Archive for Planning

John attends a “Not So Perfect Lodge Meeting”

by Mike
August 2nd, 2013

A note from Mike: This is a continuation of the story that began last post. If you missed it click here.

It had been several weeks since John attended The Perfect Lodge Meeting but the thoughts of the experience came to mind as entered he the Lodge building of his friend and brother Mason Ted. Ted had invited John to attend degree work for Ted’s nephew Jack who was to receive his Entered Apprentice degree.

John had attended Ted’s lodge before so he knew that the degree work of the Lodge was usually proficient, but the entire degree experience somehow lacked the dramatic atmosphere that John was used to at his own lodge. Nonetheless, John was looking forward to the evening.

John recognized several Brothers he knew so he circulated through the room saying hello and also introducing himself to the Brethren he had not met. Among the Brethren were several present and past District Deputy Grand Masters and one current grand lodge officer. His friend Ted was a Past DDGM and had invited many he had met while serving his three year term.

The Lodge’s Master, Tom Calvin, headed for the East so everyone, sensing he was about to open, found seats.  This was the third time Tom had served as Master. The dwindling membership of the Lodge made it difficult to find those willing to serve as officers so Past Masters such as Tom had been stepping in to fill the void.

“Good evening Brethren,” Tom began. “Before we get started I have a favor to ask.  We need to fill a few holes in our stations. Would someone on the sidelines be willing to serve this evening as Senior Warden? I’m not sure why but our Sr. Warden isn’t here. I guess we need a Senior Deacon as well, thank you Brother Secretary for noticing that.”

John was a little startled by admission that the Master didn’t know why he didn’t have a Senior Warden and that he hadn’t noticed at all that the Senior Deacon’s position was unfilled as well. He thought it was a little sad that one of the most important events in the candidate’s Masonic life was about to begin and little or no thought had been given to whether there was going to be enough Brothers to fill the stations.

In John’s lodge the entire year had been meticulously planned. Each officer had been given a calendar of meeting dates, including potential specials for degrees, and asked to identify as best as possible, potential conflicts. At the officer’s meeting at the beginning of each month, each officer reported what dates they had conflicts and announced the Brother they had asked to fill in for them. The Master also confirmed with each officer their attendance one week prior to each special degree meeting.  This ensured that all stations were filled.

Luckily, two officers from another Lodge were in attendance and agreed to fill the stations. The Master proceeded in opening Lodge and during the opening John noticed two of the PDDGM’s continued to talk and at times laugh at something they were discussing. John was glad this didn’t happen at his lodge. At his Lodge, prior to opening, the Master reminds the Brethren of the importance of the degree experience and that unnecessary talking detracts from the beauty of the degree.  He asks those in attendance to remember that silence and circumspection are to be practiced.

The Master rapped the gavel, announced the purpose of the meeting, rapped up the Sr. and Jr. Stewards and the degree began.

As the Stewards left to prepare the candidate, John noticed that one was wearing slacks and a golf shirt. The other had on a tie but no jacket and his apron was on a little crooked. John cringed because he was accustomed to the strict dress code adopted at his Lodge for degree work. The officers were either all in tuxes or all in dark suits; no exceptions.

This was a part of “The Excellence of the Degree” manual that was used to ensure that all degree work was performed at the highest level and uniformity of dress was an important aspect. The manual also called for a “walk-through” of the degree prior to its presentation to ensure that each officer was comfortable with their part. The Entered Apprentice degree was considered of utmost importance as it was the first impression the Lodge makes on a candidate and John’s Lodge strived for perfection in all degrees but especially the EA.

The degree, lecture and charge concluded and as the Master left the East to congratulate the newly initiated Entered Apprentice, John thought to himself that the experience had been uninspiring. There had been too much prompting, parts that were delivered with no voice inflection or enthusiasm and finally someone read the charge; not very well to boot.

Worshipful Master Calvin handed the degree booklet and a divided ritual to the new Brother and said, “Here is a booklet you can read and the ritual is in code so we will need to find someone to help you learn it. You’ll need to memorize it before you can get your Fellowcraft degree.”

In John’s Lodge careful attention was paid to the instructions given to a new Brother. It was done by the Lodge Education Officer and had been carefully thought out. It reinforced the significant of the duties the Brother had just assumed and impressed upon him that the work of the degree had only just begun. The assignment of a mentor was an extremely important decision and each new Brother’s mentor had been carefully chosen. This Brother would council the new Brother throughout the remaining degrees and helps direct him in preparing his personal improvement and life plan. The Lodge mentors also were a source for recognizing potential Lodge officers and offering training for those with the desire to lead.

As the Lodge was being closed the Brothers had already started talking among themselves and no one thought to instruct the new Brother what was taking place. Once the meeting was closed the Master said, “Thanks Brothers for attending and our Stewards both had to work so they didn’t have time to pick up refreshments, so I guess that’s it for the evening.”

John went to talk with the Master about something that was on his mind. After the discussion he thanked his friend Ted and congratulated Jack on beginning his journey to become a Mason. John then surprised both Ted and Jack by saying the Master had agreed to let John become Jack’s mentor even if he did belong to another Lodge.

Jack asked John how that could be possible and John’s reply was this:

“Masonry is not about joining a particular Lodge; it’s about taking Masonry’s lessons and using them to honor your God, become a better man, a better provider for your family, and a contributor to your community. A good friend and Brother once told me that Masonry is not something you just join, it is something you become. Part of my duty Jack, as a Mason, is to help you become Masonry.”

John thought as he drove home maybe this “Not So Perfect Lodge Meeting” would turn out something perfect after all. He made a mental note to call Jack and set up their first meeting.

Next: John meets with Jack and asks a startling question.

Categories BM Book, Leadership Blog, Leadership Lessons

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Lodge

by Mike
October 1st, 2012
Many times we overlook some simple things we can do to increase our Brothers’ participation in lodge meetings; here are five.
  1. Greet everyone when they arrive – Have the lodge officers come early, line up and make those attending feel genuinely welcome.
  2. Have a brother with an interesting profession or story present a program – We sometimes forget that there is a wealth of knowledge among our brethren.
  3. Talk to each other – Plan for time so that the brethren can just sit around and get to know one another.
  4. Pay particular attention to new brothers – Make sure they are introduced, include them in casual conversations and find out why they became Masons and what they hope to accomplish.
  5. Find the “Bright Spots” – If you have challenges as a lodge approach them in a positive manner and emphasize what’s right and work together to fix what’s wrong.

If you want some more ideas for lodge programming here is a link to some on The Grand Lodge of Michigan’ site.

Have a Great Masonic Day!
Categories Leadership Blog, Leadership Lessons

Where’s the Masonry?

by Mike
July 25th, 2012

Remember Wendy’s successful ad campaign from a number of years ago; Where’s the Beef? An elderly lady is shown opening her hamburger from another fast food chain and discovering a dinky little piece of meat.

Think about this ad and then think about Masonry.
Have we promised more than we are delivering? Will our new Master Masons come to our meetings and exclaim, “Where’s the Masonry?”

Cliff Porter wrote an article “Value Meal Masonry” that says Masonry shouldn’t be quicker, cheaper or easier.  Read it here. If it is delivered in this manner we may find brothers asking where is the Masonry.

Stephen Dafoe covered the subject in his presentation of “Restaurant at the End of the Masonic Universe.”
Is your Lodge promising one thing and then delivering another? Think about it.

Have a Great Masonic Day!

Categories Leadership Blog, Leadership Lessons

OOPS!

by Mike
July 7th, 2012

San Diego residents expecting a 20 minute fireworks spectacular got about 15 seconds when, what was described as a “technical glitch,” set them all off at one time.

I wonder if the contract between the city and the producer had a clause entitled “If the fireworks go off all at once.” Probably not; but you would suspect that there was something written in about non- performance.

A least one person make a positive comment when he tweeted, “Best part about #bigbayboom fail is that EVERYONE has always wondered what would happen if all fireworks went off at once.” I have always wondered that myself; now I and everyone else know.

This tweet brings up the subject of failure; more especially your attitude concerning failure. John C. Maxwell says:

“Your attitude toward failure determines your altitude after failure.”

How do you view failure?

Excellent leaders view failure as learning opportunities. They understand that despite detailed and careful planning problems will occur. When they do they should be analyzed, understood and then corrected without agonizing about them.

Having a positive mind-set about failure will allow you face it with courage. William Marston, an American psychologist, said, “If there is any single factor that makes for success in living, it is the ability to draw dividends from defeat.”

How will you react the next time all your fireworks go off at one time?

Have a Great Masonic Day!
Categories Leadership Blog, Leadership Lessons

Leading a team is sometimes like trying to nail Jello to a wall

by Mike
January 28th, 2012

Before I get started on the leadership lesson you need to know that someone really was interested enough to determine if you could nail Jello to a wall. After trying a number of different additives to strengthen the Jello they determined this:

“Our further investigation into this area leads us to state the following: Jell-O can be effectively nailed to a wall if you increase its density by reducing the proportion of water to gelatin in the recipe, or fortify it by adding more gelatin powder. Molding holes into the Jell-O or attempting to reinforce the holes was not substantially effective in increasing its ability to withstand stress. Apparently you can also nail Jell-O to a wall if you embed plastic mesh in it, or ramen noodles. Sliced fruit may increase Jell-O’s nutritional value, but makes only a minor contribution to its structural integrity when embedded.”

 Here is the link to the site which documents the entire experiment. http://www.myscienceproject.org/j-wall.html

It seems from this experiment that Jello made in the conventional manner is pretty impossible to nail to a wall. To be successful you must change the recipe and reinforce the Jello with other things.

 Sometimes when leading a team a leader finds that the original team recipe will not accomplish the goals and the team needs to be supplemented with additional resources. This is what a leader does; he is constantly monitoring progress, adjusting, and when necessary supplementing the team with additional tools or people.

So if you don’t want your team and your project to end up in one messy pile here are some thoughts:

  1.  Make sure you pick team members who will complement each other with the necessary skills
  2. Make sure you have properly communicated the vision and it is understood
  3. Make sure you have properly planned the project and anticipated potential roadblocks
  4. When the project seems to be slipping off the wall, react quickly and decisively

 By doing these things you have a greater chance of your Jello looking like this:

 

Have a Great Masonic Day!
Categories Leadership Blog, Leadership Lessons

Are you pretending to be a real leader?

by Mike
September 4th, 2011

As “Hail to the Chief” began to play the doors of the ballroom burst open and in walked President George W. Bush and two Secret Service Agents. I was sitting at the opposite end of room and from where I sat it sure looked like President Bush. He bounded upon the stage, began to speak and it sure sounded like the former president; but it wasn’t.

It was John Morgan a George Bush impersonator. John has mastered Bush’s voice, his mannerisms and with the addition of some of those George Bush butchered words, makes you believe he is the real deal.

So this made me think of some of the leaders I’ve known that are just like John’s portrayal of Bush; they look like a leader, when you first see them they appear to act like a leader, and they talk like a leader. But as time goes by you find that really all there is to their leadership is the talk and they never back it up with real leadership action.

Real leaders have a bias for action. Matter of fact they get restless and bored if things aren’t moving. They also are impatient with people who are indecisive. The sure way to drive a true leader nuts is to say something like; “I’m not sure we should do this, maybe we should study it more.” This is like fingernails on a chalkboard to a real leader because they have already said, “We are here, we want to go there, here are the obstacles and here are solutions to remove the obstacles.” In other words, they have a plan and they are ready for action.

Don’t just look like a leader, act like one.

Have a Great Masonic Day!
Categories Leadership Blog, Leadership Lessons

The Michael Jordan Music Triangle

by Mike
August 31st, 2011

I called my friend Michael Jordan to wish him a happy birthday. Ok, before you think I’m friends with the basketball Michael Jordan you need to know that I’m not. My friend Michael Jordan is a musician; more specifically a keyboard player and a damn good one.

I’ve known Mike since high school and he first introduced me to playing rock ‘n roll music in a band. Over the years we have shared some great adventures, music, vehicles and many, many laughs.

In our recent conversation he was telling me about getting numerous phone calls asking him to play various gigs with various bands and how he makes the decision whether to say yes or not. He said he uses “The Music Triangle.”

Mike says, “It’s all about the music.” Here is the order in which he uses it:

  1. The Music – Who are the other musicians? Are they talented enough that the music will be of good quality?
  2. The Hang – Where is the gig? Will I enjoy the place and the people who will attend?
  3. The Money – What is the pay?

Since it’s all about the music, if the players are not at least as equally talented as Mike, it’s a no. If it is a group of talented musicians and Mike knows the music will be good but the gig is in some crappy bar full of thugs, it’s a no. The money is the last thing considered and there sometimes there are situations where it may cost him to play. Let’s say it’s a great group of talented musicians, playing at an outdoor festival and there is pay but not enough to cover expenses; probably a yes.

Now that you get the concept of the triangle you can start using it as a tool for deciding what activities to devote time to in your life. Let’s call it your life triangle and it would look like this:

  1. The Passion – Are you passionate about what you will be doing?
  2. The People – Will you be around other people who are also passionate about the same activity and will they motivate you
  3. The Pay – Will the time spent enrich your life and be worth the sacrifice?  

 Making choices in life needs to start with passion. If you are not passionate about something you won’t give it your best effort, you’ll possibly find yourself around people you don’t want to be around, and the sacrifice of your time won’t be worth it.  How many times have you reluctantly agreed to do something you didn’t want to do? If you have, you probably said when it was over, “boy, am I glad that’s over with.”

 So the next time something hits you up to get involved in an activity, apply the Michael Jordan Music Triangle to assess if it will be worth your time.

 By the way, here is my buddy Mike Jordan with the Doug Hart Band.

Have a Great Masonic Day!
Categories Leadership Blog, Leadership Lessons

Getting ready for when the little green men come

by Mike
August 20th, 2011

A recently released study by three scientists explored the possible outcomes should earth be visited by aliens from somewhere else in the universe. The study listed a number of outcomes from beneficial to harmful. Contact with extraterrestrials might lead to a discussion of math and science or helpful information on solving issues like world hunger or poverty. Or, at the other end of the spectrum; Aliens could intentionally plan to eat or enslave people on earth.

I don’t know about you, but waking up and worrying about being eaten by an alien is not something I do often. What I do worry about is when they land and utter those immortal words “Take me to your leader” and we can’t find one.

So maybe before the aliens show up we need to assess how we select leaders in our volunteer organizations. Do we know what leadership qualities we are looking for? If we do, is there a selection process designed to find potential leaders with these qualities?

Jim Collins wrote about the leadership selection process in volunteer organizations and said that when searching for leaders and there is no compensation at all, that doesn’t excuse you from attempting to find the best possible leader. He says, “it makes selectivity all the more vital.”

With the success of your organization riding on the abilities of those leading, doesn’t make sense to find the best qualified people you can?

Here are some suggestions that can help raise the quality level of your leaders.

  1. Outline the responsibilities of each leadership position and the organization’s expectations on how the responsibilities are to be carried out.
  2. Decide what qualities and talents are desired in your leaders and develop a list.
  3. Communicate the responsibilities and qualities to the entire organization and commit to using them as a tool to assess potential leadership candidates.

The important thing here is to get buy-in and commitment from the organization for this process. It will be much easier to develop it than to actually apply and use it. It you start granting individual exceptions then you have doomed the process to failure.

So when the little green men come and say “Take me to your Leader,” wouldn’t it be great to be able to say, “We are all leaders, how can we help you?”

Have a Great Masonic Day!  
Categories Leadership Blog, Leadership Lessons

Wrestling with Pigs

by Mike
August 7th, 2011

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it. George Bernard Shaw

This quote came to mind as I struggled with a situation that has pitted a group of logical thinking leaders on one side of an issue and on the other, a group who has come ill-prepared for the complicated task at hand.

One might think that this is a no-brainer. The guys who have approached the issue with a well thought out plan certainly have an advantage. After all, they have done research, logically thought of the issue from each side’s perspective, and look at each face-to-face encounter with the other group as a dialogue not a debate. The word “dialogue” is a favorite of mine. It basically means that a group is sharing knowledge with each other so that each person in the group ultimately gains greater understanding. Leaders think this way; pigs don’t.

Leadership pigs are basically positional leaders. John Maxwell defines these types of leaders are those you follow because you have to. They have a title that has given them certain rights and those rights have given them authority over you; but only for a short time. Why? Because you usually find that leaders who attempt to lead using their title only have equated authority with superiority. Instead of using the title as a start to building a relationship, they wave it around in an egotistical manner and have convinced themselves that with the title comes infinite wisdom.

So these pigs have wallowed around in this positional, egotistical mud so long that the proper leadership approach to a problem, e.g., proper logical thought, proper planning, intellectual dialogue, just doesn’t appear on their radar screen. They expect you to jump into the mud with them and what that means is they want you at a disadvantage and to believe they have the advantage because of their title.

So what do you do if you find that you have encountered a situation which, if you are not careful, may have you wrestling with pigs or worse yet already in the mud? Here are some suggestions:

  • Rule #1 – Don’t go anywhere near the barnyard. If it looks like a pig, smells like a pig and acts like a pig; it is a pig.
  • Rule #2 (Assuming you ignored Rule #1) – Wear old clothing. Don’t come to the first meeting in your new suit. In other words, don’t reveal everything you know. Let them think you are a pig too.
  • Rule #3 – Hose yourself off frequently – After each encounter review your purpose and your goals and decide if another meeting is going to accomplish anything.
  • Rule #4 – Know when the stink won’t wash off – Recognize when it is time to walk away. As Kenny Rogers sang; “you got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them.”

Dealing with inadequate leaders can be very frustrating, especially with those who from time to time you are forced to deal with. Be patient. Remember the old saying; “give a man enough rope and he will eventually hang himself.” In any event try to avoid wrestling with pigs.

Have a Great Masonic Day!
Categories Leadership Blog

Burning your candle at both ends the right way

by Mike
March 26th, 2011
Bent Objects by Terry Border
The picture on the right is by Terry Border and you can find more of his creations on his blog http://www.bentobjects.blogspot.com/ . A friend sent me an email with a series of these creatures and this one caught my eye.

Any leader worth his salt is passionate about the people and the organization he is attempting to lead. With that passion often comes the tendency to try to do too much, and as the picture suggests, it will burn you out quickly.

I don’t want to discuss the negative aspects of “burning your candle at both ends,” but the positive things you should always be doing as a leader.

 What are the things a leader should be doing constantly?

  1. Maintaining and displaying a positive attitude. – Napoleon said, “A leader is a dealer in hope.” How can you expect your followers to work hard toward the organization’s vision if you, the leader, are not positive and encouraging?
  2. Assist and support those whom you have empowered. – Always be connecting with your people and making sure they have all the tools necessary to carry out their responsibilities. Are there roadblocks? If there are, remove them. Is there something else they need to do their job? If so, get it for them.
  3. Assess your goals and adjust if necessary. – Always be re-examining and be willing to adjust if conditions change.
  4. Communicate – Don’t ever stop doing this. Keep everyone armed with the latest information.
  5. Learning – Leaders are always learning. They don’t stop and they always look at every encounter with people as a learning experience.
  6. Know your limits – Remember that Superman is a fictional character so don’t try to be him. Rely on your team.

So, if you are a passionate leader and find yourself burning your candle at both ends, stop and assess your activity. Is it positive activity or are you headed for a meltdown?

Have a great Masonic day!

Categories Leadership Blog, Leadership Lessons
Next Page »

Copyright © 2017 All Rights Reserved
iThemes Builder by iThemes
Powered by WordPress