concurrently put our trust in God as the benchmark of our decision making and the hallmark of our beliefs. In Vincent DePaul’s language, "This combination of action and faith, this is providence." So there you have it. CLARITY of understanding in the mission, COURAGE to be true to it, CARRIERS of the mission message, COLLABORATORS to achieve it, and CONSISTENCY measurement in stewardship of it, all immersed in the providence of God. It’s a formula that can and will guide us to being guardians of the Mission.
Sincerely yours,
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