The Same Block of Wood

Were All Made from The Same Stuff

Everyone in an organization must treat everyone as equal. No power trips, no gender flexing, no trickery and no inappropriate models of behavior. Great leaders make it clear to their team that they are all like pawns on a chessboard. The pawns, the rooks, the bishops, the knights, the king and the queen are all chipped from the same block of wood. Different pieces just get different names. The minute they come onto the board, they are granted different abilities in regards to movement. The queen says, I can go anywhere I want. She is a legend in her own mind.

A very critical point for all the pieces to remember is that they are all moved by the same hand. The hand of a great leader, and they can only continue to move as long as the game is in play. Once the game is over at the end of each day and all the pieces are put away, they all go back into the box. The same box, and inside the box there is no queen, no bishop, no knight and no pawn. There is no difference, just pieces of wood. This is the attitude each of us needs to bring into the game each day with respect to each other. If we each do our part then the game can be progressively fun, educational and rewarding. We all get to expand the organization and advance as individuals.

As with any game, there are rules and the rules say that we can’t just move anywhere we want to on the board in any given day. But wait, the queen can move this way and that way, why can’t I do that? And why can’t all the pawns and the bishops and the knights do that? And the answer is that we need to make organized effective use of all that energy that we bring as a team, there has to be a structured flow that brings order to the organization as a whole.

When I was in high school some of the classmates and underclassmen would present a dramatic, theatrical performance, a play. Each wears a different costume. Each character plays a different role, some roles are bigger than others, and some may feel like their role is smaller and thus less significant than someone else’s role.

Were All Chipped from The Same Block of Wood.

Rest assured everyone’s role is important, and at the end of the play when the audience rises to their feet for a standing ovation, they are clapping for everyone. Because the outcome of the play was the sum total of everyone’s efforts. And it was everyone’s efforts combined that delivered the total overall effect. Regardless of the role, at the end of the play, when the costumes come off, the entire cast is part of the same class. Were all chipped from the same block of wood.

Every day at work, one person has been made King, there are bishops, knights and pawns, all these different characters each playing their role. At the end of the day when everyone clocks out, we all walk out the door, the day’s performance comes to an end and the curtain falls. We are all pieces, put back in the same box, we walk out the door remembering that we are cut from the same block of wood, that we are all created equal and we are all to serve one another.

When you come to work you put your costume on and before you walk out the door, you take the costume off. Outside the door we are all members of the human race, with families and loved ones.