Changing Culture of the Team

[Ed Law]

There are many excellent suggestions already. I do want to add my perspective on this to may be help you and others in similar situation.
The chaos you are describing points to the failure of the team. Nobody should point fingers to who is at fault because it is the team's fault for allowing this to happen in the first place.
An FRC team is just like any organization. It must have a business plan that spells out the vision and mission, goals, organization structure, job description and responsibilities, contingency plans etc. This is the only way that the whole team will move in the same direction instead of in-fighting. There should also be no us versus them, students versus mentors etc. You are all part of the team and working side by side.
The next important thing is to have one effective leader, a CEO / coach or whatever name you want to use. This leader's job is to follow the business plan and take the team to systematically achieve the team's short and long term goals. There should be no personal agenda. A good leader will listen to all ideas, and make a timely decision to move the team forward. A team cannot afford to have too many cooks in the kitchen and allow any adult mentors or parents or student leader to change the course. The leader needs to make the final decision. A good leader also knows he/she cannot be the bottleneck so some delegations will be healthy and necessary.
Besides one leader, there are many ways to organize a team. Every team is different. Learn from other successful teams and find a structure that works best for you. It should be clear to everybody that the leader/coach and mentors are there to help the students and the team to succeed.
You have also expressed concern about selecting the right student leader. I will share with you how my old team does this. At the end of the season, graduating senior team captains propose a list of possible candidates that they feel is best for the team. Rising juniors and seniors indicate their interest to be a team captain to the team leader. We use a decision matrix approach. We list all the criteria/qualities. The importance of these qualities may change from year to year depending on what the team leader feel the team’s need is the following year. Then the team leader will consult with mentors who have worked directly with the candidates and also consult the current team captains to get their input. All candidates will be ranked on each of the qualities. Then you multiply the score with the importance and get the sum. This will usually narrow down to only a handful of candidates. We also take into consideration on balancing skills and maintaining gender ratio. It has worked well for us. It is a process we follow to be as objective as possible. This is an example of a process that can be documented in the team handbook so it will be followed in the future. This also prevents a new person coming in and completely changes how things are done.
You have also expressed disappointment of a previous year robot. Somebody else already addressed this. Design is also a process. If the whole team was part of that process and had regular review of the progress, then the robot is your team’s robot so not one person or group should be blamed for its outcome.
I can go on and on. PM me if you would like me to give any other suggestions.

[Road Rash]

^ Ed above is very wise along with a lot of other good information in this thread by others.

Your team is being severely mismanaged. One of the things I would do is try to find a mentor that is good at business management to try to set things back in order.

Changing a culture that has fallen apart is going to be a difficult task for the entire team. It can be done and I wish you luck.

[FWinter]

Originally Posted by teamcrash

I do agree that we don't need freshmen voting, but I do want to incorporate input from the people the officers will be leading somehow so we don't end up with incompetent leaders.

So that only those who already have team experience are voting, perhaps do your leadership election at the end of the season prior to the one in which they will lead, the way many sports teams elect captains. So, for example, elect next year's leaders sometime soon. (This may not work this year while in the middle of an overhaul).

Originally Posted by teamcrash

EDIT: One of my team members brought up an important point: how do we make things change? These are great suggestions but the more I look at them the more pushback I can think of from the mentors.

As others have suggested, get a school administrator on your side.
In addition you and your teammates could write a team handbook that puts policies in place. This will likely have pushback, but if there are things that the mentors want (like an attendance policy or something), give it to them to get what you want (like reasonable limits on their power).

I'm also curious, do you know why Alumni are allowed to have a say in current leadership? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but maybe your team has a good reason.

[DonRotolo]

To your point about How? - your local FIRST Senior Mentor can help, a lot. Get in touch with them.

As not only a reasonable and knowledgeable adult, but as one very famiiar with team dynamics, they can spot, call out, and recommend solutions to problems. Adults tend to at least listen to other adults, even if there is no respect for students.

Yes, you and your team are in a difficult situation. Get experienced help.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

If you're in the NorCal area, we'd be happy to help!

PM me if interested, we're invested in seeing FRC teams (especially local ones) thrive!

-Mike

Likewise, if you're in SE LA or on the MS coast, I'd be happy to help (though you should also call Daniel Eiland (MysterE) as the local Senior Mentor).

[anontestasd]

I am fairly certain that I am also a member of this team. A lot of the issues that OP has described are correct, but I feel like this is important to put into perspective (or at least my perspective as a student).

This year has by far been the worst in terms of team cohesiveness and unity. Last year, our robot was quite good in fact, and while we didn't place too high anywhere, our officer team was pretty well functioning. The mentors were often very unhelpful and derogatory; the general political climate was frayed; however, the students who were in charge were pretty solid, with a few non-functioning officers.

I believe that a lot of issues arose with the choice of officers this year. Our president was quite poor (should never have been chosen), and eventually resigned mid season after receiving a college acceptance. We had other resignations as well prior to that (something that has never occurred before on the team).

Furthermore, there was one student in particular who was not allowed on the team due to school rules that caused a lot of drama and seriously messed with the way our build season was progressing. A lot of the screenshotting and even bullying was instigated by him.

Overall, the mentors may have their hearts in the right place, but a combination of team staleness and a few students screwing things up has led to this state (which the OP described well).

[teamcrashrev]

Yeah, your analysis isn't really helpful or accurate. Same team, and we'd actually say that the OP didn't go far enough. The 'one student' was more of a victim than some evil bully... and I have no idea how he "messed with build". The mentors caused a lot of people a lot of pain... there are a bunch of people ready to leave and start their own thing, and it doesn't look like this will get better.

[nihil]

Originally Posted by teamcrashrev

Yeah, your analysis isn't really helpful or accurate. Same team, and we'd actually say that the OP didn't go far enough.

Hello,

I personally think that conflicts are best solved if you communicate with each other with an open mind. Dismissing the person's point of view might not be the best way to approach this conflict. Instead maybe try talking it out over a private message or something. Hope this helps. Good luck and hopefully you guys figure it out!

Nihil

[nihil]

Originally Posted by teamcrashrev

The mentors caused a lot of people a lot of pain... there are a bunch of people ready to leave and start their own thing, and it doesn't look like this will get better.

Also keep a positive attitude, I'm sure you guys can figure it out! Let me know if you guys want any help. I am also in the area and can maybe stop by sometime.

[teamcrash]

Mods, please close this thread before it becomes a pissing contest between members.
Thank you all for the help, the students will see what they can do to resolve conflicts around the team!

[lovelj]

Originally Posted by teamcrash

Mods, please close this thread before it becomes a pissing contest between members.
Thank you all for the help, the students will see what they can do to resolve conflicts around the team!

Actually, I think reaching out to the community for help is what FIRST is all about. Gracious professionalism. In my opinion, mentors need to mentor. Kids are kids and need guidance. If I was a mentor for this team, I'd reach out to some of the senior mentors on CD for advice. I've personally done that in the past and it's really helped. Chris from Cyber Blue is awesome. I guarantee you that mentors that have been doing this for 10 to 20 years have had to deal with identical problems. To just leave it to the kids to solve eliminates one of the fundamental aspects of FIRST: mentoring

[Seth Mallory]

One place to look for organizational help is the Boy Scouts. The desired structure for scouts and scout masters works well for a robotics team. The guidelines and training materials are easy to get. There people in most areas that can help and you may have some scouts and scout master parents on your team. Also look to Girl Scouts for guidance. You need some written guidelines for people to work with and what limits are.

[dirtbikerxz]

I have no more advice to offer than the advice already given. But I can say, if you are ANYWHERE in the Louisiana area, (or even if your not). PM me at anytime and I and my team will be 100 percent ready to help, don't even hesitate. Don't worry, I won't let your identity or team affiliation get out.

[The Swaggy P]

Originally Posted by Collin Fultz

All of the above replies are very good. I'm going to go in a bit of a different direction.

I think that you need to reach out to people in your area for help. You can find RD's, Senior Mentors, and VISTAs here.

I completely understand why you feel the need to post anonymously on Chief Delphi. It's a bit like cruising WebMD when you think you're sick. The much more difficult thing to do (at least for me), is to actually face the problem in person and go to the doctor. They may not tell you what you want to hear. They will tell you what you need to hear.

I think that someone external to the team who has experience with teams that operate in many different fashions could come in and help.

Good luck!

This has to be the best idea so far. Bringing someone unknown in to fix this sort of thing is a good approach, seeing as it would be totally unreasonable to hate someone you've never met.

As for my post, I can relate to OP's situation. Though it may have been on a much lower severity, it still started with a rift forming between the students and parents/teacher, and eventually escalated to full on verbal fights between myself (student), and a couple of "mentors".

[dirtbikerxz]

Originally Posted by The Swaggy P

This has to be the best idea so far. Bringing someone unknown in to fix this sort of thing is a good approach, seeing as it would be totally unreasonable to hate someone you've never met.

As for my post, I can relate to OP's situation. Though it may have been on a much lower severity, it still started with a rift forming between the students and parents/teacher, and eventually escalated to full on verbal fights between myself (student), and a couple of "mentors".

In our situation, our mentors are really cool about everything, when they are right they dont gloat, when they are proven wrong they don't get mad and we (the students) dont gloat... I believe this is how a team should be. (note, i really dont like separating mentors and students like this, makes it seem like it is two sides of an argument ). The only problems I have ever seen are from SOME (not all) parents.... some of them just really can't accept that they might be wrong :\