Greg Cocker, an author and businessman from Franklin, Ky., often used an anecdote about bricklayers in his many speeches around the country during his 20-year corporate career.
One afternoon, he says, he determined to find the origin and authenticity of the story. His search led to the writing of Building Cathedrals: The Power of Purpose.
The story, as Cocker found in his research, was traceable to one of the world’s most famous architects, Christopher Wren. Wren was commissioned to rebuild St. Paul’s Cathedral in London after a historic fire had leveled most of the city in 1666.
During the rebuilding process, Wren (in what may be the first example of MBWA or “management by walking around”) observed three bricklayers. Wren asked each bricklayer the same question: “What are you doing?’
The initial bricklayer he approached responded with “I’m working.” The second said, “I’m building a wall.” The response of the third bricklayer was different. “I’m building a cathedral to The Almighty,” he said.
The author builds upon this story as a metaphor for guiding our businesses and personal lives. He expands it to include
the “cathedral” as an expression of purpose — one that each of us must find to be
successful.
Cocker uses the three bricklayers as examples for building contemporary business needs of employee engagement, team development and corporate culture. He builds on the work of other well-known business writers, structuring his cathedral metaphor on the foundation of experts such as Stephen Covey, Jim Collins, Ken Blanchard, as well as others.
He uses this foundation effectively, without simply reiterating the writing of others.
For example, he compares the work of the three bricklayers by levels of engagement using Clint Swindall’s book Engaged Leadership. Swindall states that an employee is engaged or disengaged based upon organizational culture. It is the responsibility of leaders to build a culture, as Wren apparently did with the bricklayers at St. Paul’s to overcome employee disengagement.
Building Cathedrals is a composite work, incorporating chapters by several other contributors. Noteworthy from a business perspective is “Leadership That Insures the Cathedral Gets Built,” by Dave Tatman. In this chapter, the characteristics and skills of leadership are explored. Tatman explores the continual discussion of management versus leadership and offers his own ideas on necessary leadership principles.
Other contributors build upon Tatman’s scaffold of leadership principles by giving personal examples from their lives. Chapters by Candice Ashburn and Patty Brightup lend credence to the use of the cathedral metaphor as an effective tool for getting through crisis, whether business or personal.
The book builds on the story of the bricklayers by delving into the reasons for their work: the Great London Fire of 1666. While catastrophic for the city, it also created opportunities. London was rebuilt with vast improvement, laying a foundation for its emergence as a city of new vitality.
Wren’s leadership helped to make this rebuilding feasible. Likewise, the author suggests, companies and individuals must call upon the character traits of leadership to rebuild from organizational and personal “fires.”
A wide range of stories is included to illustrate this point. They range from sports to politics, with business and personal accounts. Kentucky readers may particularly relish those about individuals from the Bluegrass. “Cathedral builders” who follow the philosophy of Wren’s third bricklayer in having a higher purpose are described in easily relatable stories. They include factory workers, farmers, sports heroes, writers and business owners.
In addition to the Kentucky stories, one by Greg Allen stands out. Allen shares his personal story as an African-American student-athlete attending Syracuse University. At the time, he and other athletes were surprised by many of the procedures that seemed to “only apply to black ballplayers.” This included being directed to certain academic majors to the exclusion of majors such as engineering and biology.
In witnessing firsthand blatant racial injustice, Allen tells how the issues were slowly and painstakingly resolved. “While some cathedrals must be built by future generations, we have the responsibility to lay the foundation,” Allen titled his story.
Contributor Terry Daniels further develops the cathedral-building program in a chapter titled “A Life of Purpose.” Daniels takes the theoretical ideas from previous chapters and provides examples for implementation.
There are times when this book is a bit disjointed by the variety of examples given to support the central idea. Some writers are noted as contributing authors while others aren’t mentioned until their chapter suddenly appears. This makes for an uneven read that could have been easily remedied.
Building Cathedrals is effective in encouraging readers to never underestimate the ability to realize the power and responsibility we each have in creating success. We can either lay bricks or build cathedrals, Coker reminds us. The choice is ours.