- Are toy guns OK? Beth gives you her answer to this thorny question just in time for the holidays.
- A man without pants was shot, and luckily for us it's not Robb Allen. Sean looks closer to see who would perform such an act of naked aggression.
- Barron is on assignment and will return soon.
- Joining us this week is Special Guest Lloyd Bailey of Armed Lutheran Radio -- another podcast on the Self Defense Radio Network.
- Well, the world is coming to an end; just ask the Los Angeles Times if you don't believe that. According to them, if Concealed Carry Reciprocity passes, it'll be a "be a parade of horribles". Sean reads the article and Erin fisks it.
- Tiffany is also on assignment, and will return next week.
- What do you do to keep from being overwhelmed? Delegate. Erin gives you some tips on how to do that.
- Hollywood thinks it's time to take on The Gun Lobby™again. This time it's with Miss Sloane, a movie that looks to have all the box office appeal of that new Ghostbusters film. Weer'd has a few things to say about the movie trailer.
- Our plug of the week is for Amy Dillon's GoFundMe raffle, where you can win a really nice AR-15.
Thank you for downloading, listening, and subscribing. You are subscribed, right? We are available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and now on Google Play Music!
As I mentioned at the top of the show, I’ve been really really busy with managing Operation Blazing Sword. In fact, things have gotten so crazy that I’ve had to admit that I can’t do everything by myself, so I’ve swallowed my pride and admitted that I need help in keeping things running.
This is an important lesson for preppers as well: we need to acknowledge that we can’t do everything, especially in a disaster or survival situation. I know that there are some folks out there who believe they’re John Rambo or Chuck Norris, but as I like to point out, You have to sleep sometime. There’s a reason humans have banded together for protection since prehistory.
Now if I were really cool, I would be able to say “And that is why I’ve delegated this Blue Collar Prepping segment to so-and-so, who will talk to us about such-and-such,” and then Sean would play the segment. Unfortunately, I’m not that cool, so I’m going to talk about how best to delegate.
There are many people, myself included, who easily fall victim to the thought that if we want something done properly, we have to do it ourselves. While that may be true in very specific, I think we all know that for the most part it’s BS.
So the first thing you need to do is have an adequate skill and knowledge base. You create this by making friends with intelligent people who are experienced in ways that you aren’t.
For example, my co-blogger Chaplain Tim spent 20 years in the water purification industry, so whenever I have questions about water, or chemistry in general, I go to him. If he were part of my real-life prepping group instead if being in another part of the country, I would put him in charge of the water and rest easy knowing that he’d take care of it properly.
Just as importantly, I wouldn’t micromanage him -- I’d assign the task and get out of his way, trusting that he’d come to me if he needed help. Micromanaging is actually WORSE than doing it yourself, because it wastes everyone’s time, results in the person being micromanaged feeling annoyed and insulted, and the task still doesn’t get done properly.
However, while it’s very easy to delegate when someone has a clearly defined area of expertise -- it’s something else when that someone has little to no skill.
A while back, I was on another podcast and the host asked me what he should do with his children, who were young girls, during a disaster situation to keep them from panicking. My advice was to find a job for them to do, because it would keep their minds occupied on the task instead of the emergency, and by doing that job they would not only help the family but also -- perhaps more importantly -- stay out from being underfoot.
In his particular situation, the family had pet dogs, so I suggested that he delegate to his girls the task of wrangling the pets -- keeping them calm and out of the way, making sure they had food and water and were able to relieve themselves, that sort of thing. This was doubly useful to him because not only would it keep his children from panicking but also keep his dogs from freaking out and making a mess or causing a ruckus.
What’s important to remember is that everyone in a prepping group needs a job to do. It makes them feel useful, and feeling like a contributing and therefore important member of the group is good for morale. It’s also great for whoever is in charge, because however minor that task is, it’s one less thing for the leader to worry about.
So in conclusion:
Listen to the podcast here.
Read the show notes here.
Thanks also to Firearms Policy Coalition for their support. And a special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Remington Ammunition and Lucky Gunner.com.
Blue Collar Prepping Transcript:
Delegating Tasks
As I mentioned at the top of the show, I’ve been really really busy with managing Operation Blazing Sword. In fact, things have gotten so crazy that I’ve had to admit that I can’t do everything by myself, so I’ve swallowed my pride and admitted that I need help in keeping things running.
This is an important lesson for preppers as well: we need to acknowledge that we can’t do everything, especially in a disaster or survival situation. I know that there are some folks out there who believe they’re John Rambo or Chuck Norris, but as I like to point out, You have to sleep sometime. There’s a reason humans have banded together for protection since prehistory.
Now if I were really cool, I would be able to say “And that is why I’ve delegated this Blue Collar Prepping segment to so-and-so, who will talk to us about such-and-such,” and then Sean would play the segment. Unfortunately, I’m not that cool, so I’m going to talk about how best to delegate.
There are many people, myself included, who easily fall victim to the thought that if we want something done properly, we have to do it ourselves. While that may be true in very specific, I think we all know that for the most part it’s BS.
So the first thing you need to do is have an adequate skill and knowledge base. You create this by making friends with intelligent people who are experienced in ways that you aren’t.
For example, my co-blogger Chaplain Tim spent 20 years in the water purification industry, so whenever I have questions about water, or chemistry in general, I go to him. If he were part of my real-life prepping group instead if being in another part of the country, I would put him in charge of the water and rest easy knowing that he’d take care of it properly.
Just as importantly, I wouldn’t micromanage him -- I’d assign the task and get out of his way, trusting that he’d come to me if he needed help. Micromanaging is actually WORSE than doing it yourself, because it wastes everyone’s time, results in the person being micromanaged feeling annoyed and insulted, and the task still doesn’t get done properly.
However, while it’s very easy to delegate when someone has a clearly defined area of expertise -- it’s something else when that someone has little to no skill.
A while back, I was on another podcast and the host asked me what he should do with his children, who were young girls, during a disaster situation to keep them from panicking. My advice was to find a job for them to do, because it would keep their minds occupied on the task instead of the emergency, and by doing that job they would not only help the family but also -- perhaps more importantly -- stay out from being underfoot.
In his particular situation, the family had pet dogs, so I suggested that he delegate to his girls the task of wrangling the pets -- keeping them calm and out of the way, making sure they had food and water and were able to relieve themselves, that sort of thing. This was doubly useful to him because not only would it keep his children from panicking but also keep his dogs from freaking out and making a mess or causing a ruckus.
What’s important to remember is that everyone in a prepping group needs a job to do. It makes them feel useful, and feeling like a contributing and therefore important member of the group is good for morale. It’s also great for whoever is in charge, because however minor that task is, it’s one less thing for the leader to worry about.
So in conclusion:
- Make sure everyone has a job to do that is within their skill set.
- Have them do that job and praise them when they perform it well.
- Watch them as they do their duties for signs that they might be better suited for other tasks, either in addition to or in place of the original.
- If they’re doing a good job, stay out of their way!
- If you’re the leader, offload as much “doing” as possible to other people. In my admittedly limited experience, being a leader is more about thinking and making decisions and being a good role model than it is doing every little thing.
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