In The Godfather universe, there are roughly four kinds of roles within the family: the Godfather, the Caporegimes, the soldiers, and the Consigliere.
The Godfather is the moral leader of the family, its public face, its heart and soul.
The Caporegimes are the lieutenants, the underbosses.
The soldiers are the buttonmen, who steal and intimidate and murder on behalf of the family. They do the dirty work. Or they get coffee.
The Consigliere is the counselor, the advisor. They are The Godfather’s trusted confidant, and the brains of the family. I think of their job as being smarter than the Godfather.
There are peacetime consiglieres and wartime consiglieres. Their job is different in different circumstances. The best consigliere of all is skilled at both.
In a criminal family, it makes sense to have as few consiglieres as possible. They know all your secrets; they know where all the bodies are. If they betray U, or are captured, U are ruined.
I’ve been very inspired by the Godfather universe. The mafia has good social technology, even if I do not approve of theft or murder or gambling.
I want to use those social technologies in The Service Guild.
Last year, I started asking several friends to act as Consiglieres to me in my role as Guildfather. Having their counsel and advice with the many problems and challenges we face in the Guild has accelerated the rate at which we can solve those problems, overcome those challenges—and improved the grace and skill with which we do so.
Hearing multiple perspectives, from people with similar visions and values, but different life experiences, leads to solutions that are better than any one of us could come up with alone.
The Current Consiglieres of The Service Guild are: