Working with Word Alive, a non-denominational Christian church in Norwalk, Connecticut, we planned a program of team-building with their head pastors and other elders of the church. They were open to new ideas and approaches adapted from corporate best practices, yet required a program that would be respectful of their Articles of Faith. Due to the scalable and flexible nature of Coflict programs, we were able to quickly customize our offerings to match their objectives.
Upon approval of the pastoral leaders after reviewing our foundational "games" and moderator documentation, we moved ahead with a single-afternoon program that would bring the 24 leaders of their various ministries into our leadership and team-building workshop. When the day arrived, we set up the head table and six tables for the teams, each composed of four key parishioners. Pastor Artie opened the session with contextual remarks as the primary stakeholder, linking their spiritual and theological principles to the processes and methods of Human SystemicsTM and system dynamics, showing that the spiritual and secular realms can be aligned to a common purpose of bringing people together and building harmonious and productive teams.
The program, scheduled for three hours with a self-reflection exercise and five "games", actually went for 4.5 hours at the request of all 24 participants, due to the sense that they were enjoying and learning so much. It turned out to be a joyful and immensely rewarding experience for all, and validated once again the ability of Coflict programs and Human SystemicsTM methods to show practical results and measurable synergy in growing an organization.