BSA: The POLARIS Method

[5thGenTexan]

Sunday morning I IMed my CM and asked if we needed to even be concerned about this at the unit level.  After reading the FB, I could get nothing out of it.  He only suggested the impact on us may be how the DE changes his approaches in order to reach his goal.  I am no fan of corporate doings anyway, so I am going to worry about this at all.

 

I have a den flag to finish up.  Our pack is growing and after Tuesday night I am sure we will grow a lot more.  Where we are going to physical put new dens is on my plate.  In short, I am just a Wolf Den Leader and I am gonna do my little thing and not worry about what the suits are doing with their word games. 

[NJCubScouter]

3 minutes ago, an_old_DC said:

My guess is it means fewer low-level professionals with the expectation that district and council volunteers will pick up the slack.

Maybe it does, but my council just (last year) completely reorganized the DE-level professional staff, supposedly to provide MORE professional staff (but I get the feeling that the people newly hired into this new structure are getting significantly less pay than the DE's.)  Essentially each "group" of 3 districts has 4 executives handling different areas for all 3 districts, such as membership, development, unit service and one other that slips my mind.  Those 4 report to an FSD.  No more "DE" handling everything for one district.  But each district still has its own volunteer structure.  It took them about 2 years to transition to that.  So now they are going to reorganize AGAIN?

[ParkMan]

2 hours ago, NJCubScouter said:

I guess that raises the question, does any of this "method" involve directly asking unit Scouters what would allow us to more effectively deliver the program to the Scouts?  And actually listening to the answers?  Or is it just going to be a buch of guys with gold and silver shoulder loops talking to each other?  (No offense to those here who wear gold or silver loops.)

Sounds like a good spinoff topic.

Premise: Assume that the goal of Polaris it to help make the program more efficient.

Question: What would we as unit Scouters want to see in a more efficient program?  Either in terms of program itself, or in support from district/council/national volunteers & professionals.

Edited September 17, 2018 by ParkMan
Fixed punctuation

[DuctTape]

1 hour ago, ParkMan said:

Sounds like a good spinoff topic.

Premise: Assume that the goal of Polaris it to help make the program more efficient.

Question: What would we as unit Scouters want to see in a more efficient program?  Either in terms of program itself, or in support from district/council/national volunteers & professionals.

Efficiency is not simply cheap and/or fast. It is also focused on the true goal and mitigates that which veers away from said goal. We have our aims and mission to be implemented via the methods. We need National/Council/District to support the methods to achieve the aims. Thus: Proportional resources dedicated to all the methods of scouting. The books , training (youth and adult), policy and decision making.  Presently advancement appears to be the purpose and not just one of the methods as the the other methods are not just downplayed, but completely contradicted for the sake of advancement. All staff should filter all decisions through the methods so as to not make a decision which pits one method against another. This does not mean all methods are employed at every event/activity/decision, but that the best implementation at any juncture will not contradict one of the methods for the sake of "efficiency" but will find a way to incorporate it into the structure. 

[ParkMan]

2 hours ago, DuctTape said:

Efficiency is not simply cheap and/or fast. It is also focused on the true goal and mitigates that which veers away from said goal. We have our aims and mission to be implemented via the methods. We need National/Council/District to support the methods to achieve the aims. Thus: Proportional resources dedicated to all the methods of scouting. The books , training (youth and adult), policy and decision making.  Presently advancement appears to be the purpose and not just one of the methods as the the other methods are not just downplayed, but completely contradicted for the sake of advancement. All staff should filter all decisions through the methods so as to not make a decision which pits one method against another. This does not mean all methods are employed at every event/activity/decision, but that the best implementation at any juncture will not contradict one of the methods for the sake of "efficiency" but will find a way to incorporate it into the structure. 

Thanks!  Got it.  I'm guessing that the BSA staff would probably say that they do that - with the caveat that there are some things staff does which simply keeps the lights on (like FOS - which for the sake of discussion, I'd leave out of the discussion for now).

Would be interesting to hear some ideas on how folks think the BSA should do that.  As a reminder for others, here's the 8 methods:

• Scouting Ideals.
• Patrols.
• Outdoors.
• Advancement.
• Personal Growth.
• Adult Association.
• Leadership Development.
• Uniform.

[DuctTape]

I am sure they would say they do, but there are many obvious places where they do not. Case in point: summer camp merit badges staffed by kids and the adult mB counselor simply signs the cards without any interaction with the scouts. This contradicts the adult association method. 

[WAKWIB]

Based on reading the Polaris site,  https://www.scouting.org/polarismethod/, the focus of this initiative seems to be more toward the offices and employees of BSA.

I have a lot of experience with Lean Manufacturing principles as it relates to an actual manufacturing (high-volume printing) environment. When it is properly engaged, it will yield a lot of positive results. However, for every success story, there are many stories of where it didn't work. It's not because the methods are flawed, it's because of the effort it takes. Unless there is real interest and momentum, it never gets beyond the baby-step stage and dies.

In the company where I saw it deployed it took close to 5 years to really see the fruit of the effort:   A lot of training, a lot of coordinated events, a lot of observation and documentation....etc. I think you get the picture. It requires a complete change in culture and ingrained habits.

I could write a small book about how it all works in a physical workflow, where you are moving product from one step to another.  But, I really haven't read or heard about how it might work in an office/field service environment.  I can certainly see where many of the principles could be applied.

One thing for sure, it is NOT a quick process. It will take a lot of time and commitment.  So the real question would be, does BSA think this is a quick-fix?  Do they have the attention span and patience to see it through and follow all the steps?  Believe it on not,  Lean Manufacturing is really just glorified. and structured common sense. Can we assume that BSA is truly willing to  re-discover common sense?  

Edited September 18, 2018 by WAKWIB

[John-in-KC]

6 hours ago, WAKWIB said:

One thing for sure, it is NOT a quick process. It will take a lot of time and commitment.  So the real question would be, does BSA think this is a quick-fix?  Do they have the attention span and patience to see it through and follow all the steps?  Believe it on not,  Lean Manufacturing is really just glorified. and structured common sense. Can we assume that BSA is truly willing to  re-discover common sense?  

Mark, 

i dare you to post this in the forum you moderate.

[SSScout]

Yep. Went thru several management trainings in the County service.   

Committees formed to brainstorm new ideas to make things more efficient, meet our goals for service (define our goals),  

It boiled down to defining who was the "Client", who the "Server".   In my case, the defined client was the next down in the organizational chart, and voila, the ultimate client was...  (for a transit service)  THE PASSENGER !

So who is BSA's ultimate client?   The CO ?  The Scout?  The Scout's parents?   What is going to make for a more "efficient" (read "cheaper")  way to meet the client's desires? Needs? 

Does BSA define those NEEDS? or does the client define them?  How does a 12 year old define his "needs"?  How does a CO?  A Parent?  And how will they know HOW BSA can meet those needs?  It is a "service".   You go to a garage because the mechanics can provide the "service" you need for your car's safe efficient (!) operation.  How will BSA provide those services that folks will want to come and ask for ?

If us old people KNOW that a 12 year old "NEEDS" to get out in the woods and hike thru the Colorado Rockies and sail on a sloop and shoot arrows safely,  how will that 12 year old KNOW to ask for that service as the Ultimate Client that Polaris seeks to more efficiently serve? 

[John-in-KC]

If the client of Scouting is not the youth member, then Polaris is a house of cards built on thin ice v

[WAKWIB]

4 hours ago, John-in-KC said:

Mark, 

i dare you to post this in the forum you moderate.

 @John-in-KCWell, since our collective wisdom on this forum is having difficulty deciphering what Polaris really is, I would not expect any better from the folks in my group. It's just a worm-can full of wiggly speculation at this point and the admin team is loathe to open up stuff like that.  It would be interesting  to see the folks at 103rd and Holmes post the Polaris thing to  to the official page.....but my guess is that those folks got blindsided by this and are scratching their heads about it and would rather not post something without some understanding and context.  As you accurately pointed out, for many folks it's just a page full of buzzwords.

Edited September 18, 2018 by WAKWIB

[John-in-KC]

Chicken...

[an_old_DC]

I have been back to the website, and watched the accompanying videos again, and I still cant decipher what exactly is going on. After further review, it sounds more like it's for professional development.

[dkurtenbach]

More time to be wasted focusing on a process for working on problems.  If you watch the videos about the Polaris Method on the BSA website, it appears to be an exercise in feeling happy about setting entirely unrealistic goals.

[ParkMan]

7 hours ago, dkurtenbach said:

More time to be wasted focusing on a process for working on problems.

We've got similar things like this at work. 

I learned more about Polaris today.  As I understand it now, it's really about providing volunteers and employees a process to solve problems.  In conjunction, it sets the expectation that those employees and volunteers are then empowered to go solve those problems.  The belief is that the net result of this is employees and volunteers going out and solving the problems that prevent the BSA from delivering value to Scouts and units.

Large organizations, like the BSA, do these kind of things to set the tone across their organization. Between national and the councils there are a lot of professionals.  Add to that all the council and district volunteers.  That's got to be tens of thousands of people.

I'll admit - by nature I tend to push problem solving in our troop adults.  If we have a bad recruiting year, we try to figure out to do better.  If we have too few Scouts go to Summer Camp, we try to figure out how to do better.  In our committee of 20 people, I can look around the table and just ask people - how can we do better?  In an organization the size of the BSA I get that you can't just look around a table and expect that to happen.  So, you create initiatives with names.

So, if I net it out, this feels like the BSA trying.  I think this is a good thing.