Destination ImagiNation hosted its annual Quality Review Panel for the 2012-13 Program Materials at its Headquarters in Cherry Hill, NJ last week. The event, now in its 4th year, brought together many of the organization’s different stakeholders for one common purpose: review the organizations most important product, its Challenges. In attendance were members of the Board of Trustees, Headquarter Staff, International Challenge Masters and State/Country Directors.

The Quality Review Panel serves as one of the final links in DI’s Challenge development process, which in its entirety takes almost a full year to complete. Teams of Challenge writers have been hard at work since first meeting last June to create the 2012-13 Challenges. By the time the Quality Review Panel sees the Challenges, they have already been through four drafts and four dissections utilizing more than 100 volunteers. The function of the Quality Review Panel is to ensure that the Challenges can be successfully implemented and solved around the world  “The Quality Review Process has become increasingly important since its inception because the process always catches things that might otherwise slip through the cracks,” said Andrew Whitmire, Assistant DI Program Director.

With the addition of an International Country Director from Colombia, this year’s Quality Review Panel also took a step towards increasing its global viewpoint. “Destination ImagiNation is a global organization and with global participation increasing at an incredible rate, we have to make sure we are reflecting that in our program materials,” stated Chuck Cadle, CEO. Along with adding new members to the group, the Quality Review Panel was also held much earlier than in previous years. “Typically we have not been able to hold this meeting until Challenge development weekend in June, which has always been a late start. The change in date will now give the internal DI staff greater flexibility in making final changes,” said Sheila Swanson, DI Program Director. She went on to say, “we are so pleased with the direction the Quality Review Panel is going and look forward to its continued benefit in the future.”

A story on NPR this morning prompted me to take time from my over-booked schedule to write my first DI blog post.

The story states, “Richard Arum, a co-author of the book and a professor of sociology at New York University, tells NPR’s Steve Inskeep that the fact that more than a third of students showed no improvement in critical thinking skills after four years at a university was cause for concern.”

“Our country today is part of a global economic system, where we no longer have the luxury to put large numbers of kids through college and university and not demand of them that they are developing these higher order skills that are necessary not just for them, but for our society as a whole,” Arum says.  http://www.npr.org/2011/02/09/133310978/in-college-a-lack-of-rigor-leaves-students-adrift

In the last 15 years I have hired over 200 people – most of them recent engineering college grads.  These kids are not getting the skills they need to thrive in an American economy that is fueled by innovation.

Like most DI team managers that are a few weeks away from their first tournament, I’m totally stressed-out and frustrated and wondering why I ever signed up to do this again this year.  Then I ask myself, “Are these kids getting anything out of this experience?”

Here is the list of practical, high-value things these kids have learned from our DI team that they would have NEVER learned by the end of their college education.  (Keep in mind that I coach the technical (engineering) challenge).

Real-world Teamwork & People Skill

• When to stick-up for your ideas (central challenge) and when to back down when the leader sets a direction (instant challenge).
• One bad apple on the team …
• Why teams/companies often don’t hire friends and family
• Not everyone on the team does an equal amount of work
• Accountability to a team
• Real teams don’t have coaches yelling orders from the sidelines
• Power of specialized roles (instant challenge)
• Importance of a good leader – and when it is best to set aside your ego to let a good leader lead.
• Supporting and covering for a team member when a personal crisis happens.
• Bickering through the entire instant challenge will get you a score of 4 and nearly last at Globals.  Cooperating will get you an instant challenge score of 87 and in the top 20 at Globals.
• You can become great friends with Koreans and Chinese without ever speaking a word of each other’s language.
• Learning by living – Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing – and never getting beyond “Storming” is a strong motivation to fix team issues the next year.
• Setting expectations at the start – and enforcing them.
• If your team mate missed their commitment last week, then this week….
• Being a geek can be tons of fun.

Project Management

• Gantt Charts.  Linked tasks.  Task durations.  Crashing a schedule.
• Critical Path
• Work distribution
• Risk management & schedule – test the riskiest parts first.
• Importance of assigning small, well-defined tasks each week.
• Minimizing meeting time – but making sure everything is properly coordinated.
• Setting goals – and not giving rewards when reward milestones are not met.
• Recognizing and changing plans fast when something isn’t going to work.

Innovation Skills

• The difference in thinking from “my idea didn’t work” to “my first idea didn’t work”
• 90-90 rule – When you are 90% done, you only have 90% to go!
• Divergent thinking skills.  “That’s a great idea!  Can you tell me 10 other ways you could solve that problem?  Which of those ideas could you try now and have done in an hour?”
• “That idea sounds like a lot of work.  Can you do a quick test to see if it will work before you invest lots of time?”
• “That idea is really cool – but high risk.  What is a parallel path a team member can be working on if this idea does not work?”
• I WILL figure this out.
• Memorizing Thomas Edison quotes:
•  “Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.”
•   “Most people don’t recognize opportunity because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work”.
•     In other words, Innovation is ALL about hard work, not a light bulb that suddenly appears over your head.

• The fun is earned from lots of frustration and hard work.
• Brainstorming
• Designing something to complex customer requirements.
• Ask “what can I do that would NEVER work, then try to make that idea work.”
• Being labeled “weird” is a small price to pay for a really creative, interesting life.

Engineering Skills

• Having 3 years of experience as a critical engineer on a project with a professional engineering manager mentor – before the age of 15.
• Designing something when you don’t know how to use tools is like writing a cook book when you never have been in a kitchen.
• Going from not knowing how to use a screwdriver to being skilled and efficient with power tools -  safely.
• Make drawings before you start cutting.
• Realize that the first thing you make won’t be what you take on stage.  Make prototypes understanding that you are just trying to flush-out the main issues with a design.
• Find things that are similar to what you want to build –and get design ideas from things that work well.
• Screws – types and how they are properly used.
• Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey.
• Shafts, sprockets, couplers…
• Plumbing – pipes, threads, clamps…
• Hands-on Electrical – AC, DC, motors, solenoids, electrical valves, linear actuators, fuses, wire gage, soldering, crimping, voltage vs. current….
• Cylinders – hydraulic, pneumatic, leverage
• Duct Tape and Glue – friend and foe.
• Springs
• Structures
• If you build it in the PVC pipe isle of Home Depot – you will have access to every part you need – and get lots of attention.
• Literally getting a round shaft to fit in a square hole.  It is really hard to make a square hole.
• Learning measure twice, cut once – the hard way.
• How to get a stripped screw out.
• Discovering, through experience, why screws are better than nails and plywood is stronger than particle board.
• Researching basic designs that are available on the internet so I’m not re-inventing the wheel.
• When you go to the hardware store, buy lots of stuff that might be needed if the first idea does not work.
• Resourcefulness (find ways to use trash) and cost reducing “products” that are over-budget.
• A skirt made of magazines gets more compliments than an expensive skirt purchased at a fancy store.
• Find something in the garage (now) that you can make work instead of asking to take another trip to the hardware store.
• If you do nothing to solve a problem, it will happen again – and be real frustrating.
• Girls can be the best at using tools and designing technical things.
• If the tower is standing, don’t try to make it better in the last 5 seconds.

Presentation Skills

• Getting a timid kid to speak with confidence.
• Voice projection
• Improvisation – fake like you know what you are doing.
• Something colorful scores better than something cardboard-colored – even it more work went into the cardboard.
• Leveraging humor
• Storytelling
• “Selling” your product to your customer.

And MOST IMPORTANT – Independent Learning Skills

• The skill and confidence that “I don’t need to be taught how to do something – I know I’ll figure it out, one way or another, on my own.”

I’m still a frustrated and exhausted DI coach, but I’ve accomplished my goal of giving my team members a tremendous head-start with valuable, real-world skills that were learned the best way – the hard way.  In 9 years, I can’t wait to hire these kids.  They will be way ahead of their classmates in having valuable, real-world innovation skills.

Hang in there!  You are doing a great thing for these kids.  Keep in mind the real value comes from the process, not the product.

Scott Dalgleish, Boulder CO

My DI blog from last year: http://www.90percentdone.com/destination-imagination-globals/

About Scott (from personal blog):  http://ninetypercentdone.typepad.com/about.html

Destination Imagination (DI) has been changing lives for 29 years. With more than a million alumni and 38,000 volunteers worldwide, it has made a huge impact on many kids and adults. So tell us how DI has changed your life. We want to hear about the late nights practicing, about your first tournament with your team, life-long friendships, and problems solved. Be creative and tell us something great!

This contest is open to ALL Destination Imagination team members, Team Managers & volunteers. The winning team member or Team Manager will receive free passes to Global Finals 2012 for their whole team. If you are a volunteer without a team, your winning entry will allow you to send the team of your choice to Global Finals. All you have to do is produce a 60-second video that tells us your story!

Download a PDF flyer with all the details.

Prizes

Free pass to Global Finals 2012 for your team (even if your team does not qualify).

Free room and board for your team and Team Manager at Global Finals 2012, May 23-26 in Knoxville, TN. Total value of $635 per person. (Does not include airfare.

The winning video will be played at Global Finals 2012 Opening Ceremony and will be featured in DI marketing efforts.

• Use the concept of placing 50 flamingos on someone’s lawn.  Charge $25 to have them removed and placed on someone else’s lawn. Box and Bowl – use a toilet painted red and purple
• Using Kohl’s Cares for Kids
• Talent show
• Sell ice cream or root beer floats after concerts
• Throw a Pie for DI – Spring Carnival – or have other carnival games
• Sell Preferred Savings books in the fall  – we make $8 a book, they take back what we don’t sell.
• Hosting a breakfast at Applebees
• Garage Sale/Silent Auction
• Pizza Ranch Fundraiser – need to be 14
• Work the street fair for clean up
• NDSU auction items – 6 week notice
• Macy’s shop for a cause
• Herberger’s Community Day
• Camy Couture Night – or other boutique in your town.  10% of sales goes to DI
• It’s a Wonderful Night tickets – West Acres
• Crazy tie contest – Kids design what they think is the ugliest tie, Principal wears the winning tie.  $1 a vote
• Barnes and Noble Bookfair
• Cass Clay Ice cream run off buckets – Sue or Patty, $12 a buckets – serves 100 scoops
• Car wash –
• Work concessions at a grocery store or sporting events at school
• Sam’s Club – 30 day notice
• Sell geraniums or flower bulbs
• Cashwise – go in and fill out donation request form
• Jungle Bean coffee beans
• Donation letter to businesses
• Back to School Night Fundraiser – sell t-shirts, root beer floats, first aid kits?  Locker supplies
• Pizza Corner pizzas – make pizzas??? – sell pizzas – to make pizzas you must be 14
• Schwan’s Truckload event sales – make 20% of sales
• TNT fireworks sales – summer – age requirement???
• Texas Roadhouse
• Have a vendor fair – 10% goes to DI
• Bake Sale at Garage Sale in the spring – kids sell baked goods, pop and juice Bake sale/Used book sale at Holiday Night in December at Centennial.
• Scratch cards
• 50/50 raffles
• Bingo Night
• Selling Class of 20__ T-shirts to the 5^th grade classes  – designed with school colors
• Lollipop Fundraiser
• Hosting a school dance – selling concessions
• Selling raffle tickets for a chance to win a Wii or other gaming system – we would need to see what requirements we would have to make for having a raffle
• Raking lawns
• Shoveling driveways
• Spring cleanup
• Making apple pies and selling
• Making t-shirt scarves and selling
• Making headbands and selling
• Use the concept of placing 50 flamingos on someone’s lawn.  Charge $25 to have them removed and placed on someone else’s lawn. Box and Bowl
• Using Kohl’s Cares for Kids
• Linebenders show
• Sell Culver’s at extra-curricular concerts – Dec and April
• Throw a Pie for DI – Spring Carnival
• Sell Preferred Savings books in the fall  – we make $8 a book, they take back what we don’t sell.
• Hosting a breakfast at Applebees
• Garage Sale/Silent Auction
• Pizza Ranch Fundraiser – need to be 14
• Shriner’s – cotton candy and popcorn??? – Tim O’Keefe
• Work the street fair for clean up
• NDSU auction items – 6 week notice
• Macy’s shop for a cause
• Herberger’s Community Day
• Camy Couture Night
• It’s a Wonderful Night tickets
• Crazy tie contest
• Barnes and Noble Bookfair
• Call Tutti Fruitti about fundraising
• Hornbachers ad – 4 week notice?  Maybe 2
• Hornbachers advertising and selling of tickets  ???  how much notice?
• Once Non –profit – find a gaming site
• Grant requests
• Cass Clay Ice cream run off buckets – Sue or Patty, $12 a buckets – serves 100 scoops
• Car wash – Cenex in Moorhead?
• Sunmart – work their concessions stand – call early to get a spot for the summer
• Sam’s Club – 30 day notice
• Geraniums – get contact from Lisa Anderson from Casselton for contact
• Cashwise – go in and fill out donation request form

• FSA – contact – Kevin Winkler
• Jungle Bean coffee beans
• Dippin’ Dots
•  Donation letter to businesses
• Call Forum for press
• Use Forum’s communitee Calendar for advertising – Deadline for Sunday submission is Tues at Noon – email: calendar@forumcomm.com
• Back to School Night Fundraiser
• Pizza Corner pizzas – make pizzas??? – sell pizzas – to make pizzas you must be 14
• Schwan’s Truckload event sales – make 20% of sales
• TNT fireworks sales – summer – age requirement???
• Texas Roadhouse
• Tastefully Simple – Lori Salmon
• Bake Sale at Garage Sale in the spring – kids sell baked goods, pop and juice and will receive spending money for their trip to Globals – in the past it has amounted to about $20 per child.  Remainder of the money will go into the DI general fund.
• Bake sale/Used book sale at Holiday Night in December at Centennial.
• Scratch cards
• 50/50 raffles
• Bingo Night
• Selling Class of 20 – T-shirts to the 5^th grade classes  – designed with school colors
• Lollipop Fundraiser
• Hosting a school dance – selling concessions
• Selling raffle tickets for a chance to win a Wii or other gaming system – we would need to see what requirements we would have to make for having a raffle.
• Work Concessions at the FargoDome – age requirement???

Kids who are exposed early to the STEM subjects have an advantage in getting into college and getting good jobs later on, studies show. Parents, teachers, school administrators and youth leaders can log onto www.startateam.org to take the first steps to getting their youth involved in a creative problem solving and critical thinking skills program experienced each year by more than 100,000 kids all over the world.

By participating in the team-based competitive program, children can achieve lifelong benefits, improve self confidence, and learn the creative problem solving process and develop critical thinking skills.

Destination ImagiNation is an after school program that is easy and fun, and it teaches children the creative thinking processthrough its hands-on educational challenges. Teaching students these skills is now a strategy for schools to reduce bullying, intimidation and harassment.

In the program, children experience the thrill of applying creativity to solve problems. They also work with team members to gain knowledge and experience in a wide variety of subjects. Destination ImagiNation participants learn to be innovative, creative, self-confident and collaborative—traits that employers say they are looking for in the workforce of the future.

Destination ImagiNation is the largest creative problem solving and critical thinking program for kids in the world, with more than 15,000 teams participating around the world last year. The program  teaches 21st century skills, and it is the only extra-curricular program that ties back directly to the classroom.

Destination ImagiNation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Well, here you go.  With great threat to my well-being as one of the chosen, I’m about to reveal some long-kept secrets of the mysteries surrounding the development of Destination Imagination challenges.

On a mysterious summer weekend in a secure facility in an unnamed city so secret that the first letter of its name is silent, people from around the globe quietly gather.  They were carefully chosen, and warned to keep the secrets to themselves.

When they first arrive, they are split into two groups – the experienced elders and the rookies.  Rookies are hazed.   Then, they are all told to sign documents that prohibit them from discussing their work beyond the chosen few until the challenge is officially unveiled by some unknown power. The documents state that, if they do their jobs properly, they’ll be paid only one dollar.   They’re not here for the money.

The writers are then broken into smaller groups.  Rookies and elders are mixed.  They’re sent to a small, cold room given little more than big pieces of blank paper, some sticky notes and an occasional piece of chocolate.   They’re told they are not to come out of the small, cold room until they come up with a challenge that will help legions of students learn and experience creativity, teamwork, and problem solving.

Hours later, when they feel like they have a good idea, they are led to a large room where all of their fellow writers and DI staff wait.  They present their idea.  That’s when they are told for the first time that their idea stinks.

They’re sent back to their small, cold rooms.  The rookies are heartbroken.  The elders assure them that this is typical, that it only gets worse.  They write some more.  Then, they present to the big group again, sometimes with totally new ideas and sometimes with tweaks to their originals.  Again, their creations are scrutinized and criticized.  The rookies are disappointed.  The elders are used to it.  Back to the small, cold room.  This is clearly tougher than it looks.

Finally, the long tiring weekend is coming to an end.  One more time, they present their revised challenge ideas to the big group.  The group applauds.  Victory, at least, it seems….but, not really.  This is when they all get the lecture that the grueling weekend is only the beginning of the process.  They will now be sent back to their own hamlets to very discreetly start developing their challenge in earnest.  The weekend was just the beginning of what would become four long, painful, often lonely, months of on-line writing.  They write diligently for week after week, often thousands of miles apart.

If they thought presenting to their fellow writers was tough, they couldn’t imagine what was ahead.  There’s yet another group of people…much more secretive than the first.  They hide behind code names, and all contact is through a cautious handler. Their job is to dissect every nook and cranny of the challenge-to-be, finding flaws and raising obnoxious questions.  They’re a brutal bunch, whoever they are.

The writers and dissectors volley back and forth.  Change this.  Don’t change this.  Change this again.  Why didn’t you change what I said change?  Oops, you need to change this, too.  I still don’t get it.  Why did you change that?  It’s a hard-fought battle.  Many changes are made.  Everyone is weary.

Finally, someone somewhere declares the challenge is ready for the world.  The writers never really know who this person is…but are in awe of the power.

Still the secrets continue.  The writers are reminded that they are not to disclose their identities until a ceremony before thousands in that city so secretive that its first letter is silent.

But, if you are really curious about who these secret writers are, I’ll tell you how to spot them.

Watch the first team of the first tournament complete the challenge.  Then, scan the audience.    If there’s someone sitting very quietly, hiding a single tear that has just rolled down their cheek, and trying to hold back a big smile, you’ve found one…a DI challenge developer.

Now, I beg of you, please keep these secrets to yourself.

Anonymously Yours,

Rick

Simple go to CreateND.org > Current Season > Team Resources > AskCreateND

When it comes to team challenge clarifications, please refer to www.DestinationImagination.org

Posting resources there along with a collaboration with Slideshare provide Team Managers a ‘one-stop-shop’ for everything related to providing Destination ImagiNation in North Dakota.  Recruiting and training presentations can be found on Slideshare and documents will be posted the day after training on the training page of CreateND.org

On its launch date, DI University currently houses online training modules for “Being a DI Appraiser” and “Being a DI Team Manager.” Additional modules will be added during the DI program season. Each module is designed with a one-to-many approach to allow consistency across the DI constituency, as well as help to establish program standards.
DI University was designed in partnership with NXLevel Solutions, an established eLearning company that uses technology, media and outstanding design to make learning more exciting. “This has been a goal of mine since joining DI and I am excited to see this dream become a reality,” commented Chuck Cadle, DI CEO.

Destination ImagiNation invites all of its volunteers to take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn more about the Destination ImagiNation program. DI University can be accessed at www.diuniversity.org.