I love this topic and I'm very eager to see the great input others have to share. I'm a bit worried that this will get lost in the week1 craziness, so hopefully it gets pushed & revived as people have time to think.
I can't say I have the absolute best example of the real transition - as I still aspire to build/be on an elite team
, but I can share some observations.
First Observation:
I've been working on a "secret" project where I've been talking to a lot of the really amazing "elite" team leaders, and in it, I will share a common theme (not every, but 90% of the teams). A
strong team leader that the entire team is willing to follow is absolutely essential. This person must be a visionary (ie have/help the team make a good clear picture of the future). They must be goal oriented (the leader or team picks goals/priorities and they guide EVERY single decision that is made). This person must be willing to Focus the team (not everyone is going to be completely on point, along with priorities, the leader must focus each and every person until everyone is on the exact same path to success). And they must be respected (while not everyone will always agree upon the decisions made, they are all willing to respect the decision and work towards a common goal - A leader that inspires & demands this kind of respect is critical) and they must respect their team members - students and mentors alike are all critical elements to the team, and in order to gain respect, the leader must first be willing to respect the team.
Second Observation:
Quote:
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Excellence - is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible.
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This has been my email signature for as long as I can remember. I believe in it 100%. If you have students and mentors on your team that "care too much", and "risk a lot", and "dream too big", and "expect a lot of themselves and eachother"... you just may be on the road to Excellence. So many people mistake team discussions/arguments for bad fighting... In most cases it's because your team members are passionate. If they are passionate, they are going to push harder and dream bigger. Its NOT the easiest road - conflict sucks! - but it will lead you to bigger and better things. Everyone needs to be allowed to dream and try!
Third Observation:
This one isn't new... but its SOOO prevalent.
DON'T BE AFRAID TO FAIL. Far Far too many students these days have the impression that any sort of failure is bad. One D on a paper gets their parents screaming at them, or their teacher looking down their nose, so students don't aim high - they pick safe projects, safe topics, things they know they can achieve with minimal effort - but they DONT push themselves because they are scared they might fail! Now there is a very subtle difference between being realistic, and being afraid to fail. When you start your six week build, if you don't have a sheet metal sponsor/machines lined up, you are not going to make a 118 or 148 or 1114 style robot. But that doesnt mean that you can't build prototypes of crazy mechanisms out of scrap materials or things you collected from a junkyard. If you have never done an octocanum drive, try it in preseason - fail 20+ times, get your high school class to build a robot that climbs stairs... but learn that line between "playing it safe" and "being realistic". It's ok to fail over and over and over again, as long as your plan gets you to your goal in your given timeframe. Willingness to fail doesn't need to be restricted to preseason, but it sure helps if you've failed 40 times in preseason and can transition your successes or how to predict failure to your build season
Fourth Observation:
PASSION is your friend. I was team leader for my high school team all 3 years, I started a team in college, and I started a team at my first job (and might just start another someday soon!). The name of the game in getting what you want is to be Passionate and Convincing. If you can explain why this is so important to you with such conviction that the other person is convinced to believe exactly what you believe, then you can get anywhere. I convinced an engineer (my first year) that we could build a constant force spring driven goal blocking device (and we did!), I convinced a college to shell over $20K for a team, I convinced a high school to let us work overnight and weekends without having to pay for the janitor staff, I convinced a crazy rookie team to run a pre-ship event, I convinced two model shops to do work for our team, I convinced the IT department to donate 7 laptops, 4 monitors and build a 4 port video output display for our team, I convinced teams in Rochester to get together and start up an offseason... on and on and on... And I guarantee 20% of it was my actual "facts" or "message" and 80% of it was my Passion. FIRST changed my life, and I let that show every time I need/want to get something done. All of the "I's" here sound very self serving, but my intent is to impress upon you what you can do if you are really passionate about it. I guarantee this is how many of the elite teams do it... they work insanely hard at crazy ideas that they are passionate about, refining them to the n'th degree until they are the best in the world. This can go for Robots, Strategies or some Chairman's Award winning Unique effort.
This is what I've got so far... time to pack for FLR!!
Great topic!