To build a cathedral
Architects were stone masons, carvers or carpenters who graduated from long apprenticeships, learning by rote the secrets of geometry and memorising the proven formulae for structural stability.
On top of theory, apprentices worked for years alongside their masters amongst the tradesman and labourers, learning the whole, rough, messy business of getting a remarkable structure built.
You’d think this would lead to conformity, but the gothic style was a thrilling departure that pushed cathedrals higher and flooded the interiors with light from large windows. Notre Dame was an early example. To locals in the 12th century they would have looked like spaceships.
It seems to me that organisational life today is much more splintered, and that we don’t have the same processes for bringing people on in maturity and mastery.
That was one of the impulses for writing the book on deep and deliberate delegation.