Q Source
F2: Language

Preparatory work (warm-up):
The F3 Lexicon contains the particularized language of F3 leadership. It is available online https://f3nation.com/lexicon/ My goal below is to show how this foundational concept of F3 leadership is both circuitous and useful. Every F3 word I use in direct reference to its lexicon definition is both capitalized and italicized for distinction.

The Thang:
When we discuss language, remember this is the area where from the outside F3 feels like a cult. I (YHC) felt like this when I first started Posting.
“Why does everyone need a special name?” *
“Why can’t we just have normal names for exercises?” **
G3L…uh? 3S2T….huh?
And what the heck is a Q?

Here’s why language is a foundational concept according to Q Source: “Every Effective group has its own Language.” For this sentence to be comprehensible, two words need the lexicon:

• Effective: The degree to which a person or Group is Purposeful.
• Language: The Lexicon of Virtuous Leadership

PAX still need to dive further still into the lexicon:

• PAX: A Member of F3 Nation (can be singular or plural).
• Group: A voluntary combination of two or more people.
• Purposefulness: Commitment to Purpose
• Purpose: An Advantage sought.

But wait, we’ve still got to dig deeper.

• Advantage: A superior circumstance achieved by Movement.
• Movement: Actions taken in furtherance of Purpose.

So, here’s the circuitous route I want us to discuss. Warning circular writing ahead:

Purpose is an Advantage sought. An Advantage is a superior circumstance achieved by Movement. And Movement is action taken in furtherance of Purpose. Remember, Purpose is an Advantage sought. So…we can gain an Advantage to a superior circumstance by Movement, which are actions taken in furtherance of our Purpose. And our Purpose is an Advantage sought. Etcetera. Because the definition for these three terms is intertwined, they must coexist. You cannot have Movement without having Purpose or Advantage. Either you have all three or we have none. Purpose without both Advantage and Movement is meaningless.

Once we can clarify a term in the lexicon or see multiple Qs use it in the same way, we understand its meaning in an F3 context. Because so many of the lexicon definitions are pared down* to one specific meaning, communication is simple using a shared language where key terms lack confusion. Communicating like this gives the PAX quick understanding. The shared language gives us the means to accomplish together as a Group what would be impossible for the individual.

The mission of F3 is the invigoration of male community leadership. With the advent of specific and particular language, PAX develop a tool to facilitate their leadership.

This circular language models our own path of Acceleration in any endeavor. (Acceleration: To increase the pace of Movement.) Because we understand that Movement is in service Purpose, we seek betterment for any Purpose we may have. Our Purpose could be leading a workout (1st F), our Purpose could be to be a sacrificial father (2nd F), or our Purpose could be deeper spiritual connection (3rd F). Regardless of what area of life we examine, our desire for Acceleration towards our Purpose remains.

Perhaps, for the veteran PAX, you’ve noticed that Qing an F3 workout is so much easier than leading at your workplace. (Maybe YHC is alone on this…?) I argue that a majority of the difficulty at work is you, your peers, your subordinates, and your superiors do not share the same language. You can use the same words and each population interprets them to mean different things. Without that shared language, we quickly relive the lessons of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). At the university, we relive those lessons vividly every faculty meeting.

While my main income (Mammon) is from teaching music at a university, I am frequently asked to sub in with professional orchestras. This requires me to jump into a functioning Group with little to no on-boarding. One reason this works is musicians have a shared language of notation, and a flexibility to match stylistically the ensemble sound. The leader of an orchestra is the conductor (maestro or maestra). One of the main criticism musicians have of any (every?) conductor is their failure in Articulation (Q3.5): describing Vision to others. When a conductor is unable or unwilling through gesture to communicate their musical vision, they move towards verbal communication.

Musical notation developed over a long period of time. There are meanings for each meticulous marking. However even within the language of musical notation, there is an immense amount of room for interpretation. Ask a Czech musician how to interpret Dvořák, and they will say if you see a staccato note, it must be staccato. And an accented note, must be accented. Ask a Russian violinist how to interpret Tchaikovsky; they will say when you see a staccato, it must be staccato. If you see and accent, it must be accented! As an American, when I hear European orchestras play Bernstein with a European conductor, they often miss the nuances and inflection of his music. Even though they’re playing the staccato notes their version of staccato. Clearly musical language has an accent that must be accounted for.

A good conductor can effectively use language to convey much of their musical vision. But a great conductor will create language to elicit exactly what they’re seeking from the orchestra. This is especially true the longer a maestro leads an ensemble. The musicians understand the maestro’s language. The best example from my experience was when maestro said, “let’s do it again, but think Johann Strauss with Debussy’s chordal aesthetic.” That comment completely altered the orchestra’s interpretation for the better, and we were not playing a piece by Strauss or Debussy. Obviously, we understood maestro’s language. That comment probably means nothing to you without an understanding of J. Strauss waltzes and Debussy’s harmonic language.

A musical interpretation example you may be able to experience is the opening of Star Wars: Main Title. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D0ZQPqeJkk) Listen to the first chord and think of it as a downward gesture in energy. Imagine the conductor coming down with their arms to start the ensemble. Then start the recording again and consider the opening to begin with up energy. Imagine the conductor’s hands raising with the baton extending out and up to open the piece. Does the same recording feel differently depending on how you interpret it in your mind?

There is no one common language of leadership. But Effective Groups will utilize a unique language in the furtherance of their mission. Groups without a unique language still work and often achieve their missions. However, there are more unproductive or ineffective steps along the way. As leaders, let’s work towards utilizing language as a tool that will make our efforts Effective. With refinement, language is not an obstacle between our shared understanding, but a tool at our disposal.

Prayer:
Lord,
I ask, as did the writer of Hebrews (12:1-2), for perseverance to run the race you have marked out for us. But our human diligence only carries us so far with mortal strength and finite lifespans. Bless us through the Holy Spirit with the language to be effective as we run your race. That our faithful efforts emboldened by your presence would bring glory to you.
Amen.

*When you have a specific and particular name in a given context you build an identify around that. Justin wouldn’t be willing to run miles on a raining morning and do 100 pull-ups while swinging a kettlebell, but Band Camp will joyfully do that in support of a fellow PAX’s Q. (I can mumble chatter joyfully during the workout too, right?) There’s also an element to the name that signifies you’re a part of the group. Your ability to cope with a silly nickname indicates to all the PAX that you can handle hard truths with grace.

**I don’t like doing push-ups, but when they’re called “Merkins” they seem to have a different Purpose.

Greetings and happy new year.  For QSource this year I’m going to attempt putting together short articles on topics from our fellow pax around The Fort.  They will be for you to digest and discuss as you go about your week.  So, for the first week, I am volunteering as tribute to guide this effort and open myself (and this approach) up to criticism.  The first topic is disruption, which seems befitting as this is the first step in a new direction.  I’m going to try to convince you that disruption is not only a prerequisite in the process of improving one’s life but a basic necessity of life.

If we explore our existence from the basic levels, we can find some things that are necessary for our own survival which may not be self-evident.  Observing the world around us, we see all objects in the world on an endless timeline of actions/reactions that are both completely random and completely predictable all at the same time (chaos theory).  Then there is life.  With life comes a stored memory of these actions and reactions which will dictate how behavior is changed (adaptation) and how life changes through the generations (evolution).  In the same way, we need proper conditions conducive to life (food, water, shelter), life also needs something to adapt to or it can not be called life at all.  Therefore, the status quo is not only “less desirable” it is a hostile condition that renders life useless and leads to self-destructive behavior.  It may be the reason why “I’m fine” is both true and everything but.

As a Control Systems Engineer, I deal with measurement and control on a fundamental level to the extent that I see it in everything (feedback).  Because we can not learn anything about a process while it is at steady-state (read: status quo), we have to inject a disturbance (read: disruption) in order to see how the system behaves.  Only then will we learn anything, and only then will see if the system is capable of handling the process.  Only with disruption will you ever know of competence, which some psychologists are now seeing as a basic psychological need:  “Competence concerns the experience of effectiveness and mastery. It becomes satisfied as one capably engages in activities and experiences opportunities for using and extending skills and expertise. When frustrated, one experiences a sense of ineffectiveness or even failure and helplessness.”  Link

Let me give you a metaphor.  Let’s say you try to develop the ability to do a handstand.  Your entire muscle chain from your fingers to your hip flexors will develop in the process, because you will use every muscle to help you stabilize.  Your muscles will get stronger, your nervous system will develop, and your balance will improve.  With practice, you will learn how to balance with less and less effort.  This will eliminate the need for muscle recruitment and lead to atrophy… unless you don’t stop at just a handstand.  We can not become intoxicated with the pride of holding a longer handstand when it is at the cost of your overall capability.  The skill is a basic practice that is helping to become more competent at the simple activity of moving and controlling one’s own body.  The disruption that instigated the need to do handstands needs to be replaced with a new disruption.  You must now learn to walk on your hands, then walk up stairs on your hands, etc.

Because we know that disruption is needed for life, we now have to figure out how to use disruption to “influence movement to advantage”.  That’s where you, dear reader, come in to play.  Due to our own shortsightedness or perhaps even willful ignorance, we can often not see our own need for disruption or perhaps the proper disruption that precedes advantage.  Advantage is a “superior circumstance” that is not defined by our own feeble senses or fickle emotions, but by the community as a whole.  Advantage is any condition that promotes the health of all life that is influenced and helps all things thrive.  This unconditional service to all life (of which we are a part) is what is defined as love.  In other words, love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (Cor13:7)

As a leader, we must be constantly using disruption to increase competence and seek advantage, but it can not stop.  We must constantly be challenging the status quo and asking others to do the same for the health of our society.  Give them a reason.

Cultivate virtue in yourself,
And it will be true.
Cultivate virtue in the family,
And it will be overflowing.
Cultivate virtue in the town,
And it will be lasting.
Cultivate virtue in the country,
And it will be abundant.
Cultivate virtue in the world,
And it will be universal.

Therefore:
See others as yourself.
See families as your family.
See towns as your town.
See countries as your country.
See worlds as your world.

~Tao Te Ching