A Mason's Work

[00:00] If we ever get the chance to meet face-to-face, you'll very likely hear me use words like
[00:07] on-ramps and accessibility.
[00:11] And the guide at a systemic level is the definition of on-ramps and accessibility.
[00:19] It's the opportunity for everyone to engage the work or the world or the lodge or the
[00:25] situation on equal footing, regardless of their context and background.
[00:30] It's taking the time to make room for everyone to bring their best stuff to the table, even
[00:37] when that may be locked behind different abilities and capabilities.
[00:44] I'll give you an example, and we'll talk more examples tomorrow, but a real short one for
[00:52] today would be someone who maybe English isn't their first language in your lodge or in your
[00:58] life.
[00:58] Um, it is very easy for us to just kind of leave those folks by the wayside.
[01:05] Um, but without the right perspective, without taking that guide hat and looking at it, uh,
[01:10] you might find that you're leaving a PhD level, you know, uh, scholar, uh, off to the side
[01:19] of the room for lack of an ability to deal with an accent or to process a different way of thinking.
[01:28] And I use that example, because when we look across an organization at a systemic level,
[01:34] when we look across a group of people, when we look across a constellation of capacities,
[01:39] the on-ramps and off-ramps between these functions, between these people, between organizations is all
[01:47] part of the domain of the guide, making sure that the organization or the group can handle the
[01:53] challenges that it's designed to take on, uh, with the appropriate level of risk, with the sort of
[01:59] emotional and contextual support required to navigate and, and deal with those systemic issues.
[02:06] Um, and do it in such a way that they, you know, make it through that process intact, uh, and
[02:14] ideally stronger as a result.
[02:16] When we look systemically, you'll see, um, and we talked about this a little bit with the senior
[02:22] warden, when we talk about things like closure, um, you'll, and the junior warden, when we talk
[02:26] about, uh, the understanding of sort of fatigue and what that looks like at a systemic level
[02:30] intention, um, the guide is that measurement function that says, Hey, uh, these systems that
[02:37] are our intention, I'm noticing that this one's starting to kind of run in the red and that maybe
[02:41] we need to dial it back. Um, maybe we could build this, you know, whatever organizational function,
[02:48] or maybe we could build or strengthen this process to reduce the load over here. Um, there is
[02:55] that sort of architectural function at a systemic level that the guide really helps facilitate.
[03:00] Uh, it doesn't build solutions. It notices those issues and maybe provide suggestions to the other
[03:06] functions in the lodge as to how you might close that gap. This systemic application of the guide
[03:14] work, um, is the role as well, or a vital role, uh, of leadership without being able to look at an
[03:23] organization from that guide perspective, that ego-free, uh, analysis and awareness perspective of
[03:29] what the organization is capable of relative to the environment and the obstacles it's trying to take
[03:35] on, um, without being able to do that, you effectively can't lead. Uh, this is a lot like knowing the
[03:42] capacities of the machine that you're operating, right? So, uh, the difference between a poor driver and a great
[03:49] driver in a lot of cases is how well they know their own equipment. Uh, I have seen folks navigate, for
[03:55] example, the streets of London, which are super narrow and they drive those double-decker buses
[04:00] through it with, you know, less than inches of clearance to spare. Uh, and they do this at speeds
[04:07] that are absolutely terrifying. This is what it looks like when somebody understands their equipment.
[04:12] This is what that sort of cultivating that awareness of the systems you're working in, the lodge,
[04:17] your workplace, your family life, understanding the capacities of those systems is the same kind of
[04:24] thing. And when it's, when it's executed, well, when it's fluid, um, you really can make an organization
[04:30] do things that seem impossible. And as far as I'm concerned, when good men meet together to do stuff
[04:38] like this, uh, the best organizations are capable of things that seem impossible. Uh, we should be
[04:46] pursuing that as our goal.