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Unread 27-01-2016, 08:55
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Mr. Ackroyd Mr. Ackroyd is offline
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FRC #3044 (OxBe4)
Team Role: Coach
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Rookie Year: 2009
Location: Ballston Spa, NY
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Re: What to do when mentors are leading the team in the wrong direction?

Great discussions going on with this topic. I am very sorry to hear that things are not going so well with your team this year.

Team dynamics are an eb and flow each year and need to be looked at and figured out before the season begins. I took over our team this year from a coach that began the team back in 2009. He lead them very well and had a good dynamic with the students and mentors. Strong student leaders really are what lead a team and that is difficult to have each year. What I mean by this, if you have student leaders that can lead their sub teams really well, it makes the mentors job a bit easier in which the mentor can focus on helping the students grow in design. If students are weak in some areas and have met their match in design the mentor can help guide.

Over the past three years our team has been lead more in a way by the kids, some good some bad comes with this setup. The mentors were given less of a role when decisions were being made for design reviews. This caused for delays in the schedule and many hardships in which the students were left with a bad taste. This year I came in with the notion that we are all a team, mentors and students. I wanted to create a culture where students lead in design and ideas. We had an aggressive schedule for design review this year and finalized our design by the second week. Students can only design and build to a certain point, so I instructed the mentors to help get the student to the next level and guide them with their expertise. Not doing the work for the student but asking the right questions. And all of this was completed in full team meetings and votes where the students asked the questions and mentors provided concern when needed.

In doing this we are two weeks ahead of where we have been during the last three years, the team morale is very high, the mentors are happy and the students feel a sense of urgency and accomplishment. Although we do not have a robot built. We have all necessary hardware components ready to go, besides tread. We are in the fine tuning stage where we are looking at electrical placements and making sure mechanical parts will fit where needed. Once we are happy, the plan is to build the robot in three days and when the treads arrive get them on quickly. We hope to have preliminary drive capability this time next week.

Good luck and I hope your team can get back on track
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