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 While the development of leadership is an implicit aspect of our initial formation program, for three days in early August fourteen men in initial formation along with director Quinn Conners, O.Carm., engaged in three days of formal leadership training under the auspices of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). This fraternal time with one another provided us with an experiential, fun and effective means of assessing and further developing our operative modes of communication, decision-making and leadership.
With our overall goals articulated beforehand and the guidance of two well-informed and experienced instructors, our interaction with the fifty-three years of NOLS outdoor education experience began. Our opening morning consisted of setting up some requests of one another within a healthy learning environment and then on to the National Arboretum to engage in the Leadership Navigation Challenge. There we received a brief lesson on how to use a GPS (Global Positioning System), some initial guidelines for our activity and then we began to explore the various learning styles we implement with respect to communication, problem solving, teamwork, conflict resolution and decision-making. After a few hours of fun, plenty of sweat and a bit of stress, we gathered together to process our experience and set the stage for plenty of learning that would unfold during the next few days.
 In the course of the training, we addressed issues of leadership skills including competence, communication, tolerance for adversity, self-awareness and vision. We looked at different styles of decision-making and the appropriate context to implement them. While acknowledging that conflict emerges when the world around us is no longer in line with our expectations, we assessed our particular mode of behavior when in conflict including competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating. We also considered the life cycles of groups and the reality that deep democracy means that we are to pay attention to the unheard voice and enlist them to the service of the community.
Overall, the training received high marks and left many of us feeling energized and grateful. One of the brothers noted a paradigm shift from our time together. At many of our dinner tables throughout both Provinces, the men in formation have listened over the years to stories about Hamilton, the fields of Niagara and the summer excursions to Camp Maria in Maryland. Now the men in initial formation have a common experience and language to continue to draw upon and bring to the table as we grow into certain leadership positions in our communities, ministries and provinces. We thank the generosity of the Pilgrim and Prophets Fund and the Henry J. and Rose C. McCarthy Foundation for helping to make this possible.
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