This post is long overdue…

Last week the top 100 leaders of the ONE Campus Challenge were flown to Washington, D.C. for a 3-day summit. Each day we were given the opportunity to listen to leaders in the fight against poverty! On our first morning in Washington we met Doug Walker, the author of “The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide” and a leader of the World RPS Society.

RPS was started by Doug and Graham Walker after the two brothers used it to decide who was responsible for bringing firewood in from the cold. It was built up by word of mouth and has now reached international recognition.

One of the most important things I believe we learned from Walker was how to start a movement and keep it going. As a creator of RPS, Walker had to become an event planner, an author, and a spokesperson just to name a few of his responsibilities. He mentioned the importance of building his network “one atom at a time” as well. These are the types of things we as student leaders need to know how to do.

Something I have been frustrated with in the past has been dealing with people who aren’t interested in joining the ONE Campaign. Doug Walker spoke a bit about this subject and explained that you can’t make people do something they don’t want to do. Also, focus on those who are interested and don’t waste your time with the people who aren’t. As hard as that has been for me to do, it is good advice and I’ve been following it!

Walker’s book is filled with both defensive and offensive strategies for winning in the game of RPS. Here is a fun excerpt from Chapter 7 of his book:

“By far the most popular opening strategy at major tournaments is to walk in like you are the one to beat. This can be accomplished by arriving in a limo, being accompanied by groupies (and/or an entourage), wearing outlandish attire, or many other attention-grabbing techniques (page 120).”

As the RPS Champion at the Power 100 Summit, I must say that I now have a new appreciation for the game and will be using it more in making everyday decisions, such as who cooks dinner or takes out the trash Kudos to Eric who gave me a run for my money in the final round!

Keep up the wonderful work everyone! Huzzah!

Erin Bayley

RPS Champ aka “Crutches”

University of Oregon, 2010

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 am and is filed under Power 100. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.