Jack Peterson, Managing for Mission
August 15, 2015

After reading the first four parts of this post on Ignatian Discernment for Boards, you may be left with an impression that learning to do Discernment is like learning to play chess, that it requires mastering lot of rules before you can even play the game.  In one sense, that’s true.  There is a lot to learn about discernment, especially if we want to receive all its fruits.  But we don’t have to become masters to begin reaping the benefits.  I’d like to talk about Four Core Tools which, if your board isn’t using already, can greatly increase the effectiveness of your decision-making.  The Four Core Tools are:

• Praying for God’s will
• Cultivating silence
• Reviewing the Ground Rules
• Round Robins

PRAYING FOR GOD’S WILL

This core tool was discussed in the 3rd tutorial on the “Habit of Discernment.” Probably all of us begin our meetings with a prayer, usually a brief reading from Scripture or a respected author, or sometimes an extemporaneous reflection by one of the trustees.  But to prepare ourselves for discernment, we need more than the obligatory opening reflection.  We need more than edification, or even inspiration.  We need to ask ourselves honestly if we desire, above all, that God’s will be done in the matter before us. If the answer is yes, the prayer must remind each member of this desire and invite them to assent to it personally.  In order to sustain the spirit of discernment, we may need to pray at several points in the meeting to remind and re-commit ourselves.

CULTIVATING SILENCE

This was also discussed in part 3 as one of the Habits of discernment.  We tend to be uncomfortable with silence, especially in a group setting where it can be taken as the sign of an impasse.  But it’s difficult to listen to God’s gentle prompting if we fill every moment with talking, because God speaks through our deepest desires.  Allowing even brief periods of silence–a few minutes–lets that deepest part of ourselves rise up to enter our thoughts and the group’s deliberations.  It can also be the opportunity for us to tell God again that we desire to do his will.

REVIEWING THE GROUND RULES

In part 4 above, we talked about the Ground Rules for group Discernment: listening deeply, trusting others’ intentions, sharing our experience and insights and having the freedom to let go of our own positions.  Simply having these ground rules is not enough.  We need to review them before important deliberations, or even during them, to re-center the group and keep it open to God’s prompting grace.

ROUND ROBINS

Because group members will range from highly extroverted to highly introverted, board discussions will often be dominated by just a few people.  It’s usually not intentional.  It’s just the way people are.  It helps to incorporate a point in discussions where the chair asks each person in turn to speak to the issue.  This Round Robin gives the opportunity for quieter members to express themselves, and the more talkative to hear them. Even if this can be done only once in a meeting, forcing the introverts to share what they’ve been thinking and forcing extroverts into listening mode will encourage more balanced discussion throughout the meeting.

These 4 Core Tools–prayer for God’s will, silence, ground rules and Round Robins–are fairly easy ways a board can start down the road to the deeper discernment Ignatius invites us into.

Thanks for your willingness to begin the journey toward deeper and more effective decision-making with your board.  I hope this post and other resources available from Managing for Mission will help you along the way.  God bless.

More information, including including 11 examples of board issues and how they might be discerned, can be found in the handbook, Discernment for Boards: an Ignatian approach, available from Lulu Press.