Human Gift in Giving Staff Retreat

Janna Lopez Leads Creighton University Relations Team Retreat, ‘The Human Gift of Giving’

Recently, I had the privilege of designing and leading The Human Gift in Giving, a half-day retreat for Creighton University’s University Relations team. The experience brought together 25 fundraising and development professionals to explore elements that get lost amid goals, deadlines, and outcomes: the human being behind the work. Using my Poetic Intelligence framework, I guided participants through a carefully designed progression of reflection, conversation, poetry, creative writing, and collaborative exercises that invited them to reconnect with their individual motivations, deepen understanding of one another, and consider how personal meaning strengthens professional purpose.

Leading this kind of experience requires more than facilitation—it requires the ability to read a room, build trust, ask meaningful questions, create psychological space for honest expression, and translate deeply personal discoveries into insights relevant to a team and its mission. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with participants describing greater curiosity, freer expression, new perspectives, and poetry as a valuable tool for discernment and connection.

The Human Gift in Giving represents an important dimension of how Poetic Intelligence can move individuals and teams as a practical leadership and organizational tool for strengthening communication, reflection, purpose, and human connection.