In an earlier post, I wrote about cuboree – a camp for Victorian cubs and leaders and the wind storm that hit the camp.

When they joins cubs, each child makes a promise which starts “On my honour, I promise to do my best” – and doing their best is one of the key principles we use to encourage and develop the cubs. Every week, the cubs also reaffirm their promise to do their best.

The cyclone that hit during cuboree gave the cubs (and their leaders!) a challenging afternoon as they were kept indoors under cramped conditions.

Leaders did their best to keep the cubs occupied – in the marquee I was in we found pencils and paper, folded paper planes, sang songs, told jokes and played a DVD as part of keeping everyone busy and happy. Leaders also did their best to keep fear away form the cubs by managing the risks for them and protecting them as much as possible – a number of times I saw leaders leaning over cubs to protect them from falling debris, and leaders escorted children who needed toilets rather than letting them face danger alone.

Camp cooks did their best to provide nutritious and interesting snacks and meals, despite lack of power and/or gas to cook with.

The police did their best to keep us safe and arrange for the most dangerous trees/branches ot be dealt with.

Camp organisers did their best to keep us and families informed, everyone safe and accounted for, and to get some people home early as required.

But above all, we all were so proud to see the cubs do their best in trying circumstances.

Yes, cubs did ask “will we be in here much longer? when can we go outside? where will we sleep tonight?” and similar questions, but I did not hear one complaint from them. The cubs devised their own games and activities, moved around and spoke to cubs from other packs and places (they found it a great opportunity for badge swapping!) and did whatever was asked of them. They even queued for toilets trips without making a fuss. Sitting on the ground eating salad rolls for dinner didnt even raise a complaint.

The cub’s behaviour made difficult circumstances bearable and we were all proud of them. It was also inspirational to see them behave so well – it made it easier for us to do our best, too.

Next time you feel like doing ‘good enough’ in your business, take a moment to think about those cubs and ask yourself if you are dong your best in the circumstances or not – and what you will do about it if the answer is no.