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Everyday Lean: Cub Scout Kaizen
This was originally a LinkedIn article that I wrote back in June 2018.
I’m the new Cubmaster for my son’s Cub Scout Pack. The pack has had a bit of a bumpy year, with a bit of leader churn, and Hurricane Harvey impacted both our annual fundraising and recruitment. To help construct a better next year, I decided to implement some Lean principles into our annual planning process.
Pre-Work
The first thing I did was obtain the “Voice of the Customer” via some anonymous comment cards at a pack meeting. I used a modified SWOT analysis for parents, asking them to tell us what they thought were the pack’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities (for new activities and recruitment), and why we hadn’t had stronger participation at our District and Council events.… Read the rest
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The Beatitudes: The First Nations Translation
I shared this Scripture reading of Matthew 5:1-11 during a recent Scouting interfaith worship service. As a preface I spoke about how colonialism resulted in the decimation of indigenous traditions, languages and beliefs; and that most every major translation of the Bible is based on a Western worldview.
The “First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament” shows how a religious belief can be shared and embraced without stomping out existing traditions, languages and understanding. In the same manner we shouldn’t take Scouting into new communities to “make them like us”. Our purpose should be to use the Scouting values and programming to make people the best versions of themselves.
First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament
1-2 When Creator Sets Free (Jesus) saw this great crowd, he went back up into the mountainside and sat down to teach the people.… Read the rest
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Friendly, Courteous & Kind?
I shared this “sermon” as the inspirational message during a Scouting interfaith worship service. The service was part of an adult leader training called Wood Badge that I recently attended. It was delivered to an almost entirely white audience and was intended to show how work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion align with the Scout Law – and intended to challenge them to actively engage in Scouting DEI work.
I’ve often wondered about the twelve words chosen for the Scout Law – particularly words like Friendly, Courteous and Kind, which seem to be synonyms.
Are they redundant? Are they interconnected? Has our modern English lost some nuance originally found in the words 100 years ago?
I couldn’t find an online dictionary with definitions from a century years ago. … Read the rest