Culture Shock

“In the morning you can sleep as late as you want,” our leader announced in Serbo-Croatian, “Just know that you need to be at your next location at 07:30 and it takes two hours to get there.” We were in the middle of nowhere. Over 60 teenage and adult Royal Rangers from more than 10 different European countries had gathered for the National Training Trail (NTT). Our assignment, simply put, was to hike from place to place around a village in Serbia called Krivi Vir while carrying all the food, shelter and supplies we would need throughout the four day expedition. Our camp sight on the second night was a place even our leaders had trouble finding. There was no way to get there by car. And the map we were using was over 40 years old. Still, we found it. And once we did the exhaustion we felt after our 15 kilometer hike set in; we were ready for food and water.   But we would need to make fires and cook our food before we could eat. We also learned that we’d need ...

I came across this post on my friend Milo's blog the other day. Whether you're Croatian or American, good leadership can be refreshingly shocking. Milo's observations are valuable to anyone serving as a leader in any capacity: I have spent the last 5 months in the Intensive care unit with my little boy Josiah Nathaniel. During this time, I have witnessed some things that can learned about leadership, and a working environment that may be helpful to your organization. 1. Everyone understands the chain of command, and the appropriate relationships within that chain. 2. The collective opinion of the leadership group is of great worth and value to those who answer to them. 3. Disagreements of opinions by those in leadership are resolved behind closed doors, then presented as a unified decision. 4. The opinion of those involved in the day to day work/care (i.e.. parents and bedside nurses) is regularly evaluated and listened to. 5. Every doctor and nurse has a training time when...