Category: Teams

Captain Bob, adventure, self-education, motivation and tall ships!

What do you get if you add self-education, adventure, reflection, motivation and tall ships. Answer you get Captain Bob!

Tall-ships training – just one of Captain Bob’s projects for youth

I found this remarkable man and his site whilst looking for stuff on motivation. It is a treasure-trove of great ideas.

There is much to learn from him re many areas of life.

Here are his ‘revolutionary’ (but common-sense) views concerning the way we deal with (abuse) our youth. He is talking about the USA abut things are about as bad in the UK and other countries;

Our Society is at WAR with Our Youth!

The following articles illustrate the urgent need for education reform. Teenagers, in increasing numbers, are walking away from the public education system. Some high schools have a 70% dropout rate. More money is not the answer, the answer is found in alternative education methods.

We are at WAR with 30% of our teenagers, the one’s who drop out of high school. We are loosing this war, because our weapon is to pass MORE laws that pressure them to comply with the system. This has not worked and never will. These young people need alternative opportunity, NOT JAIL CELLS! After all, there is not much difference between a classroom where one is not wanted and a jail cell where one is not wanted. To many, a classroom is a prison without bars.

Many of these teenagers are highly intelligent, but they cannot adapt to passive learning environments, they reject the classroom form of education, therefore, they simply choose to walk away from the system. Through self-fulfilling prophecy they consider themselves failures and become a burden on society. In a different learning environment they can discover their natural talent, develop it and become productive citizens.

Mindset of Street Gangs
They are highly intelligent, ambitious, want to learn, and be recognized as an achiever.
Wiz Kids go to Jail
Wiz kids are put in jail because they refuse to conform to passive classroom learning environments. Because the education system labels them FAILURES, they turn to criminal activity to be recognized.
Drugging Students to Accept the Status Quo
Society is now drugging our youth with behavior control pills, nulling the skill that makes them creative. They learn to accept the status quo. This new generation may make a comfortable living, but they will have lost the ability to be innovators. Soon, America will have a generation of people who can earn “A’s” in the classroom, but have no vision in the real world.
Teaching Young Students to be Failures
The typical high school teaches 30% of its students to be failures. This is because the curriculum only recognizes academic skills and students intelligence is measured by this standard. Non academic skills and associated intelligence are ignored, skills these students could excel at.

To go to Captain Bob’s website including the ‘let’s-care-better-for-our-youth’ section click HERE

His Table of Contents is useful because it is a large site

Captain Bob’s 3 part model

Is this the No 1 site on experience-based motivation?

I think it is pure gold. The issue is how to get local governments and communities and education authorities to listen – really listen and really committ sving the millions that youth-gone-toxic cost our societies – let alone thir own misery!

He’s collected some pretty good quotes as well. E.g.;

“Leadership is constantly changing, and survivors learn to change with it.”
“Yesterday, natural resources defined power. Today, knowledge is power. Yesterday, leaders commanded and controlled. Today, leaders empower and coach. Yesterday, leaders were warriors. Today, they are facilitators. Yesterday, managers directed. Today, managers delegate. Yesterday, supervisors flourished. Today, supervisors vanish.”
— Dr. Denis Waitley, The Toastmaster, December 2000.

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SEE also Learning Motivation for Success

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

Preventing dys-functional leadership via trust & openness

In his bookThe Five Dysfunctions of a Team:A Leadership Fable (pub. Jossey-Bass) Patrick Lencioni presents a model of what he sees as the influences that dis-empower a team, and make more or less dysfunctional.

His five factors are;

  • The first dysfunction is absence of trust amongst team members. If team members are not genuinely open with each other about their mistakes and weaknesses, it is impossible to build a foundation of trust.
  • Absence of trust creates the circumstance for the second dysfunction, fear of conflict. Teams that lack trust are incapable of fully and honestly debating issues as they resort to veiled discussions and guarded comments.
  • The inability to openly discuss issues leads to a lack of commitment. If team members are unable to fully air their views, it is unlikely that they will be fully committed to the decisions of the group.
  • If team members are not fully bought into the decisions of the group, they will inevitably avoid accountability. How can they stand up and be counted on issues if they were not completely committed to them in the first place?
  • Failure to hold one another accountable creates an environment where the fifth dysfunction can thrive. Inattention to results occurs when team members put their individual needs (such as ego, career, recognition or reward) or even their division above the collective needs of the team.

Clearly trust is seen as the cornerstone of all teams. This might seem self-evident but I wonder how many organizations have systems that recognize and reward trust, openness and co-operation?

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All postings to this site relate to the central model in the

PhD. Summaries are HERE

SEE also Learning Motivation for Success