Servant Leadership and Our Deep Story

I attended my second Servant Leadership class this week, a professional development class that meets once a month for Viterbo University employees.  The class is led by Rick Kyte, the Director of the Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo and Tom Thibodeau, the Director of the Servant Leadership Program.  This week we talked about the importance of story on both an organizational level and a personal level.  First we broke out into small groups to talk about our five life markers: a highly significant person in our life, a big idea that evokes our passion, an event that shaped our destiny, principles that guide our life's work and a metaphor that guides our understanding of life.  We had about 10 or 15 minutes to cover this topic!      


Rick then discussed the transformation of an organization, starting with an "I", the person who founds the business or starts the organization, and then evolves into a "we" as more people are hired and work together toward a common goal. Over time, these employees change and the "we" can start to turn into an "I" without common experiences and understanding.   Asking employees to be participants in a common coversation keeps the organization together and cohesive.  This is where the importance of the "deep story" comes in.  To understand where we are going, we have to understand where we came from, as individuals and in a larger sense within our workplace and our larger community.  


I was thinking about the Viterbo story and the recently announced collaboration with the La Crosse Community Theatre (LCT).   The new La Crosse Performing Arts Center will now be a  450-seat main stage theatre that is home to both LCT and Viterbo.  During the Viterbo University Forum this week, it was mentioned that part of the Viterbo conversation involved the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA) and their risk in the opening of the Fine Arts Center at Viterbo in 1971.  This has been a real success story and one that has been celebrated all this year during their 40th anniversary.  The Sisters, the founders of Viterbo, continue to be involved in many ways throughout the University and their story is all around us.


One of the Sisters in my class spoke of how the FSPA struggles with the "we" and the "I" in their community.  As more Sisters pass away, she said they struggle to attract younger FSPA members.  We moved from talk of organizations back to us as individuals.  Each of us in class shared the main themes of our Five Life Markers discussion.  My group had a nice contrasting theme of the value of both young ones and elders in our lives.  I initially thought about  my mom and dad who have both been huge and positive influences in my life.  But then I realized that it was my grandma and grandpa who were sitting in the room with me at that point.  As someone was telling a story about their grandparents, I remembered recently looking through family photographs.  Every Christmas picture, birthday picture, significant event, year after year after year was taken in one of two rooms at my grandparents' house.  That is virtually where we grew up and where my story takes place.  As we moved around, my parents divorced, my brother and I grew up and then moved and moved and moved...there my grandparents stayed with their car and house long ago paid for and always a dining room table full of food and comfort.  My grandpa died when I was in grad. school (at 93 years of age).  A very rough loss.  My grandma is 99 years old and we are calling in hospice for her as she gets ready to leave us.  She is very ready to go.  This loss is sad in a symbolic way as it signals the official end of the Forsell grandparents.  They leave behind their spirit, their values and an essential part of my deep story.


Tom ended the class by saying that all leadership is biographical and by considering our deep story we look at the depth of who we are and where we came from.  Thank you Servant Leadership for revealing things to me that only come with a little bit of quiet and contemplation.