Woodstock Business Conference Report
January 1997

[January 1997, vol. 4, no. 1]

Contents

Executive Director's Report

On December 10, 1996, the Board of the Woodstock Business Conference met to review the year and plan for the future. Here are some of the highlights:

Summary

The Woodstock Business Conference, a national movement of leadership training and spiritual and social renewal for the business community, offers a proven, practical, yet challenging process. The process addresses the aspirations of contemporary men and women for wholeness that unites their religious, ethical, and business values in an authentic way.

The WBC stimulates business leaders to focus on their work as a call from God and to manage their enterprises in a manner consistent with Judeo-Christian values. The WBC's hallmark is its affirmation that religious faith is relevant to business practice. This insight fuels growth of the organization and characterizes the people who are attracted to it.

The WBC's strategy for development and growth is driven by the chapters themselves and the experience of the individual's meeting in local chapters. The national office coordinates this development facilitating communication with and among the various chapter coordinators. All is done with the end of allowing the chapters to develop topics which address and engage the concerns of the members.

Chapters and members

Five new WBC chapters were added in 1996. Active WBC chapters are now located in Boston, Detroit, Long Island (Suffolk and Nassau Counties), Omaha, Reading-Berks, PA, and Washington, DC. Interest from business leaders in other cities suggests that the way is clear for the formation of several additional chapters soon.

Expansion efforts

During the past year extensive efforts to expand the reach of the WBC brought Jim Nolan, Fr. John Brooks, S.J., and John B. Caron, to a number of cities to present the WBC and its process. These included Philadelphia, Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Clara, New York City, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Baltimore, Seattle, and Louisville.

Results

Positive chapter growth does not of itself tell the complete story. Statements by participants about the monthly process of theological reflection show the development of habitual sensitivities to ethical dilemmas and opportunities. Participants are acquiring skills using the method learned at the meetings for making well-discerned decisions at work and in the community. We are greatly encouraged by the results so far. In each of the seven chapters, participants have reported that the program is educational, exciting, and often challenging. One member of the Detroit chapter called the group his "monthly moral check up." A Washington, DC, member recounted an experience shared by many:

For twenty-five years I have struggled with the relationship between my faith and my work. Now I approach it by asking that very question in the morning; and then, I consider the entire day in light of my relationship with God.

From their mutual discussions participating executives find that new insights arise and their perceptions are sharpened. This observation from financial services executive is fairly typical:

I have seen people get more open, and I have learned to challenge my own assumptions. It has been very positive. In our group we have learned from listening to each other dealing with challenging moral situations such as firing, or going after the money and forgetting family, or the need to take care of the organization as a whole rather than simply individual or selfish pursuits.

WBC chapter members also report that communities are formed, changes occur, and that they are able to improve their business climate. One executive in Washington, DC, said:

No matter what we talk about, I always take something back from this hour and a half. It makes me a better spiritual leader.

As was noted by another senior executive:

A challenge in any large organization is how to lead in a consistent manner. How do I provide necessary guidance and example for others? In meeting with this group I learned to be more open, to challenge assumptions, to ask whether this is the morally right thing to do?

This year members of the Washington, DC, chapter have been interviewed and quoted in stories about the WBC appearing in the Washington Times, the London Observer, Stars and Stripes, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and others. They affirmed in very concrete terms the value they place on their participation in the Woodstock Business Conference.

One Washington, DC, was quoted as saying:

There's a passage in John where Christ meets with the apostles after his resurrection and says that the Father will send an advocate who will teach you everything and remind you of all I have told you. I think that's what the Woodstock Business Conference is all about---listening to the Holy Spirit for insights that will guide us in everything we do, sometimes even in particular situations at work.

A national organization

The challenge to foster a sense that we are a part of the national movement goes hand and hand with the expansion of local WBC chapters and membership. To meet this challenge the WBC national office took some of concrete steps during the year:

  1. 500 members and friends of the WBC as well as those who might be helpful in its growth now receive the Woodstock Business Conference Report with its improved design and content.
  2. The Center's Web site carries WBC Reports, Press Releases, articles, and papers. The Web site has opened channels for new chapters and further growth.
  3. We have scheduled a Retreat/Workshop for WBC Board and chapter leaders for February 14-16, 1997. These individuals will come together to pray and reflect, identify the goals of the WBC, and take some leisure time explore these goals. The retreat will offer an exposure to the thinking undergirding the WBC process and build community in a prayerful and reflective environment.
  4. The executive director maintains active communication with all chapters, developing topics for use in the monthly meetings, interviewing participants, and coordinating the exchange of helpful information.
  5. Joint efforts with the Woodstock Center's Arrupe program have expanded opportunities for the WBC. Collaborative efforts include Faith and Values At Work seminars and classes on Creating and Maintaining an Ethical Corporate Climate as preliminary to the formation of WBC chapters. Collaborative efforts with other centers have helped to promote chapter formation and enrich the materials available to WBC members.

Finances

The initial grants which successfully launched the WBC and its process have run their course. Today, we must find necessary financial support to bring the WBC to its next stage, the formation of six to ten chapters per year for the next three years. At the end of this stage the WBC will, we expect, have a sufficiently mature membership base to support the expenses of the national office.

Gratitude

The Board and the national office are most grateful for the many positive responses to WBC's efforts. We look forward to continued growth as an organization at the service of society and of those whose calling enables them to influence their businesses and communities.

James L. Nolan
Executive Director

A Framework for Economic Life

From time to time WBC members have asked for a summary statement of Catholic Social Teaching and for related topics and readings for use in monthly meetings. On February 17, 1997, the American Catholic Bishops will publish a new and expanded edition of their letter Economic Justice for All first issued ten years ago. Responding to the challenges and issues arising during the last ten years, they voted on November 2, 1996, to include within their expanded letter a list of ten principles drawn from Catholic teaching on economic life called A Catholic Framework For Economic Life:

  1. The economy exists for the person, not the person for the economy.
  2. All economic life should be shaped by moral principles. Economic choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support the family, and serve the common good.
  3. A fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.
  4. All people have a right to life and to secure the basic necessities of life (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, safe environment, economic security).
  5. All people have a right to economic initiative, to productive work, to just wages and benefits, to decent working conditions as well as to organize and join unions or other associations.
  6. All people, to the extent they are able, have a corresponding duty to work, a responsibility to provide for the needs of their families, and an obligation to contribute to the broader society.
  7. In economic life, free markets have both clear advantages and limits; government has essential responsibilities and limitations; voluntary groups have irreplaceable roles, but cannot substitute for the proper working of the market and the just policies of the state.
  8. Society has a moral obligation, including governmental action where necessary, to assure opportunity, meet basic human needs, and pursue justice in economic life.
  9. Workers, owners, managers, stockholders, and consumers are moral agents in economic life. By our choices, initiative, creativity, and investment, we enhance or diminish economic opportunity, community life, and social justice.
  10. The global economy has moral dimensions and human consequences. Decisions on investment, trade, aid, and development should protect human life and promote human rights, especially for those most in need wherever they might live on this globe.

1996 U.S. Catholic Conference, Inc., Washington, D.C.

The business community needs to reflect and react to these principles and communicate their reactions to the bishops and the community. Business leaders, including WBC members, have the opportunity to notice how and to what extent to they might bear on the our day-to-day lives in the market place. Some of these ideas have already been the subject of discussions in monthly WBC chapter meetings. For instance, recent discussion topics have included:

  • Judging the Right Thing to Do which examined Briggs & Stratton's dispute with the National Catholic Reporter over a plant relocation decision, reporting on that decision, and a lawsuit against the reporter and newspaper.
  • Real Work which explored the hiring and training of people coming off welfare as exemplified by a report about Marriott International.
  • Human and Social Capital. A reflection on the story of Aaron Feuerstein and the business decisions taken after the fire at the Malden Mills textile factory.
  • The Relation Between One's Personal Values and One's Company Values. A consideration of the story of Albert J. Meyer, the CPA at Spring Arbor College who blew the whistle on the New Era Philanthropy.
  • Catholic Social Teaching. A review of some of the bishops' statements on the economy and reactions to those statements by people actively engaged in business.

Franklin Joseph reported that the Detroit chapter took up the last topic at its November 4 meeting. He said that the group enjoyed:

[A] hearty discussion with a variety of viewpoints, insights, and sharing as they took up the last topic. Predictably, the basic themes articulated by the Bishops' Conference threaded their way through the dialogue. Overall, a good topic and discussion.

Surely, hearty and perhaps heated discussions in this area will continue. The bishops would benefit from our serious consideration of their statement of principles in light of actual experience in the marketplace. Let us know your reactions and whether you or your group wish to follow up on any of these topics.

New life for old principles

Fr. William J. Byron, S.J., distinguished professor of management at the School of Business and director of Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics at Georgetown University and member of the WBC Board, wrote an article for the Fall 1996 Georgetown Magazine entitled "Old Principles for the New Corporate Culture." In his article, Fr. Byron looks at the new corporate culture, the result of the current downsizing trend, and finds ten "old" ethical principles to be fully applicable today. Fr. Byron's list of ten includes:

Human dignity
Participation
Integrity
Fairness/justice
Veracity
Keeping commitments
Social responsibility
Subsidiarity
The common good
Love

On love, he says:

One reason why the old ethical principles have continuing relevance is the fact that they are rooted in human nature that does not change all that much from age to age. Part of human nature is the law of love, always applicable to God, self, family, neighbor, and co-workers; the challenge is to let love enter into this new, but still very human, corporate culture.

If you would like a copy of Fr. Byron's article, let us know. Fr. Byron is a most prolific author whose latest wonderful book, The 365 Days of Christmas: Keeping the Wonder of it All Ever Green was published by Paulist Press just in time for Christmas. The Woodstock Business Conference recommends it for year round reading.

The Common Good: What Is It?

The bishops and Fr. Byron stress that "the common good" holds center stage in any consideration of economics, ethics, and the good moral life. The Woodstock Business Conference Report interviewed J. Michael Stebbins, director of the Woodstock Theological Center's Arrupe Program for Social Ethics in Business, to help us understand what "the common good" really means and how we might approach concern for the common good in everyday business decisions. His answers help us to be conscious of the three interrelated components which constitute "the common good". He urges us to be attentive to each:

WBC: What are people talking about when they refer to "the common good?"

STEBBINS: The "common good" is an essential aspect of Catholic social teaching, yet one that is notoriously hard to define. I believe we can gain greater clarity about the common good if we recognize it as having three interrelated aspects: particular goods, patterns of cooperation, and values.

By Particular goods we mean anything that meets a human desire or need. These include material or economic goods but range beyond these to embrace objects in every category relevant to human living: toothpaste, prayer, a full stomach, a spectacular view, a conversation with a friend, an item of new knowledge, an office building, a song, a car, a job, a feeling of contentment. Clearly, the common good includes goods of this kind.

WBC: What do you mean by patterns of cooperation?

STEBBINS: Patterns of cooperation are the ways in which the members of a community regularly interact in order to produce an array of particular goods. Practically every particular good we enjoy has come to us through the cooperation of countless people rather than by our own, unaided efforts. This is what happens naturally when we human beings apply our intelligence to daily life: we can not help trying to figure out ways of combining our energies and resources to meet common wants and needs more effectively than we could on our own. We create institutions and routines, and we teach ourselves the skills needed to function within them.

WBC: Why are patterns of cooperation a part of the common good?

STEBBINS: The patterns according to which cooperative activity is organized -- the technological, economic, political, cultural, familial, and religious patterns of activity in which we spend most of our time -- are themselves a crucial element of the common good. There would be very few particular goods of any kind without them. Consequently, in pursuing the common good we have to be especially concerned with promoting the cooperative structures and arrangements by means of which our society produces streams of particular goods for its members. In this sense, taking care of the whole community and taking care of its parts go hand in hand.

WBC: Your third component you call value. Why is that?

STEBBINS: Value is the third aspect of the common good. It is a measure of the worth of a particular good or a pattern of cooperation. The issue here is the extent to which the goods and patterns facilitate or hinder human flourishing -- which in ultimate terms means the extent to which they facilitate or hinder the coming of the Kingdom.

The category of value is crucial because the common good refers to what is truly good for an entire community. Simply meeting human desires and needs of any description is not equivalent to achieving the common good. Not all the desires and needs people happen to have are wholly in harmony with authentic human living; some have an ambiguous relation to it, and others are wholly at odds with it.

WBC: Give us an example of a properly functioning pattern of cooperation which would be at odds with authentic human living.

STEBBINS: It is possible for a community to establish a set of cooperative patterns geared to providing particular "goods" that are positively destructive for all concerned. The systematic killing or enslavement of humans based on race or ethnicity are horrific examples of cooperative patterns which have been and are devastating. The common good has to be pursued on the basis of correctly prioritized value judgments. The key issue is whether a community, and especially its leaders, can discern which desires and needs most faithfully reflect what it means to be a good human being, a person who is on the way towards the goal of union with God.

WBC: How do we go about determining the role of the common good in our business decisions?

STEBBINS: All three elements are crucial to thinking clearly about the common good. Hardly anyone forgets to pay attention to particular goods, since these are what meet the desires and needs that drive the search for the common good in the first place. But we may focus only on particular goods or on the patterns of cooperation that produce them, and fail to take adequate notice of the implications these have on the level of value. This can happen, for instance, when we are too narrowly intent on short term bottom-line issues.

Similarly, one may emphasize a certain kind of value -- say, the worthwhileness of paying employees a living wage -- without taking the time to find out what patterns of cooperation are required to achieve that goal. Many critics of business have a hard time avoiding this trap. The key is to keep all three aspects of the common good in mind: particular goods; the patterns of cooperation that produce them; and the relative value of any set of particular goods or of any pattern of cooperation.

Provocative Books on Business and Management

Several books on business and management caught Mike Stebbins eye. He summarized them for readers of the Woodstock Business Conference Report:

Edward de Bono, I Am Right - You Are Wrong: From Rock Logic to Water Logic (New York: Viking Penguin, 1991)

De Bono, a prolific writer on the subject of how the human mind works, challenges what he sees as the overly rigid, logical approach of traditional Western thought. That approach is good for analyzing facts that are already known and tearing down other people's arguments, but the author wants to encourage constructive thinking, the discovery of new perspectives and new solutions. What he offers here is an extended exercise in how to "think outside the box." Readers intrigued by de Bono's approach may also want to read his books Lateral Thinking and Lateral Thinking for Management.

Michael Novak, Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life (New York: Basic Books, 1996)

Against those who automatically associate commerce with greed, Novak argues that business is by its very nature a morally serious enterprise. He aims at a balanced view of the business world: he stresses, for example, the importance of wealth creation for the alleviation of poverty, yet attacks exorbitant executive compensation as injurious to both democracy and capitalism. Novak outlines three cardinal virtues of business-creativity, building community, and practical realism. He also discusses seven internal responsibilities that business must face up to because of the very nature of what business is, and seven more that are legitimately placed on it from outside, because it is an institution at the service of society.

Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Free Press, 1995)

Among the social conditions that promote the vitality of economic institutions is trust. Fukuyama notes that different cultures exhibit different degrees of trust in their social arrangements, and then goes on to show how these differences affect the ability of people in those cultures to form certain kinds of economic organizations. Although much of the book is taken up with evaluating the level of trust in other countries (e.g., China, France, Italy, Japan), the culminating chapters focus on the "crisis of trust" currently being experienced in the U.S. and its potential long-term implications for American corporate life.

Best business and management books

The complete guide to the best business and management books ever written. That is what Jim Collins called his list of classics in the field in the December 1996 issue of Inc. at pages 53-61:

Deming, W. Edward, Out of the Crisis. (1982).

Drucker, Peter F., The Practice of Management. (1954).

Kidder, Tracy, The Soul of a New Machine. (1981).

McGregor, Douglas, The Human Side of Enterprise. (1960).

Peters, Tom and Robert N. Waterman, Jr., In Search of Excellence. (1982).

Porter, Michael, Competitive Strategy. (1980).

Ray, Michael and Rochelle Myers, Creativity in Business. (1986).

Rogers, Everett M., Diffusion of Innovations. (1962).

Weick, Karl E., The Social Psychology of Organizing. (1969).

Have you encountered any provocative books lately? Do you have a list of favorites or classics? We would like to know so that we might be able to share with other Report readers. Write us with your entries. You can also E-Mail us at: wbc-wtc@georgetown.edu

WBC Reading Berks, PA, Chapter

For several years a group of Reading, PA, business people met on a monthly basis to explore how their faith might inform their lives in the work place. The group began with breakfast meetings at a local restaurant. The members found that, while the eggs and pancakes were great, the time spent ordering and eating got in the way of the conversation. So the group kept the early morning meeting time - 6:30 AM - but moved to a quieter space provided by Fr. James J. Reichert at Sacred Heart Church in Reading.

Fr. Reichert and Fr. George Aschenbrenner, S.J., share the chaplain's duty for the group which is coordinated by Tom Danks. After exploring different meeting formats and programs, Danks came to several WBC Washington, DC, chapter meetings and decided to test the WBC process with his group. Danks and the group found that the conversations became more lively and engaging, the WBC process provided a helpful structure, and WBC topics and related materials offered valuable substance for the meetings.

WBC executive director Jim Nolan was invited by Tom Danks to attend the November 1996 meeting of the Reading Berks group. At that meeting he described the Woodstock Business Conference, its history and growth, and its singular process. Those present agreed that their experience the WBC Process had been most beneficial. The group decided that its December meeting would be in celebration of the year with a Mass to which family and friends were invited. They also decided to become an official chapter of the Woodstock Business Conference.

The Woodstock Business Conference is pleased to have the Reading Berks group become a part of the Conference. The efforts of Reading members Tom Danks and Sal Cutrona did not stop there. They are among the group of business leaders bringing the WBC to Philadelphia where a new WBC chapter is slated to begin soon.

See also: