My View

by Ed Verbeke, USAC Executive Director

Retreats are gaining in popularity. Not the kind that I experienced in college — the three day silent one — but retreats in businesses, not-for-profit organizations and community organizations.

My wife introduced me to a statement that captures what these retreats are all about: “Sometimes you have to go to the balcony in order to see the dance floor.” I can relate to that statement. I can recall from my college days going to a place called the Casa Loma Ballroom. It had a large dance floor, a big band and a balcony. The prized tables were in the balcony where you really could see the dance floor.

Getting a “balcony perspective” is essential. Very soon, the district governors will be conducting Incoming Presidents Training and the Spring Leadership Planning Conferences. Prior to these sessions, the Serrans in each club, or at least the club leadership, should go to the balcony and look down at their Serra club on the dance floor. As Heifetz and Linsky say in their book, Leadership on the Line (Harvard Business School Press):

The only way you can gain a clearer view of reality and some perspective on the bigger picture is to distance yourself from the fray. . . To see yourself from the outside as merely one among the many dancers, you have to watch the system and the patterns, looking at yourself as part of the overall pattern. You must set aside your special knowledge of your intentions and inner feelings, and notice that part of yourself that others would see if they were looking down from the balcony.

If you go to the balcony now and look down on your club, do you see every member on the dance floor, or do you see some of them leaning on the wall trying to be noticed, or not noticed? This “balcony perspective” would be valuable information for the incoming president and incoming club leadership to have as they go to the Spring Leadership Planning Conferences.

It also would be valuable to each of us. The work of Serra requires every Serran to be involved and committed. As I wrote in a previous column, our reason for being (raison d’etre) is to support the ministerial priesthood and vowed religious life. As we look down at the dance floor do we see ourselves as actors or are we observers? If we see ourselves as observers, are we, in fact, committed to the purpose of Serra?

I spent several days at the Diocesan Vocation Directors Conference recently. Based on the comments made to me about Serra, it would appear that a majority of our fellow Serrans are committed to the purpose of Serra.

Thank you for all you do for Serra and for our Church.

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