Good stuff Kyle !!
I'm getting a little nit-picky but what the heck:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ghostmachine360
Outreach is for recognition. Not for ourselves, but for the entire FIRST counterculture..
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I don't think outreach is for
recognition. At its most basic level it is really for
transformation.
The recognition is evidence of the transformation about the cultural attitude toward STEM activities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ghostmachine360
Do what’s hard for you.
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Your quote immediate reminded me of the speech that President Kennedy gave at Rice University:
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
One could easily replace "go to the " moon with a phrase related to changing cultural attitudes about STEM activities.
FIRST is hard. In so many words Dean, Woodie, Dave and others have said so.
A couple of quotes from Woodie Flowers:
"Its not about winning the competition, its about doing a meaningful good job !! "
Having a good sense about what the team is trying to accomplish and staying true to that mission is more important than winning the competition. We have had judges make comments to us, some constructive, and in other cases, not so constructive in our opinion. We receive a lot of feedback from other places, outside of FIRST, that we use to measure the team's mission and performance.
Sometimes, these outside metrics influences team decisions. Sometimes these decisions put us at risk of not "winning a competition" because the decisions are mission centric, not FIRST centric in the eyes of a judge.
"Ideas are cheap,The combination of ideas and execution and excellence and the whole process is what really matters."
Woodie Flowers
Quote:
Originally Posted by ghostmachine360
“Oh, that again. So, you guys have nothing new to show us?”
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Innovation brings new value. Yesterdays innovation is today's old news.
It doesn't mean that yesterday's innovation has no value. It should be improved, and made excellent.
The judges need to see two things. Old things done well, very well. And new innovation. And to make very fine and specific point, the innovation can simply be how old and new is combined to create a new/improved way to connect to the community. I hope that makes sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ghostmachine360
Don’t forget the purpose
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Much of what the leaders of all types of organizations do, whether for-profit, non-profit, governmental, etc is related to improving performance and execution issues. Maintaining a high performance organization is a leadership challenge.
".... the most important thing we can do on a given day in our organization as a leader is to remind people of what it was that we set out to accomplish. Because if we get people focused on and remembering that, they will make progress on it. And if we don’t remind them of that, of what it was we were trying to accomplish, of what the ultimate objectives were, they’re going to forget."
Professor Herman B. “Dutch” Leonard, Harvard Business School, Harvard University
Not a week goes by where students are not reminded of our team mission. We have our own team mission - it is roughly the same as FIRST's. We are very concise and succinct about it, not a belabored speech. But the reminder is there.
Each year at the Championship I remembered Dean giving one of his "long boring" speeches at the closing of the event. Paraphrasing, he said he "wanted to remind everyone why we are doing this thing." That is his version of Dutch's advice. He only got to do it once a year.
It is a team's leadership challenge to remind itself on a constant basis in way that is meaningful, non dismissive, or overbearing way what that mission is.
Here is a pair of questions I like to pose to students and adults:
a) what is the vision of FIRST
b) what is the mission of FIRST
HINT: It is NOT about promoting FIRST, or how many teams started, classes taught, etc...
Ed
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