When interviewing for my role as the Director of Communications for the Australian Province last year, I asked one of the interview panels: “What does success in this role look like – in the first 90 days, six months, year?”
I distinctly recall being told that in the first three months it meant getting behind the wheel of a car, or on planes, and meeting the people of our Province.
I embraced this challenge and soon saw that there were many passionate, highly skilled, mission- driven individuals looking after communication in our many and varied ministries: strategists, publishers, advocates, content producers, webmasters, photographers, videographers and more.
There were also many who, without necessarily much technical expertise, but with a “whole lotta love” and strong sense of mission, looked after social media pages, published newsletters and parish bulletins and engaged in myriad other communications activity.
Some were Jesuits, many were not. They included employees, volunteers and lay leaders. Working with intense drive in their respective ministries, occasionally interacting with other ministries, but with no central database of names or roles – let alone any systematic forums or processes for interaction and collaboration.
So was born the vision for a gathering at which these people could meet, share in common mission, and together start to explore how they might like to work together in the future.
Between 2 and 4 October this year, we gathered against the backdrop of Sydney’s spectacular harbour, at St Aloysius’ Milsons Point – one of our Jesuit schools – for the Australian Province’s first Communication Conference.
Ranging in age from early 20s to early 80s, the 56 delegates came from 23 different ministries and works: parishes, schools, social ministries, vocations and media to name just a few.
Fr Ross Jones SJ, Rector of St Aloysius’ set the tone of the gathering in a beautiful opening liturgy at the stunning Boys’ Chapel, in which he explored the central role communication plays in the Jesuit mission. Fr Frank Brennan SJ, an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to Aboriginal Australians, built on this theme in his keynote address the next morning, through colourful personal stories of his life’s work as a companion of and advocate for the marginalised and as an influencer of policy.
Decree 2 of General Congregation 36 expressly calls on the Society of Jesus to embrace networking and collaboration – and we turned to these as the themes of our gathering. Decree 2 further notes that “mission is deepened and ministry extended by collaboration among all with whom we work”.
Collaboration is premised on genuine relationships and a sense of community. Social gatherings, including a welcome reception overlooking the Sydney skyline and a boat cruise on the harbour, providing plenty of time to meet, talk and listen, were built into the conference programme.
Empathy and understanding are at the core of relationship and accompaniment. Accommodation for the conference was at another Sydney Jesuit school, providing those who had travelled from afar with a precious boarding immersion experience – building empathy and understanding for boarders and alumni of our schools. (Boarding is not a particularly common feature of Australian education.)
The conference programme itself was varied, with a mix of keynote speakers, panels and group work. It included an opportunity to participate in discernment in common through spiritual conversation – which many of those attending had not previously experienced – impromptu ministry presentations and a planning session during which we explored what we would like to “stop, start and continue” doing in terms of how we communicate and work together. From this we derived a series of actions and commitments that extend beyond the conference itself.
Our Australian Provincial, Fr Brian McCoy SJ, joined us for the gathering and presented the Universal Apostolic Preferences and Province Apostolic Plan and priorities. These formed the basis of Spiritual Conversations that followed.
The closing session explored “engaging on matters of faith and justice in the public square” with Geraldine Doogue AO, a lector and parishioner of one of our Jesuit parishes, parent of former students of one of our schools and respected television journalist.
Decree 2 notes that “networking builds on a shared vision and requires a culture of generosity , openness to work with others and a desire to celebrate success”. We certainly had all of those in droves in Sydney, with guest speakers, panellists and participants all to some extent providing the vison and leadership for collaborative mission that networks also need.
A personal highlight was the extent of inter-ministry and inter-generational dialogue – not always in agreement, but always respectful – throughout the whole gathering, at sessions and in the networking time between them.
The ministry presentations and “stop, start, continue” session, at which we identified and committed to specific actions, were regarded by those attending as the two most valuable sessions, with 25 per cent of respondents to the post-conference feedback survey rating the former as the most valuable session and 21.43 per cent of respondents rating the latter. These results demonstrate a clear desire by those attending to better understand each other’s work and priorities and work together more effectively, efficiently and collaboratively in the future.
A panel about “listening to the voices that aren’t generally heard” (28.57 per cent) and the ministry presentations (21.43 per cent) were rated as the most interesting sessions.
With a Net Promoter score of 52 (anything over 0 is generally regarded as “good”, over 20 “favourable” and over 50 “excellent” – over 80 is considered “world class”) for this first time event, an express desire and commitment by those attending to make the gathering a regular event and 48.15 per cent stating that they would be extremely likely and 37.04 per cent very likely to attend again – it can be regarded as a successful first step in opening a conversation about how we work together.
The true measures of success will be the implementation of the actions, the extent to which the conversations started in sunny Sydney continue into the future and ultimately finding the magis in our common mission through genuine care and support of each other and collaboration. If greater inter-ministry dialogue and sharing on social media channels since the conference is any indication, we are off to a good start.
Monika Lancucki is the Managing Director of Jesuit Media and Director of Communication for the Australian Province. A lawyer by profession, Monika also serves on the Ministries Commission of the Australian Province and has served in a number of leadership positions with the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) both locally and internationally. She joined the Australian Province in July 2018, having spent the last 20+ years working in banking and finance, property consulting and private practice.