Workshops in the Process of Finding a Mission Statement

It was in 2017 when, looking ahead to the 20^th anniversary of Johannes-Hospiz, the idea came into being for the first time to revise the existing mission statement. Many things had changed during the last decade. These changes find expression in the enlargement of the hospice into new departments such as the outpatient hospice service, special offers for mourning relatives, and the Academy. In the preparatory conversations it soon turned out that our project should aim at different targets thus transcending the frame of normal mission statement development. With the maxim of giving as many colleagues as possible a share in the process not only the structural changes had to be considered, but there was also the wish for giving time and space for processes of reflection to discuss important issues and relate them to every day work at the hospice. We chose workshops as the appropriate tool for initiating reflection, exchange, and deepening.

On the basis of an online-enquiry among all voluntary and full-time colleagues we chose eight events regarding the fields “Roots of Hospice Work”, “Organization of Work”, and “Dealing with Change”, and we found speakers for the workshops planned as all-day events. We started last November with a workshop dealing with the question “What is special in a Christian organization”? It went to show that it is not about outward attributions but all about struggling for a helpful and supporting way for the dying and the people close to them. This first event was followed by two more in January and February. They showed once more the importance of such fora of mutual exchange.

It is clear already now that a mission statement is nothing static, no iron law, but something dynamic, something which is developing and being lived by the colleagues.