Coworkers elected from their respective departments met at the Cor Unum House to work on the final T-shirt design the first week of February. After a couple of hours, a true collaborative result emerged.
A hallmark of effective workplaces is the demonstrated ability of employees to articulate the values their organization lives by.
That was no problem for a group of Sacred Heart Convent coworkers. In February, representatives from each department—nursing, dietary, housekeeping, maintenance, switchboard, IT, communications and finance—designed a T-shirt to tell the world what they and the sisters they serve value. The back of the shirt accomplished that goal. The T-shirt design group’s creative energy moved the group to arrange a collection of words to form a design that spells out DOMINICAN in a vertical line.
The words were brought to the table by all the coworkers at the convent who participated in a three-part process of identifying the sisters' values, their personal values, and the values most important to their work as teams.
The final design was formed by the coworkers' list of values: understanding, God, teamwork, integrity, balance, religious, connected, family, and collaboration.
The front of the shirt communicates the care at the heart of the coworker’s values: a hand-drawn heart embracing the Springfield Dominican’s trademark shield. Audrey Peacock, who works in the housekeeping department, drew two elegant lines to give the impression of two hands cradling the shield in the shape of a heart. This was intentional to show the hands, representing the coworkers, holding and supporting the sisters at Sacred Heart Convent.
"The exercise was more fun and more successful than we could have hoped," said Sister Beth Murphy, who serves on the convent's mission integration team. "It's clear that our coworkers are committed to bringing their personal values to the committed service they provide to the senior sisters they serve."
Sacred Heart Convent employs 79 number full and part-time coworkers who support the preaching mission of the Dominican Sisters, whose congregation has been in ministry in Illinois since 1873.
Other features of the T-shirt came from the various departments’ brainstorms and ideas. The hashtag #FortheLifeoftheWorld was chosen by the group to invite conversation about the coworkers work and sisters’ ministry at Sacred Heart Convent.
Thank you so much to the team that interpreted the best parts of their departments' work to create this effective, simple design: Dan Anderson, Kathy Smothers, Brandi Lindholm, Alyssa Regan, Susie Williams, Audrey Peacock, and Bill Blankenship. You made the experience a fun and fruitful endeavor.
