Scoutmaster Podcast 190

And now it's the old Scoutmaster. Yesterday I published something I want you to go look at over at ScoutmasterCGcom. Look for the pioneering tower challenge.

Okay, The challenge is to build the tower that you see in the sketch there And send me a picture of the result. It won't be all that easy. It may not even be possible. Take a look at it, Let me know what you think. Hey, this is podcast number 190..

Well, welcome back to the Scoutmaster podcast. This is Clarke Green. Let's take a look at the mailbag. We heard from Damien Law, who is the Cubmaster of PAC-86, an assistant scoutmaster with Troop-86 in Tenefly, New Jersey. Damien said this: I was intrigued by the situation mentioned in your last podcast where the Patrol Leaders Council decided to organize the patrols to its liking without asking the scouts. It wasn't clear to me what you would do if their scheme works out.

Do you just let it stand, or do you overrule them and crush their leadership? What do you do if you have a patrol which decided that it won't accept any more members, Yet you've got other scouts who want to join that patrol? What do you do if you have a special needs scout who needs supervision and is only half-heartedly wanted by any of the patrols. Damien, thanks for getting in touch. I'm glad you're listening. I'm glad you took the time to get in touch and ask those questions.

So let me give you an answer. If the choices that the Patrol Leaders Council made work, there's not going to be any reason to overrule them.

My advice in that situation is to observe and see what happens and then talk to the Senior Patrol Leader and encourage him to make changes. If things don't work, You know, sometimes there's a course correction needed, but there's never any call to crush their leadership. Like you say, Youth leadership in the patrol system is working with scouts to follow the program and get things right.

It's not just throwing a switch and saying it was the boys' decision so I really can't do anything about it. We collaborate with them and we help them find ways to solve problems and to deal with tough situations.

You know, in one way of looking at it, my scouts do the wrong thing all the time, at least what I consider wrong, Unless it's something that's just totally inappropriate or dangerous, I let them go ahead and try it out. They seem to learn pretty quickly if they have something wrong, because it just doesn't work very well. The answer to the other two questions that you have there is that scouting is never exclusive, It's inclusive. A patrol close to members is something I've never had happen. If a patrol thought this way, I'd ask them what part of the scout oath and law they had based their decision on.

You know, is it that a scout is friendly and kind or to help other people at all times? It just doesn't jive, does it, And bringing that to their attention is going to get them to discover that maybe that's really not going to work. If there's a scout who's not real popular and who nobody likes- and I've had that happen on a number of occasions- I will sit down with the PLC and ask them to empathize, to think about what it feels like if nobody likes you. I ask them if they want to have a troop just for the people they like or if they want to have a troop for anyone who's willing to be a scout.

Every time we have this situation and we have a little talk like this, they get it and they make changes and they go out of their way to make amends. I've had plenty of scouts with special needs and none of them have really needed adult supervision And none of them have needed an adult right next to them all the time.

Now there are parents and scouters who thought that we did need to do that, but time proved that we really didn't. A lot of the difficulties that come with special needs are not quite so difficult. When scouts are friendly and kind to each other, It doesn't take a whole lot of encouragement to make that happen, in my experience.

Thanks for getting in touch once again, Damon, And remember this is all about having a conversation, so you need to get in touch too, And you can do that by emailing me at clark at scoutmastercgcom. Hey, I want to point out again that I've got a new podcast archive over at scoutmastercgcom. If you get on the site, you'll see a link to the new podcast archive right there in the main menu. You can listen to the backlog of podcasts and download them in a way that I hope is a lot easier than it used to be. This coming Sunday, October 13th, is our next scout circle and it's going to happen Once again. Our guest is going to be Joe Jacaruso from gossamergearcom.

Joe is an experienced scouter and backpacker and he's led scouts on many miles of backpacking trips, And we're going to be talking specifically about scouts and backpacking. Scout Circle is a live presentation. It lasts about an hour.

We begin with our guest and an interview and then we open it up to questions of people who are watching on the web. So go to scoutcirclecom Sunday, October 13th, from 9 to 10 pm Eastern Standard Time, and you can join us and Joe Jacaruso and talk about backpacking and scouts. And before we get going today, I have a pre-announcement announcement of a pending thing that will happen sooner or later in the not too distant future. What I'm talking about is the publication of my new book, The Scouting Journey, which is a scouter's guide to navigating the challenge, adventure and achievement of scouting. If all goes right, the book's going to be published in mid-November. Let me tell you a little bit about it.

About a century ago, Baden Powell published a booklet that really kind of laid out all the basics of scouting, called AIDS to Scoutmastership. It's still a really valuable thing to read and any serious scouter would want to do it.

But Baden Powell was writing a century ago and his turns of phrase and his allegories have not aged as well as a lot of his ideas have. So, taking that work as my guide, I have attempted to write a book to the present generation of scouters that applies my understanding of what Baden Powell wrote in a way that's relevant a century later, As with AIDS, to Scoutmastership- The Scouting Journey. It's not going to be like a step-by-step how-to guide but a study of the broad underlying concepts of scouting. I tried to keep it jargon-free. You've no doubt seen the quizzical look on people's faces when you start talking about the SM and CC working together with the PLC or talking to the SPL. I've consciously avoided using organizational scouting terms in an attempt to present those broad underlying concepts as clearly and simply as possible.

You know after all these years of talking to people and study and practical experience and reading, it's going to be impossible to claim that anything in that book is exclusively my own idea And I doubt much of it is going to be all that original. What it is is my sincere attempt to explain scouting and share some of my experiences in putting it into practice. You'll be the judge if I succeeded in that or not, but hopefully it will be something that will help new scouters find their footing and maybe inspire some of us veterans to see familiar things with a fresh set of eyes.

So The Scouting Journey. It's due to be published in mid-November.

We'll be talking about it more and you'll see it on the website as things progress Well, in this edition of the Scoutmaster podcast and Scoutmastership in seven minutes or less, we're going to talk about a recent post on the blog about 15-minute patrol leader training And then I've got a little Scoutmasters minute for you that asks the question: do you have what it takes? All of that is going to take up the rest of the podcast.

So let's get started, shall we?

Scoutmastership in seven minutes or less. So I found it useful to think of patrol leader training as an ongoing process of coaching and mentoring. It's not just a single event, just something that you can get done in a weekend. Good coaching comes from a solid, simple, shared understanding of the fundamentals.

Now, to my mind, a trained patrol leader knows those fundamental things and I can get the fundamentals across to a patrol leader in about 15 minutes. I usually do this just before or just after a patrol leader's council meeting and I repeat pieces of what I'm about to tell you on a regular basis.

Now, the kind of training that I'm talking about is based in asking Scouts questions and having set specific answers for each of those questions. It's kind of like a catechism. I've used this training method for a few years and my older Scouts know all the answers and they're usually able to give them verbatim.

So they join right in and they help me when I'm doing this. Does it just take 15 minutes? Yes, it just takes 15 minutes. I work really hard to avoid any kind of commentary and digression.

I stick to the main ideas and I keep things moving And then I finish up by repeating each question in sequence and try and cement the answers in the minds of my patrol leaders. If you go to ScoutMasterCGcom and you look for 15-minute patrol leader training, you'll find a PDF file that outlines this whole thing And you may want to give that to your patrol leaders, but don't give them to it until after you're done, Otherwise they're just going to be looking at a piece of paper and reading ahead. You want them engaged and in the moment to make this work And, lastly, don't announce that you're going to train them. Just have a conversation with your Scouts.

So here's how this goes: Either just before or just after the senior patrol leader is finished with his patrol leaders council meeting, I want to ask the patrol leaders some questions And I'll turn to them and I'll say: what's your goal? Now they may stare at me for a little while and try and figure out what I'm asking. They may try and figure out a right answer And I'll look for elements of the answer I'm looking for in their answers. But the set answer to that question is to lead, train and inspire Scouts to become first class.

So what is your goal as a patrol leader? To lead, train and inspire Scouts to become first class, Because we know when Scouts reach first class, that we're keeping our promises to them. We know that they're going camping and working in their patrol and learning the skills of scouting.

So let me ask you this question: How do Scouts become first class? Well, they'll come up with all kinds of answers They'll come up with.

Well, they do requirements and things like that. And the answer I'm aiming at, and the answer that I'll supply for them, is by doing things that Scouts do.

So how do Scouts become first class? By doing things that Scouts do. It's a little difficult to understand the difference between completing requirements and doing things that Scouts do. If we plan and prepare for doing things that Scouts do, they will complete the requirements as a result of participating. If we plan to do requirements, we often create kind of a classroom experience where you go over material because you have to rather than you're doing something because you want to.

So I tell my patrol leaders: we don't quote, do requirements, unquote. We complete requirements because we do the things that Scouts do. It sounds a little confusing at first, but it begins to make more sense as you think about it.

So my next question to them is: what do Scouts do? And they'll have all kinds of answers for this and I'll find elements of the set answer in them.

Then I'll share what the answer is. Scouts go camping, They learn skills and apply them to their activities, They explore hobbies and careers, They serve their community, They're responsible to organize and plan their own activities and they put the Scout oath and law into practice.

Now, that's kind of a long answer and we never really get it absolutely 100% the same way every time, but it's the spirit of that answer that I'm looking for. Almost all of what Scouts do happens in a patrol, so the patrol leader's job is really important. Everything the patrol leader does is centered on serving Scouts and his patrol, making it possible for them to become first class by doing the things that Scouts do. He's entrusted with fulfilling all the promises of Scouting for his patrol.

So so far, we know that your job is to lead, train and inspire Scouts to become first class. We know that Scouts become first class by doing the things that Scouts do.

So the next question is: how do Scouts do these things? Well, they do them by attending and being prepared to participate in the events that you plan.

It's really simple, isn't it? But it's something that we always need to be thinking about.

If a Scout isn't participating, we have to ask ourselves: why? Is he busy with other things?

Is our program interesting and engaging? Does he want to be here?

Did his patrol leader talk to him? Your example and your encouragement is the most important factor in getting Scouts to participate.

So for them to participate, they need to know what's going on. So my next question is: how do Scouts know about what we're doing?

Well, patrol leaders communicate in details a Scout needs to know and the preparations a Scout needs to make. Now, at this point in my little 15 minute training, I will explain that communication only happens when we close the loop, And closing the loop means you're actually speaking to a person and you get a reply to what you've said.

So leaving a phone message on the answering machine or a text message or an email really doesn't count as communication. The only thing that counts as communication is to close the loop.

Now I may demonstrate this by imitating a phone call from the patrol leader to a Scout in his patrol and showing them how to close the loop by asking the Scout to tell me what I have told them at the end of the call. So we know what your goal is. We know that Scouts become first class by doing the things that Scouts do. They get to do the things that Scouts do because they participate in the things that the patrol leader counsel plans. They know about these meetings and events.

So my next question is: how are Scouts prepared for the activities and events that you plan? And the answer is that the patrol leaders instruct and train the Scouts so they know the skills and complete the preparations for what they're about to do. For a patrol leader to be able to do that, he has to prepare. That means he has to study and know the information in the Scout Handbook and he needs to know the troop calendar. He needs to sit down with his patrol and they need to plan some things.

So, once they agree, who's doing what and when they're doing it? Well, there you have a plan, But there's another step that has to follow and another after that.

So that leads to my next question: What are the three steps to making things happen? And the answer is planning, preparation and execution.

Now, if planning takes 5% of the time, it's real easy. It really takes a couple of minutes.

Who's responsible? What are they responsible for And when are they doing it? That's the plan. You're going to spend 80% of the time in preparation. That means developing how whatever is being done is going to get done and what is going to be needed to do it.

A lot of times we skip over the preparation step and we go right to execution. But it's not going to work that way.

You're going to prepare and then you move on to execution, And that execution part takes about 15% of the time that you're going to put into any given thing. So planning happens in minutes, but it's only the first step. If you don't prepare, you're lost. Preparing means reviewing and studying the skill, practicing the skill, rehearsing your demonstration. Once the skill is demonstrated, it has to be practiced.

So part of the preparation stage and a plan so that Scouts can actually do the thing that you're demonstrating, And you also need to rehearse how you're going to lead that practice. So that's what a patrol leader does.

It's pretty simple, And then I'm going to go over the entire thing again. What's your goal? To lead, train and inspire Scouts to become first class.

How do Scouts become first class? By doing the things that Scouts do.

What do Scouts do? They apply them to their activities, They explore hobbies and careers, They serve their community And they're responsible to organize and plan their activities as they put the Scout Oath and Law into practice.

So how is it that Scouts do these things? By attending and being prepared to participate in the events that the patrol leaders council plans.

How do Scouts know about these events? Patrol leaders communicate the details a Scout needs to know is prepared for activities and events.

Patrol leaders instruct and train the Scouts so that they know the skills and complete the preparations for what they're about to do. What are the three steps to making things happen? Planning, preparation and execution.

So what I'm aiming at in 15 minutes is getting the patrol leaders a simple, succinct set of ideas that are easy to remember. Now, arguably, this is a really simplistic approach to some complex issues. In 15 minutes I'm not trying to unload 2 tons of information, just the high points, just the bullet points. There is going to be lots of other opportunities to expand on the complexities of all this, But if the patrol leaders have this simple catechism in their minds, they get a really good overview of everything. And I can explain the specifics by asking them the applicable question. That's why it's important that we all know the questions and answers.

So, as an example of this, suppose we're observing a patrol leaders council before a regular troop meeting and they're just milling around and they're not doing much of anything. And so I pull the senior patrol leader aside and I ask: what are the three steps to making things happen?

Well, hopefully by this time, by repetition, he knows planning, preparation and execution. And I ask: what step are you in right now?

What applies to me? Well, I think we're in preparation.

And I ask: so everything is prepared. You can start the meeting right now. You have all the stuff that you need. Everybody's ready to go.

And he looks at me and he says something like: well, I guess so. And I say: well, what do you need to do to answer that question a little more. Certainly, And most of the time he'll get the idea and he will motivate everybody to get in that preparation mode and around waiting for things to happen.

Now, because we have this shared understanding and a rote memory of these things, I can do things like that. I can coach a patrol leader or the senior patrol leader or any of the youth leadership in a few seconds and they feel confident in their responses because they know the answers to these questions. I get the opportunity to help them discover the more complex ideas and how to exactly apply those things.

As we go along, without having to interfere a lot, without having to explain everything on the spot. It works pretty well. It takes about 15 minutes.

Then, during the time that I'll take before or after a patrol leader's council meeting when an issue comes up, we'll return to one of those questions and we'll examine them a little bit more and we'll say, okay, well, we're kind of missing the answer to this one, we're not doing what we know that we need to do on this one and it really, really helps. It's simple, it's brief and it creates an impression in their minds that they find actually helpful in putting things together and in doing their job as a patrol leader's council.

Do you have what it takes? I mean, do you have what it takes to be a scouter?

I think scouters are generally very wonderful, big hearted people by nature, so you probably already have plenty to work with. But any worthwhile journey you'll have to go through and you'll have to go through, and you'll have to go through and you'll have to go through and you'll have to go through to what I need to work with. But any worthwhile journey- and being a scouter is a worthwhile journey- is going to challenge our character and resolve. We learn and grow, as our Scouts do, by being open to the lessons and experiences that we encounter along the way.

But what do you need to start with? Well, I think you need faith in scouting. Anyone who's followed a set of directions on a map or a recipe has exercised exactly the kind of faith that a scouter needs claims. There's a century of relevant and useful experience behind scouting that can certainly help us along the way. Perhaps you're like me and you have a healthy dose of skepticism and a strong personality and you really don't like to follow directions.

Well, follow them anyway. See if they make sense. Scouters aren't expected to know what's around the next bend, We're just expected to stay on the trail.

I think a scouter needs integrity. I think scouters need to be who they are, not some idealized concept of what you think a scouter ought to be. Scouts can spot a hypocrite at 100 yards. They'll respect people in spite of imperfections, but they really won't give the time of day to anyone pretending to be something that they're not. Perhaps the finest example our scouts can have in life is someone who struggles successfully against the same imperfections and disappointments they encounter in themselves. Don't sugarcoat things and don't attempt to teach lessons.

Just be honest. Scouts disdain trickery and subterfuge in that kind of adult way of hiding medicine in a spoonful of sugar. They can sense that and they don't like it. Scouting is a transformational journey. It's not a set of unpleasant lessons in a sugarcoating of camping and play. You need to have vision.

Greenbar Bill said a happy boy is a good boy and a good boy is a good citizen. So everything in scouting is designed to support the success and happiness of our scouts.

Now, at first blush, happiness seems like a pretty broad, indistinct vision. But think about what marks a happy scout. It's not just placating them or steering them away from difficulty. Scouts are happy when they're pursuing the challenge and adventure and achievement of the journey. They're active, engaged and energetic, finding satisfaction and purpose in the things that they do. If we focus on happiness, we're revealing the genuine joy of achievement, of taking the road less traveled rather than the path of least resistance.

We demonstrate this in our example of really enjoying what we're up to and our attitude of genuine excitement in meeting the difficulties we encounter head on and speaking words of honest encouragement. A scouter needs to have compassion, not just for other people but for themselves. Compassionate people work to help relieve the difficulties of others. They empathize with others and they strive to always do unto others as they would have them do unto you, And that kind of compassion creates its own energy. Scouters work to make other people's lives better, and this makes their own lives richer and happier. Scouters need patience and persistence.

Now, I admire people who are not easily perturbed or excited or upset or frustrated or irritated. You know those kind of people who are calm and composed and level headed. Maybe, maybe, I'll be able to be one of those people someday. Until then, I'm going to do the same thing that you do. I have to take a few deep breaths and count to ten, or step away for a couple of moments to regain my control and patience and perspective. Sometimes I find myself concentrating on one thing that's wrong and a landscape of success.

I worry about what didn't happen or about what's to happen so much that I miss what's happening right now. You know, you finally figure out that perfection is a pretty rare commodity and we need to learn to appreciate what's happening right now. Working with young people is invigorating, but it can be really exasperating at times too. Their energy and willingness to learn is sometimes equal to surpassed by indecisiveness and stubbornness.

And if you're like me, sometimes you feel your paddling against the stream, but even so, you just keep on paddling. We need to be persistent.

We need to have some tolerance for adversity and uncertainty. We're on a challenging journey and it's not designed to be easy or comfortable, And scouters need a little hutzpah.

You know what hutzpah is. It's a great old Yiddish word and it describes a combination of gall and nerve and guts and presumption with a little tinge of arrogance. I don't want people to be arrogant, but scouters can use a little hutzpah. You'll need to stand up for your scouts and for yourself and for the ideas essential to scouting. It takes hutzpah to be a scout, to stand out and to achieve in a world that sometimes belittles anyone who dares to explore their own potential. It takes hutzpah not only to try new ideas and methods, but to stick to the ones that are already proven.

And finally, good scouters are at home in the outdoors. They endure and even enjoy all kinds of weather and even when the circumstances are challenging. Our enthusiasm will spark an interest in scouts to discover the greater messages of outdoor life: the lessons of self-sufficiency, the fragility and the power of nature and the stewardship of our resources. Something simple as gathering sticks to light a fire in a little circle of stones and turning your back on the night and your face to the fire, feeling the sharpness of the cold and the weight of the heat, being soaked by the rain and warm by the sun- All of this are serious learning opportunities for us and for our scouts.

So do you have what it takes? Do you have faith in scouting?

Do you have the integrity to be who you are? Do you have some vision for the happiness of your scouts and compassion for others and yourself? Do you have patience and persistence and a little hoodspot and a love of the outdoors.

Well, that makes you a great scouter.