Every summer at Boy Scout camp there was an inter-troop competition.
It was based on a point system. Have the most points at the end of the week and your troop earned the right to carry the coveted “Silver Eagle” on your banner for the next year.
Every event carried significance. Archery, shooting, the water carnival, the skill show—each one earned your troop points.
You even received points on the quality of your troop’s service project to the camp.
When I was Senior Patrol Leader for Boy Scout Troop 313, our service project was to build the bonfire for the “Order of the Arrow” ceremony. It was to be built on a concrete stand across the lake cove and lit by a remote-control sparker at the appropriate time.
Parents and local scout leaders came out for the ceremony. It was a pretty big deal.
Despite the importance attached to the gathering, the bonfires constructed for the ceremony were usually pretty wimpy.
For our service project we decided to build the biggest bonfire of all. I assigned the job to a couple of “Senior Patrol” members, knowing they would do a great job. I found them surprisingly enthusiastic when aske. It was not until the night of the ceremony that I found out why.
On the surface their efforts were impressive.
Twenty feet high and ten feet around, they spent their free time that week wandering far and wide collecting deadfall and rotting logs to create a beast of a bonfire never before seen—we were going to get a top score.
I was pretty impressed with myself and my management acumen.
The big night came, and the scouting glitterati were all in their seats as I waited for the signal to turn on the sparker and start the fire across the lake cove.
At the appropriate time, I hit the button.
I’m told that today, some 40 years later, you can still see the damage from the explosion.
Seems that when I told my friends to make the bonfire special, they took me at their word.
They used a container with a special gasoline/fume mix and a variety of other black powder pyrotechnics as a fire starter.
One piece of wood actually blew across the cove and landed at the feet of the local scouting director. It was very impressive.
We did not, however, garner any points—despite paying for a new concrete stand out of our own pocket.
My legacy now includes the fact that scouts are banned from building the ceremonial fire to this day.
_______________________
The organizations that have engaged me have two things in common.
Though their internal educational and mentoring services check the right boxes, they are completely inadequate.
And the organizations recognize that this is so.
They don’t dismiss their docs as “lazy” or “stupid.”
They identify a problem and innovate to overcome.
And to a person, they are startled and amazed at what happens once their medical staff truly understands how the system works through the guidance of a peer who has had sustainable success.
I started my consultancy because I saw the results of education and mentorship in my partners first hand.
Ever heard of a bunch of PCPs selling their practice for 9 figures? Neither did we.
Yet it happened.
My services are the spark.
The talents of your medical staff are the gasoline fumes and black powder.
Get ready for an explosion—of value.