{"id":430,"date":"2007-06-17T13:15:48","date_gmt":"2007-06-17T17:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/?p=430"},"modified":"2011-11-08T13:19:19","modified_gmt":"2011-11-08T18:19:19","slug":"issue-107-june-17-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/2007\/06\/issue-107-june-17-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 107 – June 17, 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Welch, of General Electric fame, now writes a column much like my own for readers of Business Week<\/em>. Recently he was asked how a company can keep its employees productive and loyal. His answer focused on three key ingredients: Keep it fun<\/span>, keep it challenging<\/span>, keep it rewarding<\/span>. (Yup, he did say \u201cfun\u201d\u2014I don\u2019t make this stuff up!)<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s link this with a survey finding by the Dartnell Corporation about why most employees resign. Says Dartnell: When employees resign, they don\u2019t leave companies<\/em>, they leave supervisors<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

For us in Scouting, there are huge lessons here. Whether we\u2019re Den Leaders, Scoutmasters, District Chairs, Commissioners, Venturing or Sea Scout leaders, or members of a council\u2019s professional staff, the \u201cpeople\u201d we need to keep coming back are the youth whom we\u2019re all here to serve<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fun, challenge, reward\u2026 Are we delivering these three key ingredients to our youth of all ages, every week, week after week? And how about our fellow volunteers? Are we providing the same for them as well?<\/span><\/p>\n

I once knew a Scoutmaster whose nickname (given to him by the Scouts, of course) was \u201cMister Awful.\u201d What would you guess his views on fun, challenge and reward might be? I knew a Den Leader who took pride in being \u201ctough\u201d on Cub Scout advancement. Tough\u2026to what end? I\u2019d always though the requirements are the requirements. I\u2019ve heard, recently, of another Scoutmaster who makes up his own rules when it comes to advancement, like if you don\u2019t complete a merit badge in 12 months you have to start all over again, and if you don\u2019t put in service hours you don\u2019t advance, not even from Tenderfoot to Second Class. Fun? Challenging? Rewarding? Somehow, I don\u2019t think so. I knew a District Chair who, when asked by one of his own Vice-Chairs, \u201cCan we please meet to discuss a problem I\u2019m having?\u201d responded with, \u201cI think meetings are a waste of time.\u201d Then he wondered why that Vice-Chair sorta checked out!<\/span><\/p>\n

Fun, challenge, and reward. If this is what we adults need to keep at it, day after day, why would our own kids want or deserve any less?<\/span><\/p>\n

When youth leave our units, or our fellow volunteers stop doing what they originally committed to, we\u2019re often tempted to think, Well, they\u2019ve just given up on Scouting. But have they? Are they really leaving Scouting?<\/em> Or are they leaving us<\/span>?<\/em> Did we, as their \u201csupervisors,\u201d somehow forget that fun, challenge, and reward are the three key ingredients we need to deliver, and keep on delivering, each and every time?<\/span><\/p>\n

Communications merit badge teaches Boy Scouts that 80% of what we communicate is non-verbal. It\u2019s \u201cbody language,\u201d as Julius Fast coined nearly four decades ago. When we walk into the Scout room or Den meeting with a hang-dog look, prepared to go through the motions, and we send the signal, loud and clear, that our only goal today is to get to the end of the meeting, do we actually think these keen youth don\u2019t<\/em> know what\u2019s going on? Do we actually think they<\/em> think they\u2019re going to have a good time? Time for a hard look in the mirror, maybe?<\/span><\/p>\n

Most Scouters get it right, and then some. I well remember a Scoutmaster who knew more knots than I ever knew existed. Every week he would tie a new one and wrap a Scoutmaster\u2019s Minute around it. His Scouts could hardly wait to see what knot he\u2019d tie, and what story he\u2019d tell, each week. I knew a Den Leader who had a new game for \u201cgathering time\u201d every week and she never had a Cub late for a meeting\u2014they didn\u2019t want to miss the game! Another Del Leader had a special assignment of each of her Cubs each week\u2014One led the opening, another brought the snacks, a third did a show-and-tell, a fourth\u2026well, you get the idea. Every one of her boys felt special, and each had a special role to play in every meeting. Then there was the District Commissioner who made sure that every one of his Unit Commissioners had \u201ctalking time\u201d at our monthly meetings, so we all had our moment in the sun. Did we duck our staff meetings? Hardly ever! And then there was a Patrol Leader who kept bite-sized candy bars in his pocket, and gave them to every patrol member who showed up in full uniform. Rarely did he leave with any unused candy still in his pocket! There was a Unit Commissioner who never visited one of his units empty-handed. Maybe it was a flyer about a new event, maybe it was something about a special training course coming up, or maybe it was a Scoutmaster Award of Merit that he\u2019d worked behind the scenes to have happen. But it was always something, and he was always welcome at the units he served. And I especially remember the Scout Executive who could remember the name of every Scout and Scouter he\u2019d ever met, and always greeted every one by their name\u2014and got \u2018em all right! Little things, perhaps, but it\u2019s these little things, maybe, that make all the difference!<\/span><\/p>\n

Fun, challenge, and reward. Pretty simple. Easy to remember. Sometimes tougher to deliver than we might think. But, that\u2019s our job. We can<\/em> do it. We just need to focus on it: Fun \u2013 Challenge \u2013 Reward. <\/span><\/p>\n

Happy Scouting!<\/p>\n

Andy<\/h3>\n

Got a question? Send it to me atAskAndyBSA@yahoo.com<\/a><\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Please include your council name and home state<\/span>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

(June 17, 2007 \u2013 Copyright \u00a9 Andy McCommish 2007)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Welch, of General Electric fame, now writes a column much like my own for readers of Business Week. Recently he was asked how a company can keep its employees productive and loyal. His answer focused on three key ingredients: Keep it fun, keep it challenging, keep it rewarding. (Yup, he did say \u201cfun\u201d\u2014I don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}