Those unfamiliar with Scouting are usually surprised to hear that one of its core values is that Troops are Scout-led. “What exactly does that mean?” is a typical question.

It’s pretty self-explanatory. In a well-functioning Troop, the Scouts lead everything: Troop meetings, outings, service projects, and short-term and annual planning. Adults are there to facilitate and to help, but ideally only when the Scouts need them to.

But a separate key part of answering that question goes to another value of Scouting that far fewer people are familiar with. Scouts is meant to be a place where our kids can make mistakes without it being the end of the world. For Scout leaders, that means letting them be unprepared sometimes, flying right in the face of the Scout Motto – at least up to a point. (As my predecessor as Scoutmaster says, we’ve had kids be cold, but nobody’s ever frozen; and we’ve had kids be hungry, but nobody’s ever starved.)

It’s a bit of a balancing act. Since Scouting is supposed to be Scout-led, the Scouts have to be allowed make bad decisions along with their good ones – so long as those bad decisions won’t be dangerous. The purpose of adult leaders in the Troop is to guide and safeguard, not to lead, direct, or control, so they provide that oversight to make sure everyone stays safe.

The Scouts learn from every decision they make. Good decisions lead to good outcomes and should be repeated in the future. Bad ones lead to discomfort and probably some good-natured ribbing from peers, and will be avoided down the road.

Good Scout leaders develop the youth leaders at every level and make sure they know their responsibilities, then get out of their way. They intervene if asked and if the decision-making by the youth leaders would put anybody at risk.

In the business world, adult Scout leaders demonstrate the difference between management and micromanagement. At its best, management is all about hiring the right people, putting them in the right positions, building the team, and letting everybody do the job. Micromanagement is about the manager always believing “I know best” and making every decision, with the team performing as mere lackeys. It’s demoralizing, particularly to highly motivated team members and those who aspire to greater responsibilities. But even worse, it doesn’t allow anybody to learn, at any level – even the micromanager!

Scouts, meanwhile, demonstrate how things should work with your business team. They’re at varying levels of experience and ability, and the way they’re all developing is by making decisions for themselves and their teams and learning from the outcomes. The more you give them freedom to do just that, the better and more quickly they’ll advance in becoming adept at what they do.

Your business team should be allowed to make mistakes. Obviously, if it’s something that’s going to bankrupt the business, executive veto power should prevail. Otherwise, just like the Scouts, your work team will learn from the decisions they make, both good and bad. With the right support, they’ll succeed AND they’ll fail, with more and more of the former as they learn.