National Conference on
Workplace Chaplaincy
Yale Christian Business Conference
Ethics and Spirituality in the Workplace
LEADERS OFFLINE
The goal of Leaders Offline program is
to create an “offline” environment
where CEOs who are Christians, can reflect on specific business issues
in the context of their faith teachings and marketplace realities. Our
experience is that there are few forums in which fellow CEOs can gather
in privacy to ponder, discuss freely, and learn new ways to apply faith
teachings to the opportunities and responsibilities faced by today’s
corporate leaders. The Leaders Offline are invitation-only events that
provide a special chance to do just that.
Each Leaders Offline event is unique, built
around the issues and personalities of the gathered CEOs. However,
the design, flow, and results follow a general pattern. Each event
is held at the office of one of the CEOs who serve as host. The hosting
CEOs present live case studies to the group – not business school
cases about other companies – of
real situations from their business that they have not yet resolved.
Facilitated by David Miller, who is conversant in both business and theological
matters, the group then engages in a discussion of the case, drawing
on the group’s collective business experience, biblical wisdom,
and theological insights.
The attendees of this invitation-only event
are all peer level CEOs, business owners, and managing partners, and
in some cases senior government or non-profit leaders. The invitees convene
for an informal dinner the night before the working session, during which
David welcomes and engages the group, breaking the ice and building trust
among the attendees. The next morning, the group convenes at the hosting
CEO’s office. After a brief business/biblical reflection to set
the stage, the hosting CEO(s) presents his or her case study. We analyze
and discuss the cases in small groups, and reconvene as whole to share
and learn from each other. The event wraps up over an informal lunch
and closing reflection period.
The case study portion of the Leaders Offline events
has covered a wide range of topics, including:
Faith and Advertising: Are There Limits?
Succession Planning: Leadership and Culture Preservation
Marketing and Customer Loyalty: Finding Love amid Labor Stoppage
Instilling Values and Ethics: That Live Beyond the Leader
When Your Client Becomes Your Competitor: The Role of Trust?
To Fire or Not to Fire: Forgiveness and Grace in a Bottom Line Culture
Sustaining a Healthy Culture in a Post-Merger Environment
Leaders
Offline has its roots in an organization called The Avodah Institute, co-founded
by C. William Pollard, chairman emeritus of the ServiceMaster Company,
and David Miller, now executive director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture
(former president of The Avodah Institute, and senior banking executive).
Bill and David recognized that many business leaders felt a gap between
their Sunday worship and their Monday work. In practice, they lived a bifurcated
life, where faith and work were not integrated or seen as mutually beneficial.
The Avodah Institute and its Leaders Offline events were launched to
redress this problem of compartmentalization, and to help CEOs integrate
the claims of their faith with the demands of their work.
In 2003,
the mission and work of the Avodah Institute was transferred and merged
into the new Yale Center for Faith & Culture
(www.yale.edu/faith) based in Yale University Divinity School. Avodah’s
mission and work is now undertaken through the Center’s Ethics
and Spirituality in the Workplace program.
The Leaders Offline events can be done on a national
or regional basis. Each mode has its own advantages. National gatherings
bring together leaders and experiences representing broader geographic
and industry issues. And regional gatherings enable participants more
easily to stay in touch and continue the friendships and relationships
of trust that develop during the event.
David
has convened and facilitated these Leaders Offline gatherings before,
in partnership with other hosting CEOs. The first Leaders Offline was hosted
by the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo in his board room in Purchase, NY.
Other Leaders Offline events have been held in Orlando, FL hosted by the
Chairman of SunTrust Bank, and in Fargo, ND hosted by the Chairman and
CEO of Amity Technology. The Fargo group will hold its second annual Leaders
Offline in 2006.
One of the most successful and ongoing Leaders
Offline events is in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN and was first hosted by Ken
Melrose, Chairman and CEO of the Toro Company. With Ken’s ongoing
leadership and participation, the Twin Cities group will hold its fourth
annual Leaders Offline in 2006. These Leaders Offline events in the Twin
Cities have been hosted by the CEOs of Piper Jaffray, Naegele Communications,
Creative Cartons, Dane Industries, and Entegris, Inc.
Business leaders in
other parts of the country have expressed interest in starting Leaders
Offline events in their city or region. Ken Melrose, now the retired
Chairman and CEO of the Toro Company, has teamed up with David Miller
and the Yale Center for Faith & Culture
to help launch and lead Leaders Offline events in other parts of the
country. If you are interested to learn more, please contact David (david.w.miller@yale.edu).