What Makes a FIRST Team Successful?

What Makes a FIRST Team Successful?


There have been some posts here on Chief Delphi recently (fortunately only a very few) that made me think carefully about what makes a FIRST team successful. Let me state clearly these are my opinions and not that of NASA, the Robotics Education Project, or any member of Team 254 except myself.

My answer is, if your team showed up at a regional and had a robot to bring to the field, you were successful. If you kept your attitude positive, and never quit trying to improve your performance, it doesn’t matter if you lost every match and seeded last, you were successful. If you finished the season and no matter how ‘well’ you did, your only thought is: “I can’t wait for next year.” You were successful.

Here are some additional characteristics of successful team:

1. Team members of successful teams respect each other and treat other teams with respect. In other words, they practice “Gracious Professionalism.”
2. Mentors of successful teams have or can acquire the knowledge for the team to technically successful. Mentors of successful teams know when to let the students make their own decisions, and also know when to intervene. The only real reasons to intervene are if rule number 1 isn’t being followed, or if something unsafe is about to happen.
3. Successful teams can acquire the resources they need because they build a “community of support” around the team.
4. Finally, successful FIRST team members know they always can improve themselves, not just as a FIRST team, but as people who can offer something of value to society.


A long time ago I had a conversation with a senior NASA manager, when I mentioned that he must be really happy since the team from his center was doing so well, he said: “These are all my teams, and they all are doing well.” I never forgot this perspective. So in one way, I feel there really is only one team, and the name of that team is FIRST.