The World Conference Of Regular Masonic Grand Lodges is getting underway in Berlin Germany. I had considered attending, but between the uncertainty surrounding European travel in this time of Covid, and the fact that I am doing all I can to be extremely frugal with Grand Lodge funds, I thought better of it.
One question that is going to be discussed at the Conference is however extremely interesting to me. So instead of flying to Berlin to discuss it, I thought we could discuss it right here on Emeth.
Has Covid-19 been a form of Creative Destruction that our Fraternity needed?
In my view, the pandemic has given us a tremendous opportunity to remove stagnation and break away from old habits that no longer serve Freemasonry in a positive way.
I’m not sure how well we have taken advantage of that however.
But, there is still time, we are just now pulling out from this profoundly changing event.
-As you likely noticed, discussion topics were lighter in volume than usual so far this week. Not because I ran out of things to ask, rather I’ve been under the weather the past couple of days. That seems to have gotten better now.
As with every Thursday, we will have a Live Open Thread for those with a paid subscription to Emeth today. Please join me on that thread, we can discuss whatever Masonic topic might be on your mind.
Well for one I have mix feelings, I missed the in person meeting and especially our dinners time. Having said that , I believe this covid pandemic has open up our eyes to what could be a very good thing. One being zoom meeting Can be interwoven in lodge programs allowing members from far away or one who for reasons can't attend. Our lodge use zoom when we couldn't meet to keep Brothers inform on what was happening, made it easier for officers to keep our lodges Bill's paid ect ect. Zoom will be a great tool for getting speakers in our lodges for educational purposes we have never been able to get in before. I believe thing are improving and will continue to improve by using these new ideas.
Creative destruction...adaptation. The two must work together. My observation is that our Masonic culture doesn't move unless forced to. This is to its peril. The Great Decline has been underway for decades. The Fraternity has tried to manage its way out of the situation in a number of ways, but serious events are the only time changes actually seem to really happen. The MRC issue was only put to be after the Great Recession. We've only in the past few months, in my observation, been meaningfully addressing the root issue of the decline, by giving Lodges clear direction from the GM to focus on education and the quality of experience. This is good, but where does COVID fit. COVID forced Lodges to find a different way - the sad thing, however, is that many Lodges (I know this because of my work), simply took the year off during the edict of closure and didn't really figure out how to keep fellowship, activities, and charitable work going. They didn't know how to solve the problem, and didn't understand how to utilize Grand Lodge as a resource. This is sad, but in the natural world animals with disease, age and weakness tend to die off. Organizations that can't adapt face the same plight. This is why consistent communication, leadership and vision matters.
Having attended a World Conference of Grand Lodges, I will say that this is a place where American attendees can learn much from foreign Brethren. Masons, in so many places in the world have to fight to keep their Masonry, due to political and cultural issues that make it more challenging to be a "public" Mason. This means that there is a lot of serious thought going into leadership and the development of the Fraternity. Many don't realize that much of Masonry was destroyed in Europe by the Nazis. We hear it, but we don't internalize what that means - the theft and destruction of Masonic ephemera and records, the destruction of buildings, and forcing people underground. Partition after the war meant that many in Eastern Europe could be underground Masons, if Masons at all. There is a significant hunger for Masonry around the world.
My sense in the US, having attended many Conferences of Grand Masters of North America is that American Masonry takes itself for granted. We are an inward looking group, and tend not to embrace change. No big news there, but it doesn't have to be that way, and it is indicative of the decline we've been seeing. A frustration of mine is that we know exactly what the problem is, but we continue to admire the problem rather than engage in meaningful lodge level and jurisdiction-wide discussion on how to change this. This has been the case, until recently at the CGMNA as well. Change, however is beginning, and I applaud MW Cameron for emphasizing the need to improve our quality in all aspects of what we do, but I also see that we have a cultural issue within the Fraternity that prevents us from engaging in meaningful communication and dialogue where we work together to solve problems. Innovation and confrontation of important, sometimes difficult issues is not valued, because it means that we have to have difficult conversations and this gets confused with disharmony or conflict - it isn't. The discussion of conflicting ideas is the only way issues get solved. When there are differences of opinion, this is when communication and leadership matters most. We say we can do this. We even have the tools to do this, but as a Fraternity we don't do it very well at all. During times of creative destruction you will have two sets of voices - those who say we need to change things, and those who say we can't change things. The Fraternity is a traditional, conservative group, so by definition tends to react, rather that look ahead. Not good or bad, just how it is. But because of this it makes it extremely difficult to look into the future and anticipate what needs to happen next. We celebrate George Washington much more than we think about what we want for our children and grand children who may be Masons in the future. In my opinion it is imperative that we think of our selves, regardless of title or position, as stewards who care for this temporarily. We need to stop focusing on money and start focusing on people. Money is simply a tool and doesn't come first. A Lodge doesn't need money to operate - it needs only a high hill or low dale.
To paraphrase our work, the duty of a WM or GM is to get the craft working and give them direction. So, we go this way this year, that way next year, and the other way last year.
While there are glimmers of light within the Fraternity, on whole my observation is that due to its highly structured form and high value placed on tradition, it has enormous difficulty looking to future and anticipating ways that it may need to change. This, in part, has to do with the rapid cycling leadership model in which one individual at the Lodge or Grand Lodge level is invested with an enormous amount of power, but only for one year at a time.
As a result, the Fraternity tends to confuse management with leadership - both need to happen, but leadership requires a vision. Annual vision changes make it extremely difficult for any organization to get traction. It makes it hard for those who try their best to have a sense of success, which is de-motivating, and people on the sidelines continue to sit on the sidelines waiting for someone to show them the way.
So this year we may have a great Master who is excited, motivating, and leading, while next year we may not have a leader, who just gets by doing the work. We ought not confuse the ability to perform ritual well with being a good manager or leader.
So what is my point? The Fraternity can change if it wants to. It doesn't need to wait for a creative destruction event to adapt. With good, consistent leadership and a long term vision that is built through meaningful engagement and communication, the Fraternity can weather events beyond its control. Leaders look ahead. They listen to their stakeholders and partners, they are creative, they look ahead and they find the path forward.
Most importantly we need to provide our Lodge leaders with better and more consistent support and information to help them wake up and engage their membership. We do this to some extent, but some times it can be too little too late. My fear is that COVID is just one creative destruction event, but there may be more and sooner in succession. What is our plan? Do we get ahead of it have a contingency template and plan for Lodges, or do we wait and see what happens next?
Our creative destruction event isn't a recession or pandemic, it has been our long term failure to come together and meaningfully discuss what we want as a Fraternity, how we will work together to get there and what we need from our leaders.
MWB I hope you feel better. I think its too early to evaluate the impact of COVID19 on our fraternity. It could have been 'creative destruction', but it could also just be a damaging blow. COVID19 locked us in our homes during a very tulmultous time, and i think history will see the social unrest of the last 2 years and the COVID19 virus as having a synergistic effect, and our fraternity was in no way immune.
Has Covid-19 been a form of Creative Destruction that our Fraternity needed? Dear God (whoops, I mean Dear Great Architect), I hope so! Like it or not, our world as changed. Think about it. Our world changed after 911 and I'm willing to bet that Covid has changed it more.
Certainly our Fraternity is divided on this issue, and I'm sorry to say that the Brothers who don't want things to change aren't going to get what they want. The next generation of Masons are living in the same changed world and they're going to approach any new activity with changed expectations. Not one of us has the answer but we all need to be open to exploring how to adapt.
Over time every organization has to shed its skin. Live it, or live with it.
Lodges need to seriously reflect on just what they are doing. It would be nice if during this event they had taken the time to reflect on who they are and what are they doing as masons and make changes they need to make (if any) coming back to labor. But most didn’t. They simply are returning back to the same old some old and driving their wagon right over the cliff. Probably merrily reading the minutes as they do so.
I would like to place my spin on the question in two parts.
Has Covid-19 been a form of creative destruction?
Absolutely. It doesnt take much observance to see at all the business and people suffering and being fired from their positions for not following the passionate dictates, set forth by various governments. If the mandate sticks, we have not even began to see the negative backlash. Fortunately, OSHA has recently announced they will not take health and safety directives from the White House and have suspended the enforcement of the vaccine. Every age starts and ends with destruction, either to make way for advancements in technology or the collapse of society from governments entirely overreaching on the private lives of its citizens. Former President, and bro. Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” Similarly, bro. Benjamin Franklin, and founding father of the United States, said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither.” So something has to be destroyed in the process of going forward; dictatorship or liberty.
The second part to the question, was the Creative Destruction needed for our Fraternity?
I view it as a kind of purification. It can either divide or bring us together; if we segregate we fall apart, but in solidarity we become united. We as masons are taught (or should be) to subdue our passions. Its been said, 'passions for destruction, is a creative passions, as well.' I believe with the axiom, ‘subduing our passions,’ we, as a lodge and individuals will get through this more refined and I see already a new revival on its way through technology and presentations of our art. Perhaps, not really new, but a new way of using it, i.e. zoom and web based video education. –The Art of Finding New Art, Francis St Alban Bacon
I have said several times that if we return to our Lodges and they (and we) are the same as before COVID I will be very dissapointed. My Lodge has had some success in making some changes since March 2020, but I wish we had done more.
What, I'm not sure. That is the problem. While we have made some changes (incorporating Zoom into our meetings, putting some more emphasis on charity, some other things), we have not done the important work of trying to figure out where we want to go and how to get there. But thinking and planning like this is difficult, which is why it is so often left undone, in our lodges, and in our lives.
I fear that in a year or two the Craft will have reverted to how we were before COVID (if we have not already), and this opportunity will be lost.
I feel like I should add that these changes could be made at any time, but we as humans seem to be inclined to wait for some sort of event (a crisis, heck, even a new year) or line on the calendar to start change, to start the work of bettering ourselves and the world around us. Let's take advantage of this particular crisis and come out better as men and as a fraternity than we went in. Or let's just start being better, no matter if there is a crisis or not.
Well for one I have mix feelings, I missed the in person meeting and especially our dinners time. Having said that , I believe this covid pandemic has open up our eyes to what could be a very good thing. One being zoom meeting Can be interwoven in lodge programs allowing members from far away or one who for reasons can't attend. Our lodge use zoom when we couldn't meet to keep Brothers inform on what was happening, made it easier for officers to keep our lodges Bill's paid ect ect. Zoom will be a great tool for getting speakers in our lodges for educational purposes we have never been able to get in before. I believe thing are improving and will continue to improve by using these new ideas.
Creative destruction...adaptation. The two must work together. My observation is that our Masonic culture doesn't move unless forced to. This is to its peril. The Great Decline has been underway for decades. The Fraternity has tried to manage its way out of the situation in a number of ways, but serious events are the only time changes actually seem to really happen. The MRC issue was only put to be after the Great Recession. We've only in the past few months, in my observation, been meaningfully addressing the root issue of the decline, by giving Lodges clear direction from the GM to focus on education and the quality of experience. This is good, but where does COVID fit. COVID forced Lodges to find a different way - the sad thing, however, is that many Lodges (I know this because of my work), simply took the year off during the edict of closure and didn't really figure out how to keep fellowship, activities, and charitable work going. They didn't know how to solve the problem, and didn't understand how to utilize Grand Lodge as a resource. This is sad, but in the natural world animals with disease, age and weakness tend to die off. Organizations that can't adapt face the same plight. This is why consistent communication, leadership and vision matters.
Having attended a World Conference of Grand Lodges, I will say that this is a place where American attendees can learn much from foreign Brethren. Masons, in so many places in the world have to fight to keep their Masonry, due to political and cultural issues that make it more challenging to be a "public" Mason. This means that there is a lot of serious thought going into leadership and the development of the Fraternity. Many don't realize that much of Masonry was destroyed in Europe by the Nazis. We hear it, but we don't internalize what that means - the theft and destruction of Masonic ephemera and records, the destruction of buildings, and forcing people underground. Partition after the war meant that many in Eastern Europe could be underground Masons, if Masons at all. There is a significant hunger for Masonry around the world.
My sense in the US, having attended many Conferences of Grand Masters of North America is that American Masonry takes itself for granted. We are an inward looking group, and tend not to embrace change. No big news there, but it doesn't have to be that way, and it is indicative of the decline we've been seeing. A frustration of mine is that we know exactly what the problem is, but we continue to admire the problem rather than engage in meaningful lodge level and jurisdiction-wide discussion on how to change this. This has been the case, until recently at the CGMNA as well. Change, however is beginning, and I applaud MW Cameron for emphasizing the need to improve our quality in all aspects of what we do, but I also see that we have a cultural issue within the Fraternity that prevents us from engaging in meaningful communication and dialogue where we work together to solve problems. Innovation and confrontation of important, sometimes difficult issues is not valued, because it means that we have to have difficult conversations and this gets confused with disharmony or conflict - it isn't. The discussion of conflicting ideas is the only way issues get solved. When there are differences of opinion, this is when communication and leadership matters most. We say we can do this. We even have the tools to do this, but as a Fraternity we don't do it very well at all. During times of creative destruction you will have two sets of voices - those who say we need to change things, and those who say we can't change things. The Fraternity is a traditional, conservative group, so by definition tends to react, rather that look ahead. Not good or bad, just how it is. But because of this it makes it extremely difficult to look into the future and anticipate what needs to happen next. We celebrate George Washington much more than we think about what we want for our children and grand children who may be Masons in the future. In my opinion it is imperative that we think of our selves, regardless of title or position, as stewards who care for this temporarily. We need to stop focusing on money and start focusing on people. Money is simply a tool and doesn't come first. A Lodge doesn't need money to operate - it needs only a high hill or low dale.
To paraphrase our work, the duty of a WM or GM is to get the craft working and give them direction. So, we go this way this year, that way next year, and the other way last year.
While there are glimmers of light within the Fraternity, on whole my observation is that due to its highly structured form and high value placed on tradition, it has enormous difficulty looking to future and anticipating ways that it may need to change. This, in part, has to do with the rapid cycling leadership model in which one individual at the Lodge or Grand Lodge level is invested with an enormous amount of power, but only for one year at a time.
As a result, the Fraternity tends to confuse management with leadership - both need to happen, but leadership requires a vision. Annual vision changes make it extremely difficult for any organization to get traction. It makes it hard for those who try their best to have a sense of success, which is de-motivating, and people on the sidelines continue to sit on the sidelines waiting for someone to show them the way.
So this year we may have a great Master who is excited, motivating, and leading, while next year we may not have a leader, who just gets by doing the work. We ought not confuse the ability to perform ritual well with being a good manager or leader.
So what is my point? The Fraternity can change if it wants to. It doesn't need to wait for a creative destruction event to adapt. With good, consistent leadership and a long term vision that is built through meaningful engagement and communication, the Fraternity can weather events beyond its control. Leaders look ahead. They listen to their stakeholders and partners, they are creative, they look ahead and they find the path forward.
Most importantly we need to provide our Lodge leaders with better and more consistent support and information to help them wake up and engage their membership. We do this to some extent, but some times it can be too little too late. My fear is that COVID is just one creative destruction event, but there may be more and sooner in succession. What is our plan? Do we get ahead of it have a contingency template and plan for Lodges, or do we wait and see what happens next?
Our creative destruction event isn't a recession or pandemic, it has been our long term failure to come together and meaningfully discuss what we want as a Fraternity, how we will work together to get there and what we need from our leaders.
MWB I hope you feel better. I think its too early to evaluate the impact of COVID19 on our fraternity. It could have been 'creative destruction', but it could also just be a damaging blow. COVID19 locked us in our homes during a very tulmultous time, and i think history will see the social unrest of the last 2 years and the COVID19 virus as having a synergistic effect, and our fraternity was in no way immune.
Has Covid-19 been a form of Creative Destruction that our Fraternity needed? Dear God (whoops, I mean Dear Great Architect), I hope so! Like it or not, our world as changed. Think about it. Our world changed after 911 and I'm willing to bet that Covid has changed it more.
Certainly our Fraternity is divided on this issue, and I'm sorry to say that the Brothers who don't want things to change aren't going to get what they want. The next generation of Masons are living in the same changed world and they're going to approach any new activity with changed expectations. Not one of us has the answer but we all need to be open to exploring how to adapt.
Over time every organization has to shed its skin. Live it, or live with it.
Lodges need to seriously reflect on just what they are doing. It would be nice if during this event they had taken the time to reflect on who they are and what are they doing as masons and make changes they need to make (if any) coming back to labor. But most didn’t. They simply are returning back to the same old some old and driving their wagon right over the cliff. Probably merrily reading the minutes as they do so.
I would like to place my spin on the question in two parts.
Has Covid-19 been a form of creative destruction?
Absolutely. It doesnt take much observance to see at all the business and people suffering and being fired from their positions for not following the passionate dictates, set forth by various governments. If the mandate sticks, we have not even began to see the negative backlash. Fortunately, OSHA has recently announced they will not take health and safety directives from the White House and have suspended the enforcement of the vaccine. Every age starts and ends with destruction, either to make way for advancements in technology or the collapse of society from governments entirely overreaching on the private lives of its citizens. Former President, and bro. Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” Similarly, bro. Benjamin Franklin, and founding father of the United States, said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither.” So something has to be destroyed in the process of going forward; dictatorship or liberty.
The second part to the question, was the Creative Destruction needed for our Fraternity?
I view it as a kind of purification. It can either divide or bring us together; if we segregate we fall apart, but in solidarity we become united. We as masons are taught (or should be) to subdue our passions. Its been said, 'passions for destruction, is a creative passions, as well.' I believe with the axiom, ‘subduing our passions,’ we, as a lodge and individuals will get through this more refined and I see already a new revival on its way through technology and presentations of our art. Perhaps, not really new, but a new way of using it, i.e. zoom and web based video education. –The Art of Finding New Art, Francis St Alban Bacon
I have said several times that if we return to our Lodges and they (and we) are the same as before COVID I will be very dissapointed. My Lodge has had some success in making some changes since March 2020, but I wish we had done more.
What, I'm not sure. That is the problem. While we have made some changes (incorporating Zoom into our meetings, putting some more emphasis on charity, some other things), we have not done the important work of trying to figure out where we want to go and how to get there. But thinking and planning like this is difficult, which is why it is so often left undone, in our lodges, and in our lives.
I fear that in a year or two the Craft will have reverted to how we were before COVID (if we have not already), and this opportunity will be lost.
I feel like I should add that these changes could be made at any time, but we as humans seem to be inclined to wait for some sort of event (a crisis, heck, even a new year) or line on the calendar to start change, to start the work of bettering ourselves and the world around us. Let's take advantage of this particular crisis and come out better as men and as a fraternity than we went in. Or let's just start being better, no matter if there is a crisis or not.