This perspective piece seeks to argue that articulating our outcomes more clearly will enable Scouting to become more systemically effective.
The desired outcomes of Scouting are pretty neatly encapsulated in the mission of Scouting, which can be put pretty succinctly as “童军的目地是学做人，学做事”, or Scouting’s aim is to learn how to be a person, and learn how to ‘do things’.
How do we work towards this mission? Currently, Scouting here tends to rely on the creativity and experience of Scout Leaders to organise activities that lead to these desired outcomes in their Scouts. This approach derives its strength from the great deal of flexibility accorded to the Scout Leaders to tailor activities to the needs and interests of his Scouts, and is an aspect that is guarded fiercely by many.
Based on such an approach, it is crucial for Scouters to have a deep and common understanding of the outcomes within each stage of Scouting, only then can they implement coherent activities with objectives that support development of the desired outcomes, using the supporting tools of Scoutcraft Knowledge, Leadership and the Scout Method.
Whoever we are in this community, it is time to reflect whether we are sufficiently clear about what we are trying to achieve as a movement. We should have a common desired outcome for each of the respective sections. To begin, leaders should start within the unit, and develop a view of the quintessential Cub/Scout/Venture/Rover amongst leaders in your unit. From there District Commissioners can assist by creating formal/informal platforms to shared these views across units in their district and beyond. Some key reflections for each of us are: –
- What kind of Scouts do I try to develop? Why are these attributes important to me?
- Have we checked our own understandings of the outcomes of Scouting? How do we know if we are on the right track?
- As a movement in Singapore, do we provide sufficiently for development of a common understanding? Are there platforms to share our own understandings, and listen sufficiently to other leaders?
- Have we left this aspect of leader development to chance? Should we be more deliberate and systematic about this?
This exercise can start out pretty simple, with each leader contributing his own views. From there, the views within the unit can be pooled together, discussed and agreed upon. Once the developmental goals are agreed on, they can be broken down into progressive bits in line with the Scout Method. If your unit is part of a group, the next step would be to align the goals and outcomes across the units in a progressive fashion.
The ideal situation would be to have a national framework document, clearly articulating aims and goals of each of the sections. This would provide guidance to leaders, both new and old, to provide timely knowledge enabling them to implement activities that are coherent and consistent with Scouting. This, supported by the existing system of light-touch oversight, guidance and support by Districts and Areas, would enable leaders to be more individually effective and coherent. Opening units would also be a slightly less daunting process.
Fundamentally, this boils down to an issue of knowledge management (KM). Good KM allows leaders to stand on shoulders of giants that came before them. Poor KM leads to reinventing the wheel. KM is an issue grappled with by many organisations and companies due to comparatively higher staff turnover in today’s world. Systems institutionalising knowledge have become part and parcel of an organisation, because people simply do not stick around long enough to play that role. Volunteer leaders in Scouting are similar. If we do not find ways to institutionalise our own knowledge, we will be constantly reinventing the wheel, instead of moving on to steam and then nuclear power.
A Singapore Scouter's Log 