Team Weekend

Six People. One Coach. One common Mission

Six People. One Coach. One common Mission: To grow together as a team of The Upper Room, define the values and vision of The Upper Room as an organization and anticipate the success of this two-day meeting. (It was very successful.)

We started with one-on-one sessions with our coach Georg Nußbaumer (Kardinal-König-Haus Vienna) to give space to personal struggles. During our two days meeting, we took time to reflect on the past months or even years while we paused for a moment to say thanks and verbalize our personal experiences within that time. It was touching to hear from each other and look back on the journey and the projects that sometimes come to pass quickly. Our coach did a great job in accompanying us and giving us tools to express our thoughts or show us structures to gain insights into the developments that teams in organizations undergo. We picked out pictures of foods and drinks to demonstrate our experience with The Upper Room tasted like so far. To some, it felt like brandy – being with friends but also feeling the drive of the drink. Some described it with a wide range of herbs and spices to show the diversity, and one chose a picture of “Apfelstrudel” because of its layers and warm feeling.

“Why am I here?” this question represents the first stage according to the model. The last hours of the meeting were dedicated to finally put into words what the heart of the work at The Upper Room is. Even the weather that day was truly elevating and uplifting! Collectively we hid the answer to the question of “WHY?” in the mission statement: every paragraph of the text includes the word “people”. That´s what it is all about.

The success of the weekend doesn´t only lie in visible outcomes but even more in the precious time, we spent together as friends. We ate together, prayed together, thought together and created together. And we enjoyed it! Big thanks to the Schaberger family for making our stay grand and to our coach Georg N. for his time, deep insight and wisdom. The journey certainly is not over yet… 

And this is the result: 

Vision and Values

• The Upper Room creates space for people to tell their stories, ask questions of life, and access the source of ever-flowing water through arts and education to foster holistic growth.

• We encourage active engagement in creating a society centered around people and relationships through incremental impacts.

• At the Upper Room, we accept each other as we are, live openness in the dialogue between cultures and religions, and celebrate diversity.