Educators from JECSE schools are growing in their Ignatian leadership

To serve our common mission well together, we need to continually deepen our faith, develop our skills, and inspire and strengthen each other. To this end, 18 leaders of Jesuit and associated schools from Europe gathered for another week of formation in the European Center of Comunication and Culture in Falenica, near Warsaw, Poland. They took part in Module II of the Ignatian Leadership Programme organised by JECSE, our European network of Jesuit schools.

They come from 8 different countries: Germany, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, all united by their passion and commitment to Jesuit education. They spent an entire week together, filled with prayer, input, group time and personal reflection focused on leadership within the organisation. The theme of the meeting was "Fostering a Spirit-led organisation". "We live in a rapidly changing world, the so-called VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous; in which we as organisations and leaders have to adapt", this module helped us to reflect on "what we need to address - together with others in our schools - and how we can change and even transform things", one of the participants shared.

One of the facilitators also shared her perspective on the process undertaken:  “We saw our VUCA contexts with a new look, and were challenged to think about transformation using Theory U. We heard the call to go to the purpose of our Jesuit schools by seeing and sensing, through discernment in common. That means we have to navigate the polarities in the school team. The question arose how to put the (pastoral) mission in the heart of the school? The Victoria-scale helped us to aim for dialogue within the diversity of our school realities. A wonderful Module!”

A very special moment of each ILP module is meeting a special guest. This year the participants had the great opportunity to meet Fr Wojciech Żmudziński, former Socius of the Northern Province of Poland, a very experienced Ignatian Educational Leader. In his testimony he explained how he understands Ignatian leadership and how to initiate and guide processes of change in the dynamics of the Ignatian paradigm. He shared many inspiring insights that will stay with the participants for a long time. One of the participants remarked "He explained to us what Ignatian leadership means to him. He pointed out that it depends on the circumstances and that when change happens you have to focus on the "go-go" and the "so-so" groups and not be paralysed by the "no-no" group.

The participants also had the opportunity to spend a nice evening in the city centre of Warsaw and to learn a little bit about the history of this place and of Poland.

Now it is time for them to put what they have learned into practice and to test it in their everyday school life. They will share their observations and consult with programme facilitators during online small group meetings. And already in March 2025 they will meet again, this time in Malta, to reflect on how to lead into the unknown....

The whole meeting is best summed up by one of the participants:  “It was a fascinating and instructive format in which the meetings and exchanges with each other were of incredible value”.