Project: To lead my scout group

I’m a Chartered Project Professional working in the offshore industry, managing geotechnical and geophysical projects for clients in the oil and gas and renewables industries. However, I have an alter ego: on Wednesday evenings and some weekends, I am a group Scout leader for the 8th/9th Falmouth Scouts.

You might not immediately think being a project manager and a Scout leader have much in common, but I have found many parallels. The first is in the scheduling and planning. As a Scout leader, I need to ensure that the programme for the term is fun. There are 12 Scouts in my group, both boys and girls. They range in age from around 10-and-a-half to 12 years old and will stay with the Scouts until they are 14. Some of the activities we have done, or are planning to do, include geocaching, building bird-nesting boxes, lighting fires and outdoor cooking, axe-throwing, first aid and camping.

Getting badges to sew on your uniform is a key part of being a Scout. The aim is to complete all nine challenge badges before leaving Scouts to gain the coveted Gold award. I have a four-year plan that reminds me of what I need to include in my planning for the term so that each Scout has the chance to achieve this.

My team of Scout leaders work with me to provide a balanced and interesting programme. The Scouts themselves also contribute. Once a term, I hold a patrol forum and ask them what they would like to do as an activity. Although it is one of the more popular requests, I haven’t quite worked out how to have a video gaming night yet.

There is an old adage that ‘no plan survives first contact with the enemy’. Or, in Scouting terms, ‘Be prepared!’ It is always a good idea to have a backup plan. Typically, this is because of heavy rain – or occasionally snow – when you have planned an outdoor activity. Managing change is a frequently used skill.

There is a lot of competition for the young people’s time, so it’s important to have a quality programme that they can engage with. At the end of each session I ask my Scouts for feedback on what they thought, so that I can learn and adapt my future programming.

Risk assessment for axe-throwing

As you can see from the activities we get up to, I get to apply my risk management skills. I confess that I have never had to write a risk assessment for axe-throwing while at work, but the same principles apply.

Having looked at quality, schedule and risk management, what about budgeting and financial information? Organising a budget for the camping trip might not involve the figures I normally work with in my geotechnical projects, but it is still important to work out how much it will cost and whether the group has enough money coming in to cover the costs. The aim is not necessarily to make a profit, but it is very important to avoid a loss.

As a project manager, I spend much of my time engaging with stakeholders, be they clients, team members or subcontractors. As a Scout leader, I also spend much of my time engaging with stakeholders. In addition to the young people, their parents fall into this important category. The group has a private Facebook page where I can send updates about what we are doing, send out reminders for subscriptions and also request help.

The parents in my group are very keen to get involved. I had some willing victims – sorry, volunteers – to help when the Scouts were learning first aid and needed to practise their bandaging.

Other stakeholders include the leadership team for my group and other members of the Scouting community in the district and county. The groups in the district are planning a number of combined events that will give my Scouts the opportunity to meet others and try new activities in a larger group.

From Problem-solving to learning how to do the Fortnite floss

Working with the Scouts has taught me a number of things about coaching and mentoring. A major part of my role is about empowering my Scouts to develop new skills and getting them to work as a team. Some of their solutions to the problem-solving activities are completely different to the ones I envisaged when I planned the activity.

Recently, I set them a team challenge to cross the floor using two planks without touching the floor themselves. I thought that they would try to get as many Scouts as possible on a plank and then swap between the two planks until they were all across the floor. I was amazed to watch individuals shuffling across the floor on the planks and then pushing them back to the rest of the team so that they could cross too. It worked, reminding me that there are many ways to solve a problem.

I have also learned other useful things, including how to floss (a dance move from video game Fortnite) and how much fun you can have with an enormous bar of chocolate, a knife and fork and large foam dice. I also now have a great recipe for cooking a pocket pizza in a Trangia (a portable outdoor stove), which I would never have if it wasn’t for my alter ego.