Another Culture Change

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by JVN

So back to the topic...
Can we change the culture within FIRST to where it is no longer okay to make mean remarks about a team on YouTube just because you're jealous of them?

How can we teach teams to use their jealousy to raise the bar instead of try to lower the ceiling?

How do we instill a culture of professionalism?

It starts from the top.
FIRST Employees and Officials must demand it of themselves and of each other.
Volunteers must demand it of themselves and of each other.
Mentors must demand it of themselves and of each other.
Everyone needs to keep each other in line....we are all adults and we should expect respect, no matter the circumstance.

And then Mentors must instill this culture of professionalism in their students.
This will not be easy for all students to accept, but that's part of being a mentor. We aren't here to just teach them how to build robots or write essays and give presentations. We aren't here to just be buddies with our students. We aren't here to make sure that they're having a great time all of the time. Our role is not strictly of "coach"...we are Mentors. Our students watch us, on and off the playing field, in and our of the shop, to see how we interact with other people. It is our job, as Mentors, to enforce a positive attitude, to encourage the respect of other teams and members of those teams, and to live that respect ourselves.

It also helps to talk about it. Talk about attitudes in your team meetings, talk about how to handle it if someone is lashing out at you or your team. And talk about how negative attitudes towards other teams are not acceptable.

I've been thinking a lot about the Culture of FIRST. Within that Culture, there are a lot of different kinds of sub-cultures, depending on team's philosophies and values. These sub-cultures may not always align with each other, and they may not also have all of the same goals, but that's part of the beauty of FIRST: it mirrors how the real world is. Not all successful businesses have the same values or goals either, but they learn from each other through their interactions.

Understand that teams are all different from each other.
Respect and learn from these differences, whether you agree with them or not.
Do the best that you can on your own team with a good attitude: that is as inspirational as a robot that goes undefeated all season long.