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In a post titled The Patrol Leader’s Council and Planning I laid out the basis of structure, content, planning and preparation.
Scouts establish a structure (the calendar of what’s happening), the content (what they’ll be doing) and plan (who will be doing what) and then they prepare for actually carrying these things out.
The ball usually get’s dropped in the preparation stage when the patrol leader’s council meeting ends and everybody goes home.
It’s expected that Scouts will sit themselves down and prepare for the skill presentation at the next meeting or whatever responsibility they have taken on. What we fail to realize is that, for the most part, they have little idea how to prepare.
Think back to being 14 or 15 years old, if you were like me you basically planned and prepared by playing a game of mental tag; “I’ll be instructing everyone on how to orient a map, I read about it once, I’ll have a compass and a map, I am ready to go!”.
When it comes time to demonstrate the skill and instruct others out comes the compass and the map and the Scout stands there as a group of ten or twelve other Scouts look on. He tries to orient the map, but soon figures out that he hasn’t really understood what he is doing, opens the handbook, reads the instructions and tries again.
By this time the attention of the other Scouts is elsewhere. They are talking and asking questions, they are bored, and the whole thing devolves into the familiar chaos we all know so well.
Any adult looking on will have an almost uncontrollable urge to step in and save the Scout, to pick up the compass and the map and do it themselves. Eventually we decide that this whole ‘boy-led’ idea just doesn’t work and the we take over.
We can avoid this familiar scenario by coaching Scouts through the preparation stage. We lead them to discover how to prepare and instruct well by asking questions. Here’s an example of what I am talking about;
The patrol leader’s council meeting is over, it was a fairly simple 20 or 30 minutes where they established the structure, content and plan for their activities and now it’s time to prepare. Connor is going to be instructing his fellow Scouts on orienting a map and he sits down with me so I can coach him through the preparation process.
COACH: What will you need to make this happen?
CONNOR: A map and a compass.
COACH: Okay, do we have one here?
CONNOR: I think so… let me look. (we spend a few minutes finding the gear)
COACH: Let’s say it’s next week, you are the instructor and I am the Scouts, what happens next.
CONNOR: (Blank stare for a moment) Ahhh… so this is a map and here’s a compass and if you put the compass here… ahhh… well if you. Wait a minute, I know how to do this.
COACH: So what will the Scouts be doing at this point?
CONNOR: Probably not paying attention.
COACH: Yeah, I think you are right. So what else do you need here?
CONNOR: Well, I suppose I need to practice a little bit.
COACH: Yes, but where is it written down how to orient a map?
CONNOR: I guess in the Scout Handbook?
COACH: Do we have one of those?
CONNOR: Yes, we do, let me get one. (he finds a handbook)
COACH: So what does the handbook say?
CONNOR: Okay, so here it is, (he reads the handbook section on orienting a map)
COACH: Do you think that everyone knows the parts of a compass?
CONNOR: Well, probably not.
COACH: So do you think you ought to spend some time on that first?
Things progress from there and 30 minutes later Connor has a pretty good handle on the preparations, he’s aware of what he needs to do, he’s working things out.
Notice that the coach didn’t tell him anything, the coach just asked questions that led him to discover things for himself. In doing this the coach has not only helped him prepare for the session he’s going to instruct but helped him learn to think his way through the process of preparing – that’s a skill that he won’t likely forget.
Once a Scout has been coached through this process a couple of times he’ll be a self starter. He’ll anticipate and answer the questions for himself and when he’s instructing his fellow Scouts things won’t decay into chaos, they’ll just be the low roar of activity and learning that looks like chaos to the adult eye.
This system of individual coaching and mentoring is the real heart of leadership training.
We could, in theory, take all of our older Scouts and set up a ‘how to instruct’ training session, but such things remain unrelated to the reality of actually being an instructor in their minds. It’s just another adult talking to them about things that they don’t attach to a ‘need to know’.
If we coach and mentor our Scouts with an actual, rather than theoretical, task in mind there’s a sense of utility to the coaching that makes it more valuable to them and actually helps them learn a new skill.
Ok, once again I’ll bite. I think that what Clarke describes can be good but we need to not over do it. A Scout should only need this routine once. Maybe a few questions the second time, never a third time. Clarke has outlined a method that some leaders will assume that they need to do EVERY TIME. Nope.
Also, I think that most really good Scouting stuff is designed such that the questions are not required. The Scouts sit down with their book and other resources, perhaps ask the leaders a few questions, or maybe not, and then get the job done. If they are in a situation where they need to get from A to B, I generally just leave them alone and let them figure it out.
For instance, I would never use this technique with fire building. If they have matches, then they are on their own. If it’s chilly enough, they’ll figure it out.
Same with cooking. They know when a disaster is approaching. They then come see us. I ask a few questions and perhaps offer a few hints (Mr. PL, why don’t you go speak to that 16 yr old Instructor over there –> ). It’s best when I don’t get out of my chair. Later I might ask the SPL how it went. When he says Patrol A is a disaster, I might ask him what a solution might be. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.!?!?. Oh, maybe we should spend some meetings learning how to prepare meals? Ok, go for it.
I’m absolutely sure that I can’t coach with questions like Clarke does. It’s just too tedious. Besides, I enjoy watching disasters form and solutions popping up. I like sitting around the adult picnic table and watching a group of five to eight men twitch with expectation while telling them to stay in their chairs. They pratically quiver with nervous energy whilst the disaster builds. Just sit still. Watch. Enjoy. It’s just plain painful for some of them.
Now sometimes the solution is to never make pancakes AGAIN IN MY LIFE. That’s when I might say something in a SM conference. How do you overcome disasters? How do you handle defeat? How did that pancake thing go?
Sit in your chair. Watch. Wait. Ask a few questions. Offer one or two hints. Keep your team in their seats. Keep them quiet. Have fun.
All good advice.
Although the first time we have a PLC that goes much less than an hour, I will need a Scout that has been properly coached in CPR, LOL.
The rule of meetings is that the work fills the time. Once I told the SPL that they had twenty minutes to get to a plan (establish who was doing what) they managed to do it in twenty minutes. If they have an hour they’ll use an hour. Once they know that the meeting will end and they’ll be getting up from the table and actualy start doing things (preparing) they are all about working things out as quickly as possible.
Our PLC meets the Monday night after each campout and details the coming month’s meetings and activities. They also critique the just-finished outing and check their progress on their next (based on an annual planning meeting, as someone else noted).
I am open to ideas on doing this differently. This is an “inherited” structure that the current SPL and I have managed to bend back into a “boy-led” event (with some “coaching” for both of us!). It works, but it’s an hour almost every time.
I’ve been working with my SPL to differentiate between the idea of sitting around a table planning and actually actively preparing. I’ve asked him to keep the planning meeting brief – what are we doing, when and where are we doing it and who is responsible- that’s usually easy to do for the next month in about ten to twenty minutes. Then they get up from the table and start actively preparing (sometimes with coaches as I outlined in this post).
We are still there for an hour and a half but only twenty minutes is sitting at a table to plan. I should note that I am never in the room for the planning part, I’ll say hello and check with the SPL but that’s about it – if there’s something on the agenda that I want to address I’ll ask for time and keep that as brief as possible.
Thanks for the “coaching” Clarke. This is the part where I have previously dropped the ball then wondered what went wrong. SMJ
Bravo!