[Editor’s note: this article is a synopsis of MDI president Chris Christopher‘s remarks delivered at the MDI Town Hall event in February. It has been edited and condensed for brevity, and some remarks have been altered for simplicity of syntax.]
Every journey begins with a single step, no doubt, but some take longer than others. On the face of it the path laid out at last month’s MDI Town Hall—what MDI President Chris Christopher calls Doug’s Journey—is not long.
1. It starts with a Weekend.
2. Then, an 8-week Point Team Program to learn how to succeed on a men’s team.
3. After that it’s on to an actual Men’s Team that meets every week.
4. Once embedded, the 90-day Membership Training Program (MTP) commences.
5. Later—whenever that particular Doug is ready—there’s a step into Leadership within the organization.
6. And finally, to bookend the journey, another weekend: Legacy Discovery (LD), MDI’s signature Weekend, a full-throttle leap into Mature Masculinity.
But this relatively quick trip, this modest odyssey, becomes a lifelong trek, a never-ending search, a quest where the Grail is greatness, excellence, and mature masculine leadership at home, at work, and in the community.
Check out the 3-minute animated video (below) which kicked off the Town Hall and which lays all this out. You’ll be glad you did.
I know, right? The stick figures are adorable! But that wasn’t the whole Town Hall, far from it.
“Tonight,” said president Christopher, “I want to share with you the results of relentless work and thought on how we can make our organization have its maximum impact on our families, careers, communities, and the world.”
Hmm. . .ambitious. Say more, won’t you?
“This all started for me years ago when I spent five years on the board of directors. . . I found myself focused on a phrase buried in the middle of our mission: ‘And, as mature masculine leaders. . .'”
“Gentlemen. I have news for us, and I start with myself. Most of us did not arrive on MDI’s doorstep as mature masculine leaders. Just take a second and remember the man that showed up that very first time.
“We were taught, coached, mentored and inspired and our mission demands that we create mature masculine leaders—because it only works if we are mature masculine leaders.
“Your core team has [therefore] been hard at work creating a curated path we call Doug’s journey. When followed, it will lead men to mature masculine leadership.”
Christopher went on to discuss the introduction of The Art of Masculinity into MDI, a relatively new development; and the subsequent development of Doug’s journey as a concrete series of specific steps and events. “And then,” he said…
“And then it happened. I was stopped cold by a simple question: is Doug’s journey worth taking?”
“Rather than respond with some platitude,” he continued, “the leadership team mobilized around this question, hammering away at every step laid out for Doug using a simple, elegant standard: that everything we do must be excellent. Anything that doesn’t currently meet that standard absolutely must be moving towards it.”
“And one of the things we need to do with excellence is hunt for Doug. But not one Doug, oh no. Indeed, the poor fellow comes in a wide variety of stages and states. There’s ‘Lonely‘ Doug,” Christopher continued, “who wakes up one day with the kids all gone. There is also ‘My Marriage is a Wreck’ Doug, ‘My Life is Out of Control’ Doug, ‘I Don’t Know What I’m Doing’ Doug and many, many more. Think we can help any of those Dougs?”
As MDI Executive Director Stan Snow noted at this point, “the first step in Doug’s journey, the Art of Masculinity (TAOM) weekend, has quietly become a tremendous recruiting tool for MDI. It puts Doug in the arena, prepares him in part for a team, and shows him what’s possible once there are strong, mature men around him. TAOM attendees,” he said, “become MDI members at a significant clip.”
“It all starts with an invitation,” noted Christopher. “Almost no one came to MDI without an invitation and many of us can name the man who invited us. Men who cared about you did that work, they invited you.
“And now, a new invitation: join me and your leadership team in getting very proactive about seeking out Dougs—Dougs of every kind—and inviting them to begin their journey.”
There was more but you get the gist. The years when we relied on Facebook alone to offer what we have to new men are over: Facebook is useful to a point, but it’s up to us, to all of us now.
Likewise, the years when MDI membership was all it took, that toe-dipping, join-a-team / leave-a-team exercise in attrition, are also over. Now, there’s a better, stronger, more excellent path laid out so men can milk every available drop of wisdom from MDI. The trip to mature masculinity has been paved with the clarity and precision mapping of a Triple-A TripTik.1 Doug’s journey is that path, the path to Mature Masculine leadership.
“Okay,” asked Christopher. . . “but what is this Mature Masculine leadership I keep talking about? We asked ChatGPT and I love its answer. It said that Mature, masculine leaders,
-> bring stability and integrity, they are anchors in chaos
-> protect the vulnerable: they are guardians. They use strength to shield, not dominate
-> bring clear vision and purpose. While often driven, they are committed to something bigger than themselves
-> respect power. They influence through earned trust and uplift others rather than making them feel small
-> possess courage and sacrifice – they take on burdens others avoid. They walk toward the fire when others flee
-> model wholeness for future generations and heal generational wounds, not perpetuate them“
While MDI doesn’t have a specific definition of ‘mature masculine leader,’ he continued, “here is my promise to you: when you make habits of the six traits described above. . . like it or not, the world will see you and treat you as one, and you will experience the joys of leadership that follow.”
“Our job in MDI is to create as many mature masculine leaders as we possibly can and it all starts with you. Now go! Go on a Doug hunt. . . And bring him back alive!”
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- The ‘TripTik’ was once a widely used, if primitive, route-mapping tool: a spiral-bound ink-and-paper precursor to the GPS. ↩︎
