Listen to thisWe are having some renovation work done by a Master Carpenter, Nick, and a part of the deal is that I sometimes get to work with him as an assistant – we were laughing at one point about how ignorant I am for an educated person (I do after all have a doctorate) and how you can be educated and ignorant or not as schooled and a real expert. And Nick is an expert, no question about it.
As he works – framing a wall, building a precise corner, ensuring a perfect level – he is in constant movement between doing and reflecting: “This is what we are doing. How does it fit for the desired final product? Is this working well? Is there a different (even better) way?” As he works and reflects, new pathways open to the same destination. He is never hesitant to take a step back and re-do something so that it takes us more precisely towards the final goal.
He has a plan in his head – I know and can see that – but more importantly he has joined with us in our vision of what we want. As he has a new idea about the final goal, or how to get there, he pauses to explain, consult, come to an agreement, listening all the while to how we feel about his new ideas. Sometimes he insists on doing something I don’t understand, but in those cases it is only because of his knowledge and expertise and, because I have come to trust his skill and knowledge, I defer to him.
Nick works hard, fast and well. The early winter wind is howling off the river and we are working outside – this is a cold and painful process and he wants us to get to the next stage with haste, but not with recklessness. Even though it is painful, it must be done right “the future outcome depends on the quality of these individual steps and stages.
It is an amazing experience working with such a skilled person. I know little about what we are doing – oh I have done a little similar work in the past and read some good books, but it is not the same – this is genuine applied learning – and I am loving the new learning: but then I always have loved being a student.
As always, of course, it gets me to thinking about our work and how we learn to do it well. It gets me to thinking about the mentoring of people new to the field and what a wonderful gift it would be for CYCs, kids and families if we could all have the experience of working with someone who really knew what they were doing: someone skilled and secure enough in their own “expertise” to not be afraid to show us the way. Someone patient enough to know when to offer us a new opportunity and when to keep us “taking old nails from the boards”, doing the basic tasks which, while not glamorous, are essential to quality work; someone who knows enough to take a minute to reflect, consult, engage the “client” in not only the outcome, but how we are going to get there.
I like our Master Carpenter (wouldn’t it be nice if there was such a thing as a Master CYC?). I have come to respect his expertise in a very short period of time. Relationships do develop, as Karen VanderVen likes to say, through “doing together”.
And that’s because of “how” he works: with us, not for us. By the end of the second day, I felt like we were “doing it together”, engaged in a joint project.
It’s a nice reminder.
Thom
