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We provide information on survivalism, camping, food storage, cooking and grilling, and self reliance.
Our goal is to ensure you are prepared for natural and man-made disasters, before, during and after they occur.
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© 2006 RogueTurtle.com
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Once the real survival situation begins, all the planning is done. It's now time for action. For better or worse, the wheels are turning and there's no going back. No "do-overs". When the group arrives or assembles, many of your group will be in some form of shock. Unless the group has actually faced a real-life crisis situation before, you will hear a lot of "I just can't believe its happening". Believe it, face it squarely, and move on. Life will go on, with you or without you. The group's leadership is now faced with a very difficult task. You must re-focus all the people in the group from what has just happened (in the past) and start working towards improving life for the future. It will be a long, hard, labor intensive task. But, survive you must...survive you will. At this point, leadership must be firm and fast. You must remind everyone of the job at hand, and somehow get them out of their "shock" and into SURVIVAL MODE.
Keeping the group busy is the best way to keep focus on the problem. If you are busy you don't have time to grieve or worry. Tempers may flare when some are pushed beyond what they think their limits are - but that's to be expected. Ignore it, and move on. Keep your eyes constantly on the single goal of survival. Count your assets - examine your weakness, and move on.
No good article on management is without a chart of some kind. Here's mine. It's based on something taught in the Air Force at their school for officers getting ready for promotion. It's a system for evaluating leadership. I don't remember the official names for all the items, and if anyone else out there can remember, let me know. It is based on a numbered scale.
The vertical column on the left represents GROUP GOALS: A leader with no ability to complete a group goal would be given a score of zero. A leader who's ONLY goals are group goals, gets a nine.
The horizontal line represents CONCERN FOR INDIVIDUALS: A leader who could care less about his/her people, gets a zero. A leader who cares ONLY for the people (regardless of the consequences) gets a nine.
You can probably already see the conflict here.
Score yourself first, then let others do it for you. See how you compare with what others think.
If you score yourself a "5" on People-orientation, and a "5" on Goal-orientation, then you are carefully balancing the line between both extremes.
The "perfect" leader would be a 9-9 leader. In real life, they don't exist.
A rotten leader is a 0-0 leader. Get rid of him/her. It's still a democracy. Unlike the military, you get to pick your leaders, not have them forced on you, no matter what their skills may be.
In Vietnam, 9-0 leaders were "fragged" accidentally. Or, in the Navy, they "fell overboard". Their replacements were usually more careful about decision making.
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Keeping this chart in mind, rate yourself on every decision you have to make. Obviously, for the sake of the group, jobs MUST be done. This is Goal Orientation. Selecting the right person for the job is People Orientation. If you can score yourself a 5-5 for every decision, you are really doing a good job. There is room for improvement, but the job is getting done with little complaining from the people selected to do it. Most good bosses fall in the 7-4 to 5-7 range.
If you find that you have to beg, cajole, or threaten people to get jobs done, then your People Skills need some boning up.
If you are being too nice to people and jobs aren't getting finished, then you need to polish up your Motivational Skills.
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