The Craft Series – Part I: What Working Together Demands of Us

At the behavioral level, the Craft is the body of workers engaged in shared labor—and the habits, reliability, and presence each person brings to that work. In this episode, we explore how the Craft functions as an organism that delivers shared outcomes, and what that means for how you show up inside the system. Working together becomes less about abstract fraternity and more about concrete behaviors that either support or stall the work.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• The Craft reveals how individual behavior supports or disrupts shared work
• Behavioral awareness includes understanding how work flows through the lodge as an organism
• Good leadership means matching people, tasks, and timing so the Craft can actually build

💬 Featured Quotes

0:01:13–0:01:23 — “The craft also represents the reality that no meaningful work is ever accomplished alone.”

0:01:52–0:02:08 — “And a behavioral level, it means that we would look at our actions and behaviors relative to working in a team, that sort of practical awareness of how work flows through the organization.”

0:02:19–0:02:25 — “It involves an understanding of other people, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses.”

0:04:16–0:04:27 — “So in this way, when we take a behavioral lens on the craft, we can look at the way our brothers work. And from that way of working, from that understanding, we can begin to figure out how to best leverage their support and effort to help you achieve the objectives you have for the lodge at large.”

🔗 Explore Related Episodes

• Cognitive Dissonance and the Work of the Craft
  Looks at the internal tension between who we are and how we act in the lodge, echoing the behavioral demands of showing up as part of the Craft.
• Beyond Titles: What the Craft Teaches About Leading Well
  Explores leadership as a function of how you work with people—not just what office you hold—directly tied to the behavioral responsibilities inside the Craft.
• Building your Craftsmen's Council
  Focuses on intentionally organizing people and roles to support lodge objectives, mirroring this episode’s emphasis on matching behavior, capacity, and shared work.

Dynamic Inserts

Creators and Guests

Host

Brian Mattocks

Host and Founder of A Mason's Work - a podcast designed to help you use symbolism to grow. He's been working in the craft for over a decade and served as WM, trustee, and sat in every appointed chair in a lodge - at least once :D

What is A Mason's Work?

In this show we discuss the practical applications of masonic symbolism and how the working tools can be used to better yourself, your family, your lodge, and your community. We help good freemasons become better men through honest self development. We talk quite a bit about mental health and men's issues related to emotional and intellectual growth as well.

So, this week we're going to do, as we've done in recent weeks, with the exploration of

the Masonic symbols.

In today, I want to talk about the craft.

Now, it's not common to think about the craft in a sort of, as a symbolic way or conceptual

way.

But for our purposes, as we are working on self-development, it makes sense to start

to essentially take a lot of the Masonic content and give it a single singular focus.

So we can say, let's talk about the craft as an entity or as a body.

And in that way, we can then think about it symbolically and use it to help us drive

our, you know, determine actions, drive our behavior.

So with that in mind, let's talk about what the craft represents.

The short description here is that it's a body of workers engaged in shared labor.

Operatively, it symbolizes the collective nature of creation and interdependence and working

within a community and the bonds that form through common efforts.

So the fraternity that emerges from men working together.

The craft also represents the reality that no meaningful work is ever accomplished alone.

The lodge is self-workshop where people learn to work together, rely on one another and

shape each other through the rhythm of shared tasks.

And we look about the craft for insight into our individual behavioral sort of context.

We want to look at the craft again as that organism that's going to deliver that shared

work.

And a behavioral level, it means that we would look at our actions and behaviors relative

to working in a team that sort of practical awareness of how work flows through the organization,

how it sort of moves and stalls and accelerates and things like that.

It involves an understanding of other people evaluating their strengths and weaknesses

and limitations and preferred ways of acting.

It is a behavioral sort of component as well and includes how you show up when working

with a group.

Are you bringing all of the things that you need to the table to be successful?

With a behavioral lens on the craft as a concept, you really begin to understand that you

are both a part of a whole and interacting with the elements of that whole as if they

were other sort of people or objects, right?

So you get focused on concepts like inputs and outputs and ways that you can streamline

sort of the ways of working with others.

But design intent of how you show up in an organization isn't something that we talk

about a lot sort of socially.

We will talk about outcomes and not methods.

So for us and for our purposes of evaluating the craft as a symbol, we're really talking

about not just the what of the work, which is kind of the work we're going to do and

is broken down correctly and stuff like that.

But we're also really focused on the how, the how we work and how we interact with each

other that both implies a certain level of understanding of the organization that we're

in, the lodge in this case, but also a deeper understanding of the ways in which people operate.

So in this way, when we take a behavioral lens on the craft, we can look at the way our

brothers work.

And from that way of working from that understanding, we can begin to figure out how to best leverage

their support and effort to help you achieve the objectives you have for the lodge at large.

This means simple analysis of things like strengths and weaknesses.

It means more complex analysis like preferences and communication frequency and things like

that.

So I mean, it's super tactical in that regard.

It's also strategic in that you want, particularly if you are acting as a worshipful master, acting

as somebody who's cultivating your lodge.

You want to make sure not to give folks work that they are destined to fail with.

There is a right amount of work, a right way or the right people at the right time.

And the craft as a symbol really starts to move you from not just the sort of participant,

but as an architect.

When you move to that space, you can start looking at the different members of the team and

help them become the best sort of teammate that they can be.

And by default, you're also going to work on yourself to make sure that you become the

best teammate you can be.

And so that's kind of the behavioral take on the craft.

There's more relational stuff that's going to come.

And again, we'll talk about that as well as a few surprises this week.

And I'll look forward to speaking to you in the next episode.