A practice known as “formation” helps employees deepen their connection to our mission.
Joshua Allee, SSM Health System Vice President of Formation and Spirituality, is featured in a new article in Catholic Health World that highlights our organization’s formation efforts and our partnership with the Catholic Health Association in those endeavors.
Allee, in fact, is one of nine ministry leaders who serve on the CHA Ministry Formation Advisory Committee.
He says CHA’s formation resources have played a critical role as SSM Health has evolved its programming, influencing the conceptual framework, logistics and content. He notes that the idea of connecting formation to the “head, hands and hearts” of participants — a concept drawn from CHA resources — has underpinned much of SSM Health’s programming.
Allee says that, especially when it comes to senior leadership formation, there is an emphasis at SSM Health on ensuring formation participants integrate what they’ve learned in the ministries where they work. Having formation participants do this enables the learnings to spread far and wide at SSM Health.
The article describes SSM Health’s wide range of formation programming, including its Executive Leader Formation, its Foundations of Leadership for mid-level management, formative content at orientation, content made for delivery in “building block” format, heritage pilgrimages, content delivered during heritage weeks and religious feast days, and “touchstones” of additional content delivered throughout the course of a year at SSM Health and its facilities.
Great emphasis is placed on the Executive Leader Formation program, a 2½-year, in-person experience in which executives gather quarterly. It is structured as cohorts and includes time discussing how executive leadership in the ministry is a calling, and the implications of that. Participants learn to integrate personal spiritual practices into their work life, and they make site visits and volunteer to integrate their studies with hands-on opportunities for ministry.
