THE SCOTS COLLEGE Episode 31: Boys Need a Culture of Excellence Brave Hearts Bold Minds Episode Transcript Hello and welcome to the Brave Hearts Bold Minds podcast: Growing Fine Young Men. I m Leigh Hatcher. Thanks for joining me as we explore a whole world of ideas and inspiration, as we seek to help the boys of today grow into fine young men of tomorrow. Each week, I ll be interviewing an educator from The Scots College in Sydney to find out how best to build a boy, to offer parents of school-age boys, all parents, practical ideas and strategies to shape the character of a young man for life, and for good. So, let s ring the bell and meet our guest for this week s podcast. With me today is Dr Ian Lambert, Principal of The Scots College, and his topic is Building a Culture of Excellence for Boys. Ian, welcome back. Thank you, Leigh. It s good to be here. Great to see you again. How do you build a culture, let me ask you this first, of anything? How do you build a culture of anything in this world? There are lots of different definitions of culture. I think the first thing you need to do is have a definition. But for me, the foundation for culture is purpose. Why are we here? What are we doing this for? That sense of purpose gives shape or form in terms of the direction you re going in. So, you need purpose. You need direction. You need to head somewhere, in terms of your culture. I think culture is defined by values that you hold to be true. Ones that are the glue that hang you together as a group or a community. I think the next step there is you talk about culture in terms of behaviour. So, all of those things there, purpose, direction, values, are expressed through the behaviours of the group. Those behaviours, people can come in and see them, and watch them, and observe them, and they will know that there s a particular culture in play. So that might be a loving culture, it might be an aspirational culture, it might be an aggressive culture. But, all of those things seem to come out of that foundation.
So, in this context, we re building a culture of excellence, in particular for boys. How do you do that? Well, I think you need to talk about this notion of excellence. What is it? And I think a lot of us are quite confused about excellence. If I go back to the good book, it will talk about, do things that are noble and true and honourable and beautiful. And also, in terms of the Old Testament, for example, when they were talking about worshipping God, it was about bringing your best. So, bringing your best lamb for sacrifice, or your best doves, or your best crops. So, while that might be an odd notion now, I think the principle of if you re trying to bring honour, and you re trying to demonstrate thankfulness and appreciation, you actually give your best. You don t give your second best. You give the first of the harvest, not the last of the harvest. There s a kind of principle there that s been in place for thousands of years. I think, quite often, even within Christian circles, we can get quite confused about that. People think excellence is a dirty word and Don t let anyone rise above. We should all be the same. Well, we re not all created the same and I m sure we re not meant to express our self in the same way. We re all really quite different and we should be working out how to worship God in this world. How to demonstrate our thankfulness to our boss or an employer, through the way in which we give of ourselves in a particular context. I think excellence describes that very well. And recognise the giftedness of others, who He has created. Yeah, absolutely. What about with boys? What are you going to be doing to, in particular for them, nurture this culture of excellence? I think with boys growing, they re young people and they need to see something that s excellent. They need to hear an amazing piano player and know that that piano player s better than every other piano player and there s a reason for that. So, there s a skill level, there s a knowledge level that s in that. I think boys are very experiential in the way they learn, so giving them the experience of something that s recognised in your community as being the highest quality, the best standard, the most honourable act. I think exposing them then explaining to them why it is. What are the component parts that make it excellent? Then, actually helping them to understand how they might move from where they are to where they may be. I was watching a TV show last night, Britain s Got Talent. One of the boys that came on had been on the show two years previously and was told by the judges that he needed to go and get singing lessons. All the other judges thought that that judge was cruel and mean and, How could you do that to a 12-year-old boy? So, the boy, now 15
years of age, came on, sang up a storm, got the standing ovation and then thanked the judge for encouraging him to take that extra step. So, we could have been nice, and soppy, and kind, and said, Look, it s wonderful. You re fantastic. And not improved. But, by actually being honest with each other, being careful but being honest with each other about actually how good is that thing you re doing compared to the one that s down the road, is a conversation that will actually prompt a discussion and an exploration about what is truly excellent. What a great illustration. In what areas do you see this excellence being played out in life? In our society? In education? I think, at the core, we all think about human excellence. We wake up every day, really, saying, How do I be a better man? How do I be a better person? How can I improve myself? How can I add more value to my family, my community, my world? So, I think, we need to be thinking about behaviours and ideas in human expression, in all its form, whether it s the creative arts through to the manufacturing and building or design, having a view about excellence in that. Then I think, also, communal excellence. So, not just what we do as an individual, but what do we do together? How does our team, or our school, or our local community create a sense of living together and being together, that others would describe as excellent? That might have a whole lot of soft qualities in it, like kindness, and the way we treat each other, and the way we look after the sick, and care for the widow, and all those sort of traditional things that were very important in the past. Might seem a bit of a silly question to ask, but, so why would you pursue excellence? Is it for more money? Is it for pride? Reputation? Why do it? Look, I think it s about growth. I love those stories about elderly men and women who are still, in their 80s and 90s, doing university courses. There s still more to learn, and refining something that they may be doing. I think human nature is about growth. It s about us trying to develop and improve in all spheres of expression. It s a bit like, you don t want to get a flat tyre in the middle of life and just stop on the side of the road and watch everyone go past. But, I think the other side of that is, we always want to encourage leadership in our children. Leadership doesn t have to be the head of an industry or anything like that. It s about equipping with skills and insight that can actually have a transformative effect on an immediate community. I talk about that notion of circles of influence that, you know when you drop a pebble in a still lake, you see those circles permeating out. If you re really excellent at whatever you do, you can influence over many bands and many directions. That s a blessing to other people as well as a blessing to yourself and those around you.
It s probably going to be the hardest option though, the costliest and the most timeconsuming. Yeah, I think so. I think in some respects, though, the near enough is good enough mantra can be more expensive. If you re not doing really well, you tend not to attract people to the thing that you re not doing well. You tend not to be satisfied with that. So, in some ways, if you re thinking about a community or business, that can actually be the death knell for that. So, I think there s upfront investment. You have to have a flexible, nimble approach to life, about never quite being satisfied, and knowing that you can just keep nudging and get a little bit more out of things. And, I think that s important to the future. Because, if you look at a lot of the gains that are happening in the world, the improvement, we re not going ahead in leaps and bounds. We re going ahead in small steps, but those small steps are getting faster and faster. So, I think that sense of excellence is about tweaking and improving, and working on it. That s a creative act, in some ways, and it can be fun. So you might say it s a pressure thing, but I think if you ve got the right mindset about it... And again, it comes right back to that culture issue of, if you ve got a purpose and a direction, and a set of values, then that just becomes a behaviour that reflects those things. And somewhat related to that, a perspective of a bigger picture, and maybe even the end game. Yeah. I think so. I mean, that s, fundamentally, that world-view question that we all have is, Why am I here? How did I get here? What s wrong? and, What s the remedy? If we ask those four questions, they actually are sort of presuppositions that drill right into our fundamental beliefs about human life and what s the point. So, if you answer those things and come up with, There is no point, then you really should just go surfing. But, if you answer those questions and think that there is a purpose in life, that life has an eternal focus and eternal value, then what we do now has value in the future. What we re learning now has value in the future. It s not as if it ll all disappear at some point. But, it continues. There s a continuity between a kind of eternal loop, I suppose, that helps us realise we re moving in a direction. Let me ask you, personally, has this been something that you have personally pursued in your own life? In your job? What s driven that, if so? And what s it been like for you to seek excellence? That s a really good question. It s peeling off the onion layers, it really is though. How did I end up the way I am? How perfect you are? Am I, in fact, even excellent. That s a harder one.
Leave that one. Look, I think, again, they re values as a family. Trying to be the best you can be has always been a mantra in our family. Yeah, but what s it been like for you? I think it s been okay, in that I m not a person that feels a sense of failure if I don t achieve, because of the security my family gave me. In my mum and dad s eyes, I could never fail. So really Yeah, that s an important lesson for parents. An amazing lesson and that you re just standing behind your kids all the time. That s like a platform to launch off in any direction. So, that gives you a sense that you can play in the world. You can strive in the world, and you can do better. I think in my own background I m not boasting about this why did I work hard and set a direction about going to Cambridge University and doing a doctorate over there? It was partly because I was at a time where I actually wanted to be in the company of some of the best leaders and thinkers in the world. So, yeah, I set a high standard. There was a chance that I might not have made it. Or in fact, that I might have got there and failed. Have a go. Certainly, there are many nights we have those thoughts. But, it s life. To live life richly and to have full expression in life is a great joy. I look back on my life and think, Oh my goodness. I don t even know how it unfolded, but I ve had an amazing life. I ve been to amazing places and done things. I think that s come from, again, my parent s security, but also, that sense of, Life is an amazing wonderful adventure. If you just go out there and try to be your very best out there, doors open and you never know where you ll end up. It s important to say though, that as I m sure as it s happened in your life, I m sure everyone s life setbacks are also a very significant and probably important part of that process. Look, I ll open up something personal here. I failed a few subjects in my first university course, which was also a business science-based qualification. I remember the lecturer s telling me he didn t think I was cut out for university. You know, that You got his name and number? Yeah. That s right. But again, that was a prompt in some ways, to say, Hey wake up. This is how people will think about you if you don t put in the right amount of effort. I was just playing around. But I think the other thing it made me realise was, I was in the wrong course. I wasn t playing to my strengths. I was actually trying to copy other
people who d done this course and enjoyed it, and I was unsure of what I was doing, so I took an easy option. Picked one that sounded good. The outcome was I realised what I wanted to do. That was a kick start to an amazing journey in the field of education. Where have you seen this notion of excellence play out, Ian? In practice. Paint us a picture, maybe tell us a story of someone you know. I think there s lot of it. I ve sat in pavilions and watched pipe and drums bands play in Edinburgh castle, and I ve been in opera houses in Australia and China and watched amazing symphony orchestras, and just pinched myself saying, How did I get here? And, what a privilege. But, I ll give you an interesting example. I spent some time in my late teens growing up on the Gold Coast. Surfing was a big thing on the Gold Coast. There s a world-famous surfboard shaper called Nev Hyman. Nev Hyman, if you re Kelly Slater or anyone like that in the world, you wanted one of his surfboards. So, he travelled the world shaping boards for different waves, different people. You would say he was excellent. He was the best in his field. But, Nev went on from that and actually sold his company, and then was very committed to communities in remote areas, Indonesia. Places where surfers go. They re also concerned about their housing and their conditions. Also, very concerned about the pollution that was in the ocean, particularly plastics and things. So, he s gone on to set up a company called NevHouse, which is totally recycled materials from the ocean that are put into flat-packed houses. I m not talking about shabby little boxes here, like really high-quality, off-the-grid houses with water, solar, and lounge rooms that can be delivered into impoverished communities, or communities hit by devastation cyclones, etc, really quickly. And, they can be assembled with a 20 cent piece. What? Now, he s connected in. He s a surfer, got into surfboard making. Did an excellent job at that. He s now hooked in with United Nations, with major research on solving environmental pollution issues, and third-world housing. I mean, that s excellence to me. That s a person who could have sat back on his beachfront and gone, At 35, I ve done it all. But, he s striving to serve. He s striving to live out his values. He s striving to be other-centred and to make life in the world a little bit better for others. So, I think that s a great example. Yeah, not excellence for excellence s sake, or for my pride. It s not about that. Absolutely, absolutely. It s best if others tell you you re excellent, rather than you tell yourself.
Well, I reckon this has been an excellent conversation. Dr Ian Lambert, thank you so much again. Thanks Leigh. If you d like more information about growing your boy into a fine young man, you can subscribe to receive useful articles and news from The Scots College. It s free and offered to every parent who wants the very best for their boy in their journey to manhood. In your internet search engine, enter The Scots College enewsletter, to subscribe. I m Leigh Hatcher. Hope you can join me again next week on the Brave Hearts Bold Minds podcast: Growing Fine Young Men. Now, I ll give you a little insight to what happens here in The Scots College studio. We have a little bowl here, with Minties for our guests, and Ian s been playing with one minty all the way through. He s also been looking longingly at this button that rings us out. Would you care to do that? Then you can have your minty. Yeah, I m just thinking, should I press the button or take the minty? So, I ll press the button. It s better for my health.