Managing the Unexpected - Eagle Education Experience - EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – ONTEORA SCOUT RESERVATION, TRC BSA

This presentation is designed to assist Scouts, parents and Scout leaders with the Eagle Scout advancement process and leadership-capability enhancement. The Washington, D.C. District of the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America offers the Eagle Education Experience to empower Eagle Scout candidates with knowledge, skills and abilities that they can use to achieve the Eagle Scout rank, become stronger leaders and more effectively accomplish noble goals. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

You Decide: Flight, Fright or Fight If a plan to achieve a goal is complex and has many steps (such as an Eagle Scout Service Project), it is VERY LIKELY THAT SOMETHING UNEXPECTED WILL OCCUR either before or during implementation of the plan. Even without regard to goals, everyone encounters unexpected situations in broader life. The way a leader responds to an unexpected situation indicates much about that leader’s confidence and competence. When you encounter an unexpected situation that could prevent you from achieving what you want to achieve, should you: surrender to the situation and willfully experience defeat; become fearful of the unexpected and avoid future effort; or 3) do everything you possibly can to overcome the unexpected circumstance and achieve victory? EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Channel Confidence and Competence Confidence: the sense that you can overcome an obstacle and succeed. In general, the more confidence you have, the more likely you are to succeed. However, even if you do not feel particularly confident in your ability to succeed, choose to be as confident as you can be, as this will add motivation to your activities and empower you with additional strength. Competence: possession of a high level of relevant knowledge, skills and abilities. Competence can fuel confidence, and vice versa. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

The Possible Challenges [Totally expected:] A leader expects that there shall be challenges regarding a task, and knows what they specifically shall be. [Partial uncertainty:] A leader expects that there shall be challenges regarding a task, but does not know what they specifically shall be. [Totally unexpected:] A leader does not expect to encounter challenges regarding a task, and does not know what they specifically shall be. [Impossible:] A leader does not expect to encounter challenges regarding a task, yet knows what they specifically shall be (this is illogical). EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Overcoming Unexpected Challenges When an unexpected challenge occurs, if you want to enhance the chance that you will be able to successfully overcome the challenge, you should: calmly assess all aspects of the challenge, while accounting for as many relevant factors as possible; determine if there is any more information you could acquire that would be helpful in addressing the situation, then attempt to acquire that information; establish a solution to the unexpected challenge that, if possible, includes risk mitigation factors to minimize the chance of additional unexpected challenges occurring; implement the improvised solution, with delegation occurring if you are leading others to overcome the challenge; and after implementation, assess the degree of success (the degree to which the unexpected challenge was resolved). EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Enhancing Improvisational Ability The greater your knowledge about a subject, the greater your ability to improvise regarding that subject. Improvise: to act in response to a challenge without having had sufficient time to prepare for that action. Improvisation often involves innovation, which is the process of creating something new or developing a new concept to address a challenge that has not been overcome or that is unique. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Enhancing Improvisational Ability You can enhance your improvisational ability by: acquiring practice at improvisation through functioning as an advisor to a leader; thinking about complex situations and your solutions to those situations; solving logic puzzles; augmenting your overall intelligence through reading; practicing public speaking; developing stronger confidence through: committing to do everything you can to achieve victory; recognizing that each challenge could have a solution that is morally ethical and socially responsible; practicing real-life application of your leadership abilities; and teaching others about how to be strong improvisers. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Managing Through Risk Mitigation Effective management of the unexpected involves not just capably responding to unexpected challenges, but using detailed planning to minimize the chance of unexpected challenges occurring when a plan is implemented. Detailed plans can: reduce the chance of misinterpretation of a leader’s intent (misinterpretation can generate unexpected variances from the leader’s intent); and reduce variation of subdivision leaders’ intent from that of primary leader. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Managing Through Risk Mitigation Detailed plans to accomplish a task also include back-up plans (contingency plans). The back-up plans should account for: circumstances that would cause a date of the implementation of that task to need to be rescheduled (such as a rain date for an outdoors project); workers who were planned on being available instead not being available; medical emergencies; tentative actions announced by the organization for which the task is being performed that might necessitate changes to the project if the actions are performed. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Rescheduling Dates to Perform Work Various factors could cause the dates when work initially was planned to be performed to need to be different from the dates when it actually is performed. It therefore is imperative to not schedule the initially planned work dates to be relatively close to the deadline for completing that work. (Be proactive, instead of procrastinating). For an Eagle Scout Service Project, this advice especially applies because an Eagle candidate does not want to fail to become an Eagle Scout simply because an initially planned date for work on the project was very close to his 18th birthday, circumstances arose causing work to not be able to be performed on that date, and there is no applicable alternate date before his 18th birthday that would be able to apply as an alternative date. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Managing Medical Emergencies Whenever you are leading others, you must prepare for medical emergency response appropriate to the level of intensity of the situation in which you are leading them. You should ensure that: your own knowledge of first aid is excellent; you have a medical kit readily available if the intensity of the situation causes this to be appropriate; you have a medical officer readily available if the intensity of the situation causes this to be appropriate; designated individuals performing an intense effort have CPR training; the chain-of-command for emergency response is clear. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Interruption in the Chain-of-Command If you designate subdivision leaders, you must prepare for alternate subdivision leaders if those who were planned to fulfill those roles cannot participate. You should ensure that the subdivision leaders have adequate knowledge with which to supervise their divisions even if you become unavailable. Sometimes, a primary leader might want to designate an alternative primary leader who could serve in his capacity if he is unavailable. If an individual attempts to subvert your leadership or the leadership of a subdivision leader and become a leader himself: reinforce to those you lead why you are the most capable person to accomplish a task and emphasize the progress you have made; ensure that those most loyal to you encourage others’ loyalty. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Insufficient Resources If fewer workers are available for performing a task than were expected; if fewer materials, tools and supplies are available than expected; or if the amount of available funding is lower than expected: Determine if the task, with minimum adjustment, can still be performed almost entirely as planned. If the task cannot be performed closely as planned, you must make command decisions regarding: adjustments to work plans; adjustments to implementations based on the revised plans; and alternative workers or items or funding sources that could help accomplish the task. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Overabundance of Resources Good problem: an unanticipated excellent situation in which you have the ability to achieve far greater quality than you anticipated. If you have more volunteers than you expected, or more materials, or more supplies, or more tools, or more funding, you can accomplish a far greater level of quality or efficiency for your clients. It would be unwise to avoid the opportunity to use an overabundance of resources to achieve higher quality or efficiency merely because you want to retain the original plan and its original scope. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Client Complications If you arranged with a client that you would develop a plan for implementing a task to be performed for that client, some clients will prevent you from fully benefitting from the opportunity to implement that plan by asking another organization to implement the plan or implementing the plan themselves. You DO NOT want the intended beneficiary for your Eagle Project to decide, after you present the plan for the project, to implement the project itself. To potentially avoid this situation, emphasize: the value that you, specifically, could enable the implemented task to have, especially because of your familiarity with it because you planned it; and that you sincerely want to complete the task yourself because of a genuine interest in achieving its completion. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Client Complications If your client decides, on the day when you are to implement a plan, that it wants to change the plan that you and the client mutually established on a previous day: ensure that you have a readily accessible representative of the client available to whom you could contact with questions and for more information; ask the client if the changes are absolutely necessary and if the project could proceed as planned; enable all subdivision leaders to be fully aware of the changes; consider if the changes would affect any other aspects of the plan, and make adjustments as necessary; determine whether you have the resources to accomplish the adjusted plan, and if you do not, develop and implement a plan to acquire those resources. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Resolving Disputes Among Workers If workers within a subdivision or among subdivisions are experiencing a personal conflict with each other that is causing them to not operate as efficiently as possible, you can: assess what caused the personal conflict; then have a counseling session to enable the workers to function well with each other without reallocation or firing; reallocate the workers to prevent a reduction in labor force and improve efficiency more than might occur if the workers were separated from the project; or eliminate the workers from implementation of the plan and acquire and train replacement workers. EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA

Discussion and Questions EAGLE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE – WASHINGTON, D.C. DISTRICT, NCAC, BSA