2015 area conference on leadership presented by the grand lodge of minnesota leadership education...

2015 Area Conference on Leadership

Presented by the Grand Lodge of Minnesota Leadership Education

Committee

Agenda

Introductions / WelcomeAgenda for the dayKeynote speakerWorking Session 1Lunch Working Session 2&3Town hallClose

Goals for this session

Provide to our participants– Specific Tools & Training that can be

applied immediately– Ideas & Concepts which can be used long

term– Communication & Exchange of information

with GL Leadership

Gather from our participants- Feedback on session Format & Future topics

Keynote Introduction & Speech

• BREAK ~10 min

– Training with team exercises next

Working Session Introduction

Topic Lecture/Discussion

Break into teams, complete exercise

Regroup and share results

THE ELEVATOR SPEECH

An ‘Elevator Speech’ aka ‘Elevator Pitch’

Definition

A short, prepared speech which establishes an idea, provides differentiation and then creates an opportunity for reengagement (hook)

Goal To provide information to the recipient and create an opportunity or even expectation that they will engage in further conversation on the subject.

Elevator Speech

What So WhatWhere How TryReview

Common exampleSomeone sees your ring, a logo on a shirt or bumper sticker and asks about Masonry.

What do you say? How do you answer?

How long until they get the glazed look on their face?

A good elevator speech will provide some information and maximize the chance for continued conversation.


Example Uses

Scenario

Any new idea

Requesting an appointment

Expressing a position or stance

ExampleA new lodge branding and website or supporting a new cause

Time on the grand master’s calendar (or boss or politician etc.)

For instance: dues changes or city zoning changes


Components of an Elevator Speech

• Introduction

• Explanation of the value proposition/differentiation

• Hook for further engagement


What makes this an elevator speech effective?

• Succinct ~ 20 – 30 seconds long• Accessible• Practiced / Flows


Accessibility

"Freemasonry is the subjugation of the Human that is in Man, by the Divine; the conquest of the Appetites and Passions by the Moral Sense and the Reason; a continual effort, struggle and warfare of the Spiritual against the Material and Sensual. That victory--when it has been achieved and secured, and the conqueror may rest upon his shield and wear the well-earned laurels--is the true Holy Empire.“ Source: Albert Pike. Morals and Dogma.What So WhatWhere How Try

Review

Example: “Freemasonry is the world’s largest, oldest and best-known gentleman’s fraternity. It is based on the medieval stonemason guilds who built the great castles and cathedrals of Europe. Modern Freemasons use the tools, traditions and terminology of those stone masons as allegories for building temples in the hearts of men. It’s said that we are a secret society. We do indeed have secrets – secrets that each individual man has to discover for and about himself. It’s not for everybody. Maybe it’s for you.” – Chris H (well known masonic author)

Discussion: Other Examples/stories

When in the past has something like an elevator speech been useful?

Building an Elevator Speech

• Identify your goal• Write the speech

– Introduce the topic– Communicate the differentiation– Engage with a question

• Put it all together• Practice


Helpful Tips - making it better

• Practice• Remove what isn’t essential• Pay attention to non-verbal

communication• Keep it real


Group Exercise Example: What is Freemasonry?• Goal:

• Intro:

• Differentiation:

• Hook:


Team instructions

Select a scenario

The team works on the elevator

Each group will present the results of their work


Recap

Key points to the elevator speech• Accessible• Context• Practice: Verbal and non-verbal delivery• Brief with a good flow and cadence

A communication tool which can be used in a variety of situations


CONCEPT DISCUSSION: CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT

Continual Improvement • Always trying to get better

• Formalized practice– Increased focus– Set priorities– Control the change (planned/deliberate)– Track improvement


Continual Improvement

Identify Plan

Implement

Review

VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER 101

Introduction

Voice of the customer is a label applied to the in-depth process of capturing a customer’s expectations, preferences and aversions.

Coming from a market research discipline this is a formal practice of collecting and analyzing information and building inputs for future action.


Voice of the Customer


Gather information/feedback on what our customers want/need

Use that to help drive plans for future activity or changes

Voice of the Customer & Continual Improvement

Identify Plan

Implement

Review


Member engagement / health check

Event planning (social, fraternal, charitable)

Design or Decision Making

Continual improvement (Stated meetings, mentorship, etc)




• Secrete 3 Step Process:


Identify our Customers

Get their input (ideas / feedback)

Define Requirements (plan input)

Have a goal


Determine GoalIf you don’t know where you’re trying to go, you’ll never get there.

Identify what information you want to

gather and result

Address a Problem

Create a new event/product

Overall Health Check


IMPROVE LODGE MEETING EXPERIANCE


Who is our customer?


Better Meeting Attendance

Social Event

Charity / Fund Raiser

Membership Development


Gathering Desires / Feedback

There are all sorts of methods for gathering data, several are:

Surveys

Interviews

Focus Groups


It’s important to consider the benefits and challenges of each method

Survey

Attributes• Can gather data from larger groups• Standardized questions / data points• Various methods: online, phone,

mail, in person

Response rate can be a challenge, this is sometimes off-set by the use if incentives.



Interviews

Attributes• Can be casual or formal

• Experiential questions tend to elicit greater insight

• Generally, smaller pools, more personal and harder to develop statistics without a survey component



Focus Groups

Attributes• Can be casual or formal

• Verity of formats: Town Hall Style, Group Interview or Brain Storming etc…

Group dynamics can add value or present a challenge – takes more planning to set ‘the stage’



Interview Example: What makes a good meeting

Q: Tell me about the worst lodge meeting you’ve attended?A: Well, one of the worst meetings I’ve ever attended, the officers were reading the ritual out of their books and still making mistakes. The master had no set agenda and the people attending got into side conversations. The meeting dragged on and on and when it was finally time to close, I dreaded sitting through the closing. I felt as if the officers hadn’t invested in the meeting, then it didn’t make sense for me to carve out time to attend.

Q: What in our mind makes a successful meeting?A: Since I run meetings as part of my job, I don’t have a lot of tolerance for inefficient meetings. Good ritual work really sets the tone for the meeting, and I rarely recall the reading of the minute but I do recall a number of good LEO’s. What So WhatWhere How Try

Review

Example: What makes a good meeting

Q: Tell me about the worst lodge meeting you’ve attended?A: well, one of the worst meetings I’ve ever attended, the officers were reading the ritual out of their books and still making mistakes. The master had no set agenda and the people attending got into side conversations. The meeting dragged on and on and when it was finally time to close, I dreaded sitting through the closing. I felt as if the officers hadn’t invested in the meeting, then it didn’t make sense for me to carve out time to attend.

Q: What in our mind makes a successful meeting?A: I like seeing my brothers, having some food and may a drink after lodge. Since I run meetings as part of my job, I don’t have a lot of tolerance for inefficient meetings. I find that good ritual work really sets the tone for the meeting but it doesn’t really stand out unless there are lots of mistakes. I guess I rarely recall the reading of the minute but I do recall a number of good LEO’s.

Perceived investment on the part of the officers

Lack of organization / execution (Logistics) -

Value / Desire

Expectation


Voice of the CustomerExample: Stated Meeting

Lodge Selection• Consistent night • Accessible location • Sufficient seating

During the meeting• Clean Ritual - Expectation• Efficient Agenda & Execution• LEO – Value Add/Want• Start/Finish on time - Expectation• Reading of the Minutes – Place for

improvement?Style/Setting• Formal

Brotherhood• Refreshment(before or after) - Value

Add/WantWhat So WhatWhere How Try

Review



Primary Goal: Improved Meeting Logistics Key items

ITEM ACTION

Start and Finish On Time – meetings open late because people are still getting to the lodge room

Have officers ready on time, drop the gavel and open, if people are outside they can wait until the open is complete

Hold the important items early, close at the published time.

Efficiently Run Meeting – things seem chaotic and disorganized, we spend a lot of time on things that don’t server the craft

Have a specific agenda in advance, per-publish as much as possible to save timeMake the agenda fit the meeting schedule

LEO – Too often LEO’s get cut short or skipped because we run out of time.

Move the LEO to earlier in the meeting, make it a priority

Ritual – Officers reading from the books

Expectation – Know the work - practice


What So WhatWhere How TryReviewAttribute Category Respondents Current Capability Areas for

improvement recommendations?

Start & finish on time

Expectation Most Usually start within 10 minutes but meetings often run late

Efficient Agenda and Execution

Secondary Few The lodge relies on a default standing agenda which doesn’t always account for ‘extra’ items

Have specific agendas developed in advance, pre-publish as much as possible to save time

LEO Secondary Most Sometimes the Leo needs to be shortened or causes the meeting to run late due to other business

Move the LEO to earlier in the meeting

Lower/Softer Lighting

Suggestion Few Use existing lighting – overhead florescence

Replace the lights with softer lighting

More Formality of Dress

Suggestion Few Most officers dress in a shirt and tie however many members tend to the casual

Set the expectation of more formal attire (Note:

Primary Goal: Improved Meeting Logistics Suggestions

ITEM ACTION

Lower/Softer Light in Meetings – The bright light seems too harsh

Can check out with the members, try an experiment to see if different lighting is more appealing

More Formal Dress / Dress Code – I think we’d take it more seriously if we had a more formal dress

Check with the officers, see if they would support more formal dress and ‘lead the way’. Maybe start with degrees.

Exercise Gathering information

Based on the provided scenario

Identify the goal of the information gathering effort

Select a method or methods

Develop some example questions



Guidance

• Know what you’re looking to understand

• Know your audience• 3-7 key pieces if information• Be ready to accept what is provided



Key Behaviors when Soliciting Feedback

Be availableBe attentive

Be activeBe appreciative



MANAGING CHANGE

Voice of the Customer & Managing Change

Identify Plan

Implement

Review


Managing Change

Change is a reality of life. It can be scary, exciting, exhausting, disruptive and sometimes all consuming however without change, there is no growth.

~someone wise


Managing Change

As leaders we deal with changes.

The goal of change management is to ensure the least disruption and derive the greatest chance of success from the change in question.


Managing Change

This is accomplished through careful and deliberate planning for every phase of the change:


Requirements Development

Communication

Execution Support

How many people have experienced the following:

Managing Change


• Initiatives announced and never executed

• One year wonders

• Announcements met with argument or

dismay

• Activities or announcements ignored or

avoided

Some examples:

Managing Change


• New activities

• Physical changes

• Budget/Dues changes

Managing Change

Understand the Change


A change should be purposeful

• Understand the issues/drivers for the change

• What will be changed• Expected Result

Managing ChangeWhat’s impacted or impacting a change


• Technical/ Organizational

• Environmental

• Emotional

Managing Change

Understanding the Audience

How will the impacted people react to the change?

What actions can be taken to build support?

What assurances are needed to smooth things post

change?


Managing Change

Change Logistics

How long will this take to effect?

Will it take more work/time/money? Is there required

practice or investment to make successful?

What is needed to support the change long term?

How will the change be communicated?


Managing Change

Example: Improve the Lodge Meeting Experience


Make changes to ritual and operations to improve the lodge experience and improve meeting attendance.

ITEM

Start and Finish On Time

Efficiently Run Meeting

LEO.

Clean Ritual


Example: Improving the Lodge Experience

Start and Finish On Time• Need to make sure officers are in place to start on time, agenda

supports ending on time.• Communicate this to our Brothers a month in advance and at dinner

prior to the meeting.• No special development needed.• Some Brothers might feel it’s too structured or not like having to wait

outside if they are late – be ready to address

Efficiently Run Meeting • Meet with officers to develop agenda, have secretary print them,

pass them out to the members at the start of the meeting, communicate that we’ll be doing this from now on.

• Make sure the officers are on board with the work and keep to the agenda

LEO Presentation• Master to make sure the LEO is ready, get officer buy in• Schedule LEO to present early in the meeting, stay consistent month

over month• Communicate the change to the Brothers

Clean Ritual ***• Ensure officer support, schedule practices, ask DR or members

for assistance• Development: Practice – No announcement needed

Managing Change

Example: Improve the Lodge Meeting Experience Suggestions


ITEM Approach

Dim Lights Do some voice of the customer work and see if the members would be interestedMaybe try it out at a special event or for part of the meeting

Formal Attire Easy to implement for officers (if they support).Once established discuss with brothers the If & When of formal attire

Managing Change


Considerations in Change Implementation

Established Support

Narrative (how, what, when & why)

Logistics execution

Managing Change


Post Change (Closing The Loop)

Was the expected result attained?

How as the change received?

What went well, what could be

improved?

Is additional investment needed?Hint – can feed back into voice of the customer or other review activity

Team Exercise Based on the provided scenarios

Discuss:Issue/DriverConstraintsExpected Change ApproachPreparationResult

Draft a Message / Announcement


Managing Change

Things to keep in mind

• Change must be balanced with continuity

• Always consider the human element

(emotions)

• Have reasons for the change (expected

benefit) and verify support

• Build support with key stakeholders prior to

the large announcement


Managing Change

10 Minute Break

-Dialog with Grand Lodge Members

next

Closing

2015 area conference on leadership presented by the grand lodge of minnesota leadership education...

Documents

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elevator speech effective

good elevator speech

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gracious host lodge

prepared speech

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