Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

After every camping trip during my Boy Scout journey, all of the scouts would stand in the middle of the campgrounds and scamper around, looking for pieces of stray trash to throw away. One of the most important ideas behind scouting is the passion to leave wildlife better than when you found it. Leaving trash after a camping trip is inevitable, so it was important to make an effort to find every last piece of garbage that could be better disposed by other means.

The first time I can remember picking up trash with the other scouts, the experience did not go as planned. To ensure that we were doing a satisfactory job, our scout master would wait until we claimed our work was done and that no trash was left. At this point, he would strike out across the grounds in search of any trash we missed. Unfortunately, with such a large area to cover, he often found trash that was over looked. The result of this discovery led to an increased time to look for more trash. During my first trash pick-up experience, we had to return to searching more than half a dozen times, as our random scanning was not very effective.

Eventually, the older scouts rounded every body up and devised a plan. Utilizing a straight line, we could walk slowly from one end of the camp to the other, while each individual picked up trash in their line of sight. This ensured that every person did not have to look at so much land, and could focus on finding those hiding pieces of garbage. After running this focused march a few times in multiple directions across the same area, we simply moved on to the next location and repeated the process.

After we began utilizing this technique, our scout master began to struggle to find those left over pieces of trash, and we finished the clean up duties faster than normal. This concept became a staple of ours that we began to use every camping trip. Not only did each individual have a responsibility to the rest of the group to do a good job in his line, but the entire group had to do less overall work.

This experience taught me the value of teamwork and the value of creating a plan of attack. Chaos is often the first response to a challenge, such as when we wandered around the grass searching randomly for stray trash. Once we recognized the problem, however, a logical correction to our approach and the collaboration of each individual led to a successful clean up. In life, instead of jumping into action immediately when faced with difficult challenges, I am reminded to take a second to plan out what I want to do and how the task can be finished more effectively with a group.

Image Credits:

Image Provided by Daniel Novta