Where's the Gracious Professionalism?

[popnbrown]

I want to add to Janelle's post briefly so those that read next get her point. She's not upset at any of the teams in the 2 (?) big issues. I don't think we've even seen a wee bit of un-GP actions from teams that got those ridiculous calls made on them.

There have been other posts calling names and being not very nice to volunteers. Pretty much saying that's not good and don't post if you feel that way. Wait on it, sleep on it, think it through then post.

[J-Blondie]

Originally Posted by popnbrown

I want to add to Janelle's post briefly so those that read next get her point. She's not upset at any of the teams in the 2 (?) big issues. I don't think we've even seen a wee bit of un-GP actions from teams that got those ridiculous calls made on them.

There have been other posts calling names and being not very nice to volunteers. Pretty much saying that's not good and don't post if you feel that way. Wait on it, sleep on it, think it through then post.

This is true, thank you for understanding. If I could, I guess I would edit this thread to be titled "Where's the respect?". But in ways, this post has enlightened me to a realization that people aren't happy with the term "gracious professionalism" and that I think we need to come up with either a better term or try to figure out what has happened with our culture as of late. If gracious professionalism isn't the term we think we need to use anymore, maybe we need something better? I don't know, I can't have all the answers, but I wanted to address what I had personally noticed.

[rsegrest]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

"Gracious Professionalism" is an ambiguous term, with no set rubric for what defines "GP" behavior and what doesn't. I can only assume this is purposeful, as it should be. It's not black and white, and is often difficult to apply to many situations. It's an ephemeral guideline to what the culture of FIRST, and hopefully the rest of society, should be.

Barry Bonzack posted the definition of "grace" once in a thread at another time the FRC community was facing adversity.

Likewise, "professional" can be defined as follows.


Neither term directly correspond to one another, and just the definitions of the two words do not encompass all of what Gracious Professionalism is. But you can begin to glean the intent, and more insight can be gained by listening to Woodie Flowers speak about it. Woodie and FIRST often use terms like "kindness," "respect," "creativity," "integrity," "sensitivity," "mutual gain," "standing on the shoulders of giants," and "high quality" when describing GP. In particular, Woodie's sentiments about avoiding humiliation of others echo particularly strong with me this year.

It may be cliche, but adversity is a test of character. While it's far from the first time in FRC history, this year has had plenty of adversity. And like the times in the past, some have handled the adversity better than others. Many have shown that Gracious Professionalism is indeed ingrained into their character. Others have handled it with less grace and less professionalism, and their actions have not contributed to our mutual gain. I do not blame them, this has been a very stressful year and a lot of people have seen their hopes derailed by events fully outside of their control. It can be difficult to manage.

Yet, I do find it hard to reconcile how some of these attitudes are in line with our mutual gain, mutual respect, or avoiding humiliation of others. Throwing temper tantrums or publicly degrading individuals, whether they be volunteers or professionals, does nothing to help the community. The spite and vitriol exhibited by not only the scorned parties, but others in the community, does not seem healthy to me. Just as I do not blame these individuals for their negative attitudes, they should not lay the blame on others. Often, the same emotionally-charged, high-stress environments that led to their emotional states were often involved in the decisions that they disagree with. None of these decisions were made with malice in mind, and nobody is happy about these scenarios. Empathy is tremendously important here.



Is it that inconceivable that the competition is only a portion of what FIRST is about, and a means to the end of the ultimate goal of changing culture? It's an easily understood and exciting event that draws attention and gets participants and observers excited. It's using the sports model to create attention and excitement for STEM programs. It's not the core emphasis of FIRST.

^^^^^^^

This over and over again. Thank you Lavery, I believe you summed up exactly what I have been feeling this year.

[MooreteP]

In Life, you're .500

Thank you J-Blondie for your post.

Now, let's get ready to rumble!, or assist!

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

"Gracious Professionalism" is an ambiguous term, with no set rubric for what defines "GP" behavior and what doesn't. I can only assume this is purposeful, as it should be. It's not black and white, and is often difficult to apply to many situations. It's an ephemeral guideline to what the culture of FIRST, and hopefully the rest of society, should be.

Barry Bonzack posted the definition of "grace" once in a thread at another time the FRC community was facing adversity.

Likewise, "professional" can be defined as follows.


Neither term directly correspond to one another, and just the definitions of the two words do not encompass all of what Gracious Professionalism is. But you can begin to glean the intent, and more insight can be gained by listening to Woodie Flowers speak about it. Woodie and FIRST often use terms like "kindness," "respect," "creativity," "integrity," "sensitivity," "mutual gain," "standing on the shoulders of giants," and "high quality" when describing GP. In particular, Woodie's sentiments about avoiding humiliation of others echo particularly strong with me this year.

It may be cliche, but adversity is a test of character. While it's far from the first time in FRC history, this year has had plenty of adversity. And like the times in the past, some have handled the adversity better than others. Many have shown that Gracious Professionalism is indeed ingrained into their character. Others have handled it with less grace and less professionalism, and their actions have not contributed to our mutual gain. I do not blame them, this has been a very stressful year and a lot of people have seen their hopes derailed by events fully outside of their control. It can be difficult to manage.

Yet, I do find it hard to reconcile how some of these attitudes are in line with our mutual gain, mutual respect, or avoiding humiliation of others. Throwing temper tantrums or publicly degrading individuals, whether they be volunteers or professionals, does nothing to help the community. The spite and vitriol exhibited by not only the scorned parties, but others in the community, does not seem healthy to me. Just as I do not blame these individuals for their negative attitudes, they should not lay the blame on others. Often, the same emotionally-charged, high-stress environments that led to their emotional states were often involved in the decisions that they disagree with. None of these decisions were made with malice in mind, and nobody is happy about these scenarios. Empathy is tremendously important here.



Is it that inconceivable that the competition is only a portion of what FIRST is about, and a means to the end of the ultimate goal of changing culture? It's an easily understood and exciting event that draws attention and gets participants and observers excited. It's using the sports model to create attention and excitement for STEM programs. It's not the core emphasis of FIRST.

I wish we could spotlight this entire post. It's perfect.

Jane

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

"Gracious Professionalism" is an ambiguous term, with no set rubric for what defines "GP" behavior and what doesn't. I can only assume this is purposeful, as it should be. It's not black and white, and is often difficult to apply to many situations. It's an ephemeral guideline to what the culture of FIRST, and hopefully the rest of society, should be.

Barry Bonzack posted the definition of "grace" once in a thread at another time the FRC community was facing adversity.

Likewise, "professional" can be defined as follows.


Neither term directly correspond to one another, and just the definitions of the two words do not encompass all of what Gracious Professionalism is. But you can begin to glean the intent, and more insight can be gained by listening to Woodie Flowers speak about it. Woodie and FIRST often use terms like "kindness," "respect," "creativity," "integrity," "sensitivity," "mutual gain," "standing on the shoulders of giants," and "high quality" when describing GP. In particular, Woodie's sentiments about avoiding humiliation of others echo particularly strong with me this year.

It may be cliche, but adversity is a test of character. While it's far from the first time in FRC history, this year has had plenty of adversity. And like the times in the past, some have handled the adversity better than others. Many have shown that Gracious Professionalism is indeed ingrained into their character. Others have handled it with less grace and less professionalism, and their actions have not contributed to our mutual gain. I do not blame them, this has been a very stressful year and a lot of people have seen their hopes derailed by events fully outside of their control. It can be difficult to manage.

Yet, I do find it hard to reconcile how some of these attitudes are in line with our mutual gain, mutual respect, or avoiding humiliation of others. Throwing temper tantrums or publicly degrading individuals, whether they be volunteers or professionals, does nothing to help the community. The spite and vitriol exhibited by not only the scorned parties, but others in the community, does not seem healthy to me. Just as I do not blame these individuals for their negative attitudes, they should not lay the blame on others. Often, the same emotionally-charged, high-stress environments that led to their emotional states were often involved in the decisions that they disagree with. None of these decisions were made with malice in mind, and nobody is happy about these scenarios. Empathy is tremendously important here.



Is it that inconceivable that the competition is only a portion of what FIRST is about, and a means to the end of the ultimate goal of changing culture? It's an easily understood and exciting event that draws attention and gets participants and observers excited. It's using the sports model to create attention and excitement for STEM programs. It's not the core emphasis of FIRST.

Love this post. You said it an earlier thread, but it's basically been my 'motto' regarding controversies this season: "Let's take a step back". Vicious complaints about how terrible the GDC is and how this season has been absolutely ruined by various things do absolutely nothing to help. Maybe this response is coming from 'rainbows and unicorn land', but I truly believe it. Also bothering me is the speed at which people are directly attacking FIRST and HQ. Example would be the SVR situation. Obviously, it was a ludicrous situation-but we're still missing the most important side of the story as to what happened-HQ's. But before members of the impacted teams came on to discuss their side of the story, conclusions were preemptively drawn-stories that now attack FIRST are given more credibility/instant reliability. A wide group of people believed the misheard, 'threatened removal from championship' without a single second person commenting on the sitiuation. The willingness of some to believe that was simply frightening and really shines a negative light in some ways.


But hey, maybe I'm just missing a bigger point.

[rkbot]

I think this year has turned out pretty well compared to how many other team activities would have if they turned out like this has. Yes there have been many questionable calls. I think i am speaking for many when I say that there have been calls that you can clearly see should not have been made or should have been made. For the amount of money and time students, mentors and sponsors put into this, winning is a big part, but i do not think most teams get angry about the fact they have lost. It is the circumstances in which they have lost. I try not to be to hard in my judgments of the referees, as this years game is very confusing.

I have to say this though, that if this were any other sport the refs would be getting much more flak immediately after match. I play other sports outside of first, and if a call is made that is clearly wrong there is an immediate verbal disapproval. This disapproval involves yelling/cursing at the refs or the other teams you are against. I am happy that i do not see this inside of FIRST but this years game makes many people go very close to crossing that line.

I also do not like seeing the "Gracious Professionalism" card played every time you disagree with something. They are allowed to be wrong, and this year they have been wrong a lot, so there is good reason to be angry. Most are not willing to sit back and watch when they know something has not been called properly.

I still see Gracious professionalism every time i go to an event. There is respect between teams, mentors and volunteers. Any team or person can go up to anyone else there without fear of ridicule to ask for help. This makes me happy because from what i have seen in other sports and just in general, there are very few people like the ones you meet in FIRST. Many wont even give you the time of day.

The reason you see so little compassion this year is because of the lack of people admitting that they have made a mistake. It gives me hope to see a referee admit that they were wrong. I have seen this on a few occasions which is good but, i have seem many where they have not. People do not want to show respect to someone who makes multiple mistakes and does not admit that they were in any way wrong or are not willing to listen to your side of the story.