Patrol Method

In the first installment in this series I asserted that youth leaders develop when they are doing, not watching. Our best Scout youth leader training is an active process of discovery. In part two I outlined the relationships and environment most conducive to development. What specific practices aid developing leadership? How do we actually make this happen? Don’t Wait. If you are going to wait for your Scouts to actually be leaders before they are trusted with real responsibility you’ll be waiting a long time....

What are the most promising approaches for youth leader development? In the first installment in this series we discussed some key concepts about the relationship between Scouts and leadership positions and the way they develop as leaders. Training events like NYLT (National Youth Leader Training) present both experiential and classroom learning. Troop based youth leadership training offers some experiential learning as well. As good as the event-style training is it can only be a part of a broader developmental process....

Scout youth leader training is important, we do a lot of training. Some approaches work well and some don’t. I often hear from Scoutmasters who say something like “you know we trained these guys, or sent them to training, and they still, just don’t get it.” At this point a lot of us grow disenchanted and conclude that ‘youth led’ is impossible or simply too much trouble. Scout youth leaders who take part in event-based training do not automatically become leaders anymore than anyone who spends a weekend in their garage becomes a car....

What’s the best way to hold Troop leadership elections? It’s pretty simple. Here’s all of the references I found in the Scoutmaster’s handbook: Each troop sets its own requirements and schedule of elections, though senior patrol leaders are usually chosen at six- to 12-month intervals and can be reelected. Scoutmaster’s Handbook p. 13 The members of each patrol elect one of their own to serve as their patrol leader. The troop determines the requirements, if any, for patrol leaders, such as rank and age....

What follows is a first look at one part of a youth leadership training-mentoring program I have been working on. I’ve imposed a few rules on myself – no paperwork, no presentations and no sitting down. In addition the adult role in this will be largely as a silent observer. As I develop the ideas I am working on ways that Scouts can first experience the concept and then discover the answers....

I have a calendar running in my head, geared to the school year calendar. Decades of programming for young people will do that to you. Last night I was watching our Scouts, talking to our Scoutmaster and I heard myself say, “oh, and by the way. Is the senior patrol leader ready to present the annual calendar to the troop committee at their meeting the first week in August? Has the patrol leaders council planned the August Court of Honor for all of the awards the guys earned this summer?...

John Thurman was a prolific writer and Camp Chief of Gilwell Park from 1943 to 1969. I have taken some of his thoughts on the patrol leaders council (called the Court of Honor in the UK at the time) and updated them with modern terminology suited to Scouting in the U.S.A. I plan on sharing it with my senior patrol leader this week; The Patrol Leader’s CouncilThe moment you took over your patrol you became not just one leader, but two....

I had this message from Tom; the same Tom you hear when we have a Scoutmaster panel discussion on the podcast. Any of us Scoutmasters who are invested in youth leadership and the patrol method have times of frustration and doubt – at least I know I do! Hi Clarke, Well my Scoutmaster OCD and ADD and ADHD really kicked in last week! But by the end of the weekend I felt a lot better....

I get this email fairly often; ‘I have been reading what you have to say about the patrol method and youth leadership buy MY Scouts don’t seem to get it. We’ve done youth leader training and even sent them to NYLT but they just don’t lead. What are we doing wrong?’ It’s not that you’re doing something wrong – its just that you may have misunderstood the difference between training and experience....

One troop is led by adults, one is led by the Scouts. What’s the difference? At the risk of oversimplifying the answer the difference is focus. Troops run by adults are focused on results. Troops run by Scouts are focused on process. I accept that between the two extremes of fully adult and fully youth led there are many shades of grey but I think the basic conclusion of focus hold up....

As adults in positions of authority our exchanges, no matter how casual, carry the weight of position and authority. This is why I school adults to be very careful about what they tell youth leaders because what they say will be interpreted as instructions and they will be followed. We also must be careful to understand the difference between evaluating and valuing what youth leaders say. Since we are considered as the default authority youth leaders will take our reactions to what they say as an evaluation....

I advocate using guided discovery (asking questions) to help youth leadership find their way. Often my questions are rhetorical, in other words I do not expect that the person I am questioning has an answer. This can be a very blunt instrument, and sometimes a bit aggressive, so I do have to measure the way that the question is posed. ‘What are your plans for this meeting?’ ‘We’re going to work on requirements....

THE REASON They don’t appear to know how to lead. WHAT’S HAPPENING Scouts are elected to leadership positions but are doing a lackluster job. They don’t seem to appreciate the opportunity and are very slow to take things on. THE SOLUTION Sometimes this apparent lack of initiative is a matter of perspective. What we picture in our minds as leadership may be very different from what our Scouts see themselves doing....

Experience, maturity and skill are not prerequisites to leadership; they are the traits produced as we practice leadership. We often get email or comments from Scoutmasters with a troop of young Scouts wondering how they can be anything like boy led. They look around a bunch of immature 11-year-old boys and don’t see anyone who measures up to their preconceived notion of a leader so the adults take over the leadership and may never let it go....

Adult leaders often say things like; “I don’t override the boys decisions at all. ” “I asked them what they wanted to do.” “This was their decision.” What most of us fail to recognize is that many of these ‘boy led’ decisions were probably coerced, at least in part, by the presence of adults when they were discussed. It’s not that the adults shined bright lights in their eyes or twisted their arms behind their backs – it is much more subtle than that....

At our council camporee in December I walked around the entire camp and saw only two troops that had identifiable patrols. Most troops were set up as one unit, with all the tents lined up and no discernible internal division into patrols. Because our site was so small, our tents were all jumbled up and crammed into the site. Only our senior patrol leader and his patrol leaders really knew where the individual patrol boundaries began and ended....

Patrol Choice Chart PDF FILE I am often asked about how patrols are formed, who does the choosing and how the choices are made. Scouts do the choosing and one way for them to choose is using the chart above (open the PDF file to see the chart in detail). To divide a group of Scouts into patrols each is given a slip of paper and asked to write his name at the top and circle it – then he writes the name of three Scouts he would like to have in his patrol....

Bruce Tuckman first offered a theory of group development in the mid 1960’s. Tuckman’s model has been a part of Woodbadge training for about a dozen years. Here’s Tuckman’s three stages: Forming Individuals want to be accepted by the others, avoid controversy or conflict. The group is busy with routines: who does what, when to meet, etc. Individuals gather information and impressions about each other about the groups goals and how to approach it....

Here’s the PowerPoint presentation I use at troop leader training. Please feel free to use and adapt it as you see fit (you do not have to credit me.) Here’s the article explaining the concept Before this session, I call the older guys who have seen this before off to the side and ask them to lay low during this session, as they already know the right answer. I pause for while on slide 7 and let them thrash around awhile: Then I show them slide 8: I pause again on slide 13....

Is there really a job description for Scout youth leaders? Every First Class Scout is a leader by definition. Three requirements for advancement are common to every rank after First Class: Merit Badges Service to the community Leadership: ‘Serve actively in a position of responsibility’ It is every First Class Scout’s job to lead, train, and inspire Scouts to achieve First Class rank. It’s his job whether he is SPL, PL or “just” Historian....