The Neptune Warrior

I remember sitting in a room in Vancouver, Washington. It was an August weekend and was supposed to be running a search and recovery workshop focused on recovering old bottles and artifacts from the early 20th century. I had divers who paid $150 for this class. The situation, the lake we were to dive was closed due to an algae bloom.

We drove 7 hours, spent the night in a hotel that was still booked for two more nights, and the location we were supposed to dive was closed the morning we pulled up. I had 10 divers looking forward to a class and potential additions to their artifact collection.

I had to figure out something. My mind raced and I had to find a solution. As a dive leader and the guy who was running the trip as a professional, I had to find a way to salvage the trip if it was even possible. I had invested allot in the trip already and I had paying customers.

In the early 1990’s I had an amazing leader when I was with Det 1. Lee Powe was our Platoon Leader and taught me some great skills, one was solving problems quickly and with confidence. Sitting on a picnic table I used his formula to make a decision to propose the the group. After coming up with my recommendations I took it further and used it with the group to come to a consensus on how we could best handle it.

I presented to the group three options:

1. Cancel the Search and Recovery workshop and return home.
2. Provide a Refund, find a place to dive for fun that was local and I could guide them.
3. Teach a specialty such as Underwater Naturalist Course, Night, or and move the course to a place like Les Davis Park on the Washington coast.

The Tool I use is SODAS

Situation

Options

Disadvantages

Advantages

Solution

Each Option is posted and below the group list out Disadvantage and Advantages for each.

Once the group has had an opportunity to discuss and come to consensus on the solution (will explain that in another post) then we took action and went diving.

As is turned out, my divers opted to spend the day and evening diving Les Davis Park, doing an impromptu Underwater Naturalist course, and having an amazing experience. I covered the cost of the UWN training materials but in the end actually did okay from the tips I received.

Without that tool I’m not sure I would have come up with. way to get the group to come to a consensus on actions to take.

Make sure you listen to the podcast (One Dive at a Time) to hear more about this adventure.