Beyond Deming The Cathedral Model – Frank Devine
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Nov 2, 2025 
Frank Devine, an experienced HR and leadership practitioner who created the Cathedral Model, explains his systematic, evidence-based approach to improving leadership quality. He discusses designing shared purpose and local behavior standards, sequencing coaching and feedback, treating root causes not symptoms, and scaling change with Rapid Mass Engagement. Multiple short, practical stories and experiments illustrate the model.
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Leadership As An Interactive System
- View leadership as an interactive system, not disconnected modules; sequence and interaction create leverage and reveal unintended consequences.
- The Cathedral Model organises high-impact skills above a Pareto break and removes dilutive low-value activities.
Deal With Emotion Before Logic
- Manage emotional state before applying logic: use acknowledgement, selective agreement and reframing to create curiosity and openness.
- Saying logical points while someone is emotional wastes effort and often irritates the person instead of persuading them.
Fix Overcommitment Not Just Resilience
- Avoid treating symptoms like stress with resilience training alone; diagnose root causes such as overcommitment and fix them with improvement methods.
- The Cathedral Model omits generic resilience training and instead teaches employees to self-diagnose overcommitment sources and reduce workload causes.
