Keeping Cheerful Service Burning Bright TM

Leader Lore Newsletter

Sample Issue
Welcome! Indeed. It's about time we wrote a special issue for newcomers. Or...almost newcomers... After all, the last time we did this was...Whoa!...way back in issue #1. 52 issues {NOW 128!} and 5? {14!} years ago! And O we've had a great time since! Richard and I are hooked on the idea of Scouting. It's one of those "good ideas whose time has come."

If there is any hope for religion's dreamed-of "Ecumunical Movement," it is with Scouting's "we like you just the way you are" approach. For that is the Scouting offer to sponsors who are trying to raise their youth in wholesome ways. It's a "let us help you better do, what you are already trying to do" deal. "We have some wonderful, time-proven ideas to help you to inspire and mold and motivate your youth. Sign up and let us help!"

evolved because we firmly believe in the tremendous interest and influence and impact that Scouting generates in both young and old. We echo one church leader's belief that there would come a time of such moral decay that Scouting would be needed as never before. "This is that time." said Ezra Taft Benson.

So much of what we perceive the world to be, we see on TV. On TV news we see so much crime...then we switch to non-news and see the same thing! Then, as a society, we wonder why. Not too bright, are we. It is sad, worse than sad, that "TV ratings" (which translate to money) have become so important that program directors will produce anything apparently to try to keep the viewers from changing the channel. "If blood and guts and sex and skin and corruption and whatever manner of weirdness will engross the masses, then that's what we'll give 'em. Just keep 'em watchin' our show!" Evidently it is working because people keep watching and program directors keep producing.

Remember the days when "sensationalism" was a bad word? Now, it's how much more can we crank it? A great Scouter, doctor, and leader in our Area II of the Western Region, observed:

If I preached foul language, free love, homosexuality, lesbianism, etc., I'd be run out of town. Yet on TV...it's hour after hour! Merrill Sharp

...And that was 5 {7} years ago.

So, what'zitallmean? Our BGO* here, is that our cherished land, is in an increasingly declining moral state, and to ever make a "big thing" type impact, Scouting must be all that it can be...and do all that it can do.

I love Winston Churchill's:

To every man there comes a time in his lifetime, that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered that chance to do a very special thing, unique to him and fitted to his talents. What a challenge if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for that work.

I believe that applies to Scouting in general. Some social analyst figured that if every young man in the US would spend 3 years in Scouting, age 14-17, we'd reduce the crime rate by 80%!! That sentence deserves a couple of exclamation points!

Well, we can't send every boy through. But we can send more. And we can do better with the ones we have.That which we can do, we ought to do. Churchill's thought also applies to each of us. What if each of us Scouters were twice as enthusiastic, twice as organized, twice as prepared—mustered twice as much zeal for the cause, for the movement, Richard and I believe that would make a major impact.

One of our favorite professional Scouter heroes, Kim Hansen, the Council Scout Executive in Boise, Idaho, shared this all time goodie:

One Man

One man awake, can awaken another.
The two of them, can awaken their brother.
Together the three, can make such a fuss,
They eventually awaken the rest of us.
One man awake, with stars in his eyes...
Multiplies

Enthusiasm spreads. The psychological so-called bandwagon effect is a very real thing. And we can generate it. If we generate it within ourselves. And prepare ourselves for the task.

Inspiration and information. There never was a time, when it was needed more. By virtue of the fact that you've come along this far, you're interested in leadership.Sometimes it doesn't take much leadership, it just takes some.

Therefore, whatever your slot, you can make your mark. And the pleasant thing as you go about it, is that as you see the results of your initiative, it becomes a very delicious and inspiring thing. Rightly so. You are on God's errand. An instrument in accomplishing His mission to mankind. And you're entitled to His strength, and guiding light, and the resultant joy.

And it mushrooms. And the cycle continues. And it becomes a part of you. And it is good. A new subscriber issue, eh? That's right. And you just got "the whole wad" of what this thing is all about.

Such is the quest.
One man awake... One newsletter awake... One subscriber awake... with stars in his eyes... We want to help you make a difference in solving some of our country's problems — creating a better world.

How much of a difference—
Doesn't matter at all...
Just to the extent
We give it our all.

As a Scouter, you have very likely learned the truth of McKay Allphin's:

Success is being able to retire at night, exhausted, free from animosity or ill feeling toward any man, with a heart and hands clean and pure, with a clear conscience and knowing that you have done your best given your all. You may not have accomplished what you set out to do, but you're successful. You're successful.

We believe that.

Got 'nything that tastes good after it's burnt?

Whether you're a Scouter or leader in any organization, for that program to make an impact, you must recruit, and train, and nurture others to be effective leaders. Those in any endeavor would benefit by looking at Scouting's approach to this. Scouting does have an image of teaching acumen. It's phases are these:

1. Orientation. One-on-one commissioner "quick start"
2. Leader Basic Training. More in depth, and "complete" for the leader.
3. Roundtable. (OJT—On the Job Training) Monthly information and inspiration.
4. Wood Badge. Eight day, intense, advanced training. The best of what we have to offer.

Which gets us to the meat of the leadership skills we're covering for this issue. Have you memorized the Mnemonic sentence that helps you list all eleven leadership skills yet?

Communicating Needs and Resources
Represents Effective Planning and
good Examples of Group Leadership
are Counseling and Evaluating

Counseling


This skill is one of my favorites. And one with a most natural and easy to remember memory device. In issue #11, where we covered this skill originally and with greater depth, of course, we used an early childhood experience where we kids were watching robins. I thought they were being sneaky in avoiding humans as they'd take 4 or 5 steps and then freeze in place. It was as though they thought we therefore wouldn't notice them.

In reality, I came to find out in later years, Mrs. Robin was actually scurrying along from one strategic listening point to another, to try to hear the flick of a blade of grass as her dinner worm slithered through. Or to tune in to the relative clamor of ant or beetle snacks bonking along through their grass-jungle world.

Listen.
 The appropriate one-word synonym for the functional idea behind the Counseling skill.

Listen.
This skill's one-word checklist for "what it all means."

L.I.S.T.E.N.
When the very word itself is used as an acronym, each letter in the word brings up another word, provoking further wisdom—a teaching agenda that by sheer coincidence, also covers each idea from the Wood Badge teaching syllabus—and in order! They couldn't have fallen into place better! While counseling...

And there you go:

Per-tee doggone slick, eh?

Lessee. What'd I say about that axe being too heavy for you?

Evaluation

Our last memory device in this series which covers all eleven leadership skills, is: EVALUATOR. Again, we remind you that it would be of great advantage to refer back to issue #12, titled "Sizing things up," to really get into this skill of Evaluating. This is a profound goodie that does marvelous things for any leader's object of getting the job done while still keeping the group together! In fact, those very tasks are the measurement factors of what is called the Evaluation Graph: It looks like this:

The vertical axis measures "keeping the group together." The horizontal axis, "getting the job done." Chances are all too good that you can recall in your own experience when only one of those factors occurred, to the dismay of the leader, perhaps you.

You may have gotten the trailer loaded for camp, but with the pressure of a deadline (you're leaving for camp in the morning), tempers flared and the "spirit" that you wanted to establish in the group, was...let's say, less than congenial. You got the job done, but keeping the group together...well... The needle swings, bonk, down along the horizontal axis.

Or, you held a service project to clean up the widows yard, and wanting to make it a pleasant adventure, came well stocked with munchies and games to play afterward. Turns out that word got out from the Patrol Leader's Council about the games, which got them started prematurely and not very much yardwork got done. Yes, the group had a ball—good spirit, had a good "bonding" experience among the kids. But the task of spring cleaning up the poor lady's yard will have to happen...next Saturday...also. And the needle swings waaay up on the vertical axis.

This "Evaluation Graph," is the very symbol chosen for the patch of the (no longer used) Leadership Corps. It's a good concept to help "size up" the situation, tho', isn't it?

Now, how do we teach this skill at Wood Badge? The syllabus approach is as follows, and using words from the acronym: EVALUATOR, we can, with just a little "cramming" before the teaching session, memorize an agenda that lets you teach as though you were weaned on the process of evaluating. These will help you remember each idea from the syllabus, in order, with a minor exception. The exception is that you must switch theV and the R, as indicated. Trust us on this one, and you'll see why by the time we're through.

Richard and I served as commissioners at the council level for a number of years where we put the above principles to the test in a part of Scouting that is often full of talk and theory only and not much action.

To share with you just how effective and earthshaking the above principles were, in causing action—getting the job done—we would have to reserve a whole issue for. In fact, we have already done that, should you be interested, in issue #32. To simply say that "these principles of Evaluating work" seems such an understatement. "Learn from one experience twice: Evaluate!"

We love Thomas Monson's observation:

When performance is measured
performance improves
When performance is measured
and reported back,
the rate of improvement accelerates.

Well, there you have the last of our 11 leadership skill mnemonics. We hope at least they've provoked an interest in learning more about the leadership skills. At best, maybe you will take them one at a time, bone up a little just before a course, and find reason to teach them to some one or some group..."from right off the top of your head."

If you do, both you and those you teach will benefit greatly, because these skills work. We also hope you'll "find yourself at Wood Badge" if you haven't been privileged to attend yet in life. We'd be delighted to accept responsibility should it be our influence that persuaded you to go. If you've been, we hope these last four issues have been the shot-in-the-arm refresher that we wanted it to be.

Our good friend Darryl Alder, reported this experience with these memory tricks:

[These] memory devices are easy to recall. So easy, in fact, that within days of my reading, I was able to use two of the leadership skill memory devices to plan important training. Based on past experiences and the devices for Planning and Delegation, it was easy to think out lesson plans during a one hour commute. Then, using the Effective Teaching memory model, I organized my thoughts and in no time had two lessons ready. They both worked great...maybe better than usual because of the spontaneity this process allows.

That was only the beginning. At work we were planning an educational seminar. We felt past seminars had missed the mark by not motivating the participants enough. So we invited our speakers to a planning meeting. These speakers were a large firm's human resource manager, an attorney and the head of a division of state government—not your usual Boy Scout leader trainees. Both the Planning skill and the Effective Teaching skill came to play in the success of that meeting. The skills were too important to miss, but the setting too formal for Wood Badge notes. So I just recalled the skills and taught them the steps of Effective Teaching. They probably already knew them, but not so succinctly. We went on the have the best session our firm had ever offered.

Years ago such a similar event would have required weeks of study and preparation, extensive planning and writing. This system is so easy to use you will be forever grateful to Doug and Richard for making it possible."

Good luck in your leadership role, whatever it may be. We hope helps. We invite you to join us. And your friends. Bring along your enthusiasm, literary contributions, observations and suggestions! And if you happen to be thinking, well, I haven't really got a leadership "one man awake" role right now, we pose these questions that we all ought to ask ourselves now and then:

"Based on my values and my vision of my own potential, what could my leadership role be? Who is looking to me for leadership?"

Created by Keith Larson, All rights reserved © 1989-2003.