Gracious Professionalism
The term Gracious Professionalism was coined by Woodie Flowers. It is often used as a catch-all regarding team behaviour, but specifically defined:
Gracious Professionalism is part of the ethos of FIRST. It's a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community.
With Gracious Professionalism, fierce competition and mutual gain are not separate notions. Gracious professionals learn and compete like crazy but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process. They avoid treating anyone like losers. No chest thumping tough talk, but no sticky-sweet platitudes either. Knowledge, competition, and empathy are comfortably blended.
In the long run, Gracious Professionalism is part of pursuing a meaningful life. One can add to society and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing one has acted with integrity and sensitivity.
Ok great. Why?​
Gracious Professionalism defines nearly everything you will do at a tournament, and is often quite a lifestyle change for people who are very into sports.
You will often be asked to define Gracious Professionalism and give examples, and I personally think examples are the best way to describe it.
Examples​
1​
When I was on 7 Sigma, we were at the West Virginia state championship in the final round, we were having awful connection issues, we could not get the driver station to connect to the robot phone for the life of us. Both us and our alliance partners threw our timeouts (In final rounds in in-person tournaments, teams are given a 5 minute timeout they can use when necessary), and when the 10 minutes were over, we still could not connect. We put our robot next to the field and prepared to stand next to the field watching our dead robot, when the other team threw up their timeout, allowing us time to connect to our robot and we got to play the match.
Once the match was over, we had won and qualified for the super-regional championship (that has never set right with me by the way), but the other team that had thrown their timeout ended up recieving the Inspire Award and a special callout for their team, largely because of this act.
2​
Two seasons ago (Skystone) we [team 20890] absolutely demolished another team's robot, in the fricking National competition. It was both drivers' fault but our robot had sturdy acrylic plates on three sides and a metal plate on the chassis. On the other hand, their's was lightweight and had 4 channels connected to each side with 3D printed claws. No protection. Thankfully their lab was like 30 minutes away from the competition venue, so they were able to replace everything. In the semi-finals, they had completely forgiven us, and we were their first pick for their alliance (they finished third in the random alliance rounds). In the end, we set a national high score and were the winning alliance.
3​
Off the top of my head us [11970] and 13648 (the top 2 robots at our interleague event by scoring potential, 13648 had a rough couple of matches start of season so they were not seeded well) have a really strong and gracious professional relationship. They have loaned us parts twice this season, during interleagues when we needed a power switch cuz ours died, and right before state when our string was wearing out. Their driver hub died at state so we returned the favor and loaned a spare we had to them.