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Join Derek Hudson as he explores Essential Dynamics, a framework for approaching the challenges facing people and organizations. Consider your Quest!
Welcome to Essential Dynamics. I'm Derek Hudson, creator of the Essential Dynamics Framework and host of the Essential Dynamics Pod podcast. This is a different episode today. I moved it from a regular Tuesday release to Wednesday because today is Canada Day, and I've got a lot of deep thoughts about Canada. I have the opportunity to present this podcast live from McGrath, Alberta, Canada.
Derek:McGrath is a special place to me. I'm here for a family reunion, and McGrath is really where my Canadian roots start.
Derek:My ancestors
Derek:first came to Canada in McGrath, and I this morning,
Derek:I visited the McGrath Cemetery where my parents are laid to rest as well as
Derek:grandparents, great grandparents, and great great grandparents of at least 15 direct ancestors in McGrath Cemetery. And many of them were new Canadians more than a hundred and twenty years ago. So that's got me thinking about Canada. As well on Sunday, in our church service, we had
Derek:the opportunity to stand and sing, oh, Canada, all four verses. It's something that I've done probably every Sunday before Canada Day that I can remember except for the times as a missionary where I was not living in this wonderful country. So what I thought I'd
Derek:do today was talk about the words to o Canada, all four verses, in the context of Essential Dynamics and see what we can learn about our country, our obligations to our country from this context. I'm not gonna sing
Derek:it for you, but I do want to read the words in their entirety because I'm gonna go back to them, and
Derek:I don't wanna interrupt myself. Oh, Canada, our home and native land, true patriot love in all of us command. With glowing hearts, we see thee rise. The true North, strong and free. From far and wide, o Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Derek:God, keep our land glorious and free. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada, where pines and maples grow, great prairies spread, and lordly rivers flow. How dear to
Derek:us thy broad domain from East to Western sea. Thou land of hope for all who toil. Thou true north, strong and free. O Canada, beneath thy shining skies, may stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise to keep thee steadfast through the years from East to Western sea. Our own beloved native land, our true North, strong
Derek:and free. Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer, hold
Derek:our dominion in thy loving care. Help us to find, oh, God,
Derek:in thee a lasting rich reward as waiting for the better day we ever stand on guard. God keep our land glorious and free. Oh, Canada, we stand on guard for thee. Oh, Canada, we stand on guard for thee. Wow.
Derek:I did it. I I tend to get very emotional when I sing those extra verses, and I'm god. Just it just means so much so much to me. So Oh, Canada is our national anthem. I'm gonna pause it
Derek:to you today that it's
Derek:not just an anthem, that it's
Derek:a love letter to Canada, that it's an invocation, it's a prayer. So I wanna look at O Canada in the context of some concepts that we're familiar with in Essential Dynamics.
Derek:And I wanna talk about the start with the three axioms that are kind of
Derek:the foundational principles upon which Essential Dynamics and I think most truth is based.
Derek:First one is the idea of natural law.
Derek:That is that in the universe, there are
Derek:knowable and predictable laws upon which all things are based. And if we can understand those laws and live based on what they are, that we can be happier and more productive. Now this I
Derek:find this really interesting as I look at the words to O Canada because sometimes we talk
Derek:when we talk about fundamental principles, we use the term true north and or a north star. And that, of course, that relates to the fact that in the heavens, the North Star is fixed, that if you need to find anything geographically in Earth,
Derek:we use the North Pole as
Derek:a reference. And true north then or true north principles are those that are fixed and immovable and reliable. And in Canada, we talk about the true north strong and free. So I find that very that resonates very much with me that we can be strong and free as and only as we strive to live according to true principles. The second axiom I talk about is agency.
Derek:And that is that in any context, in any situation,
Derek:every human being has a ability to choose. We can choose our reaction to circumstances. We can proactively do things that otherwise haven't been done, all in in an attempt to make things better for us and for others.
Derek:And so as I think about agency and I look at
Derek:the words of this song, look at this.
Derek:Oh, Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Derek:Thou land of hope for all who toil. May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise to keep thee
Derek:steadfast. Help us to find, oh, God, in the lasting rich reward we ever stand on guard. Those are action words.
Derek:Those are words of agency. Those are commitments.
Derek:Those are declarations of of a way that we're gonna act. We could choose to act otherwise, but we choose
Derek:to stand on guard.
Derek:In the face of challenge and difficulty,
Derek:we choose to stand on guard. So that's agency. The third one is abundance, and that is that we believe that things can be better. And I often talk about agency and or about abundance in terms of we can make choices that make things better. But I think there's another element to abundance that I don't talk about as much, and and that is that we can rely on divine providence to make things better.
Derek:And both of those aspects are found in the Wordstow Canada. Let's look at some of the indications of abundance of abundance. With glowing hearts, we see thee rise, the true North strong and free. God keep our land, glorious and free. O Canada, where pines and maples grow, great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow.
Derek:How dear to us
Derek:thy broad domain, thy land of hope for all
Derek:who toil. O Canada, beneath thy shining skies, help us to find, oh god, in
Derek:thee a lasting rich reward as waiting for the better day we ever stand on guard.
Derek:This is a song about abundance. This is a song that both says, we live in a blessed place. We live in a fantastic place, and we call upon God to keep it strong and free
Derek:as we stand on guard.
Derek:I think that's very powerful, and I'm not surprised to see those fundamental truths reflected in this anthem. Another concept that I'd like to talk about is the idea of stewardship.
Derek:Talk about that in the context of leadership. Stewardship is the careful management of something entrusted into to one's care. And I think that O Canada reflects very clearly the idea
Derek:that that we are stewards, that we have been given something from those who came before us, and we have a responsibility to give something to those who come after. And how does this how is this reflected? Well, we we talk about standing on guard. You stand on card on guard as a duty. Guards are appointed to stand in positions not of convenience, but of necessity.
Derek:There's a great lesson here about stewardship when it talks about the land of the land of hope for all who toil. Now I don't believe that this means that only those who have jobs are valid and productive members of society.
Derek:I think there's many different ways to toil,
Derek:but it's it does it is work that gives us hope. And collectively, as we work, we inherit and then pass on a land of hope. I also think that stewardship comes forward in this wonderful line that I love so much. May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise. Couple of things on this.
Derek:First of all, I've had the opportunity over many years to have responsibilities in our church organization, which has me sit on the rostrum, the stand of the the chapel, looking at the people in the congregation. And as I've had the the occasion, you know, once a year for for many years to stand and sing this line. May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise. I would look in the congregation and see my daughters and my son and their friends and my friends' daughters and my friends' sons and filled with a sense of obligation to them for the kind of the world and the kind of country and the kind of community that we raise them in and and then hand off to them. And also to feel a tremendous amount of hope that we are indeed raising a generation that is stalwart and gentle.
Derek:I also wanna point out that in my own mind, while I I do have a stalwart son and stalwart sons in law and many others that I consider to be sons were stalwart. I want my daughters to be stalwart, and they are. My daughters are stalwart. My daughter-in-law is stalwart. My granddaughters are stalwart.
Derek:Many many young women that I consider as my daughters are stalwart. I also want my sons to be gentle, and I want them to be gentle men. And so I think that in 2026, when we sing, may stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise, we consider that in the most inclusive and aspirational way possible. Now we have this stewardship that that is called the dominion of Canada. And I find it interesting that dominion I don't believe it means to dominate.
Derek:I believe that it implies and invokes a stewardship responsibility. And so I'm grateful for the the the country that I live in and the and the sense of responsibility I feel to it, and I am grateful for that principle of stewardship.
Derek:Another thing that I wanna talk about another principle I wanna talk about is what we call system sight. We often talk about the fact that you can't see the system from inside the system. And so you need something to be able to pull you out of the day to day of pull you out of the operations of the system so that you can see the system, you see
Derek:the purpose, see the the system from end
Derek:to end and get a higher and more elevated perspective, and then that helps us to do our work. So I think that O Canada is written to help us have that system site. Starts out, O Canada, our home and native land, true patriot love in all of us command. With glowing hearts, we see thee right. The true North strong and free.
Derek:It talks about from far and wide. It talks about from Easter East to Western Sea. It talks about our dominion. These are things where we're encouraged to step out of our particular situations and responsibilities and see this country for what it is. A vast expanse from east to west, a community of people who share common values and have the privilege of living in this wonderful land.
Derek:And so as we sing O Canada, it gives
Derek:us an opportunity to step back
Derek:and see with that renewed perspective, the the great blessing and the great responsibility that we have.
Derek:Another thing that's fundamental to Essential Dynamics,
Derek:but I've been cautious, maybe a a little bit reticent to label it and put it in a spot, and that is the idea of love. I believe that God's love is the ultimate driver of the universe. I agree with Dumbledore that love is the most powerful force. And so let's look at Old Canada and think about how it talks about our love of country. Of course, it starts out, O Canada, our home and native land, true patriot love can all of us command.
Derek:We also talk about how dear to us thy broad domain from east to Western sea.
Derek:And then it talks about ruler supreme who hear us humble prayer, hold our dominion within thy loving care. So I think and and then the other thing I wanna talk about is the references to nature. Pines, maples, great prairies, lordly rivers, shining skies.
Derek:If you love Canada, you love nature. We are a sanctuary in the wilderness. We're remote. We're remote for a reason. And if you love Canada, there's a very good
Derek:chance that you love
Derek:nature. And if you love nature, if you really connect with nature, then you love God. And that brings us to our the last point about Essential Dynamics that I wanna share. And that is the one function of leadership that I refer to as accessing ultimate power. Now as I've studied leadership, responsibility of leaders, as I look at it, is to design and operate the system that the organization uses to accomplish its purpose.
Derek:And there are six ways that a leader can do that, and and some of them are are active and others, like, of
Derek:the final two, one of
Derek:them is guidance. And that is that a leader can be given a responsibility for which they're not qualified. In fact, you know,
Derek:in a growing organization, no one
Derek:has ever done this before, and someone has to be the leader. But there's the possibility always of getting guidance from other people. And you'll see
Derek:that in the the hero's journey that there's a mentor in the in the epic tales. There's always a a Gandalf and a Dumbledore, and there's a opportunity to receive guidance from someone more experienced and more capable. And that goes a long ways. But I've also seen many, many examples where a leader has been
Derek:pushed to the limit and there was only one source to which they could go and that and that is divine help. I call that to be general accessing ultimate power.
Derek:And I think it's wonderful that O Canada puts the puts it out there in such a compelling way. You think about it, it starts out this starts out as an anthem or a a love letter to Canada and a commitment. O Canada,
Derek:our home and native land, true patriot love, you know, all of us command. From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Derek:So we're establishing our love for Canada, our
Derek:commitment to Canada, but then we bounce over in the chorus to this. God keep our land glorious and free.
Derek:So this is an invocation we're asking for God's help and protection. And then we come right back and say, oh, Canada, we stand on guard for thee. And I think this is a a
Derek:powerful parallel, and that is that we
Derek:commit to do everything we can in our
Derek:power to love and protect and guard this country, at
Derek:the same time recognizing that our power is limited, but there is a source of ultimate power that we can go to. We can we see this, of
Derek:course, in probably my favorite verse, last verse, which I know wouldn't be appropriate to sing at hockey games. It really is a prayer, but it's deep and profound, and it's satisfying and compelling. Ruler supreme who hears humble prayer, hold our dominion within thy loving care. Help us to find, oh, God in thee, a lasting rich reward as waiting for the better day we ever stand on guard. So we do all I
Derek:we can, and then we put our country in the loving hands of a divine creator and ask for his care and protection.
Derek:We also appreciate in this verse that what
Derek:we do here in this country, in this life is is meant to last. There is a there is
Derek:a better day ahead and a lasting rich reward, which goes beyond our capacity to understand at this point. And as we invoke our heavenly father to care for and bless this country, we conclude with, we ever stand on guard. Well, thank you for listening to this. This is something I just needed to say. It's 2026.
Derek:I want the I
Derek:want the world to know how much I love my country.
Derek:There are many who sacrificed a lot to provide for us the prosperity and freedom that we enjoy in this land. They had their quest, and now we have ours. Consider your quest.