Mostly, you can’t.
My first teaching evaluations were largely about classroom control. The theory, I suppose, went something like this: get the students under control, then you can teach them. So the questions weren’t about lesson plans, they were about How will you keep your classroom under control? No control, no teaching.
Those evaluators would have been appalled by my classrooms at the end of my career. No seating charts or lists of rules, none of the customary markers of the illusion of control. I realized eventually that controlling the future is largely a giant game of whack-a-mole. If I spent my time trying to control students, I didn’t have time to teach because there was always another issue.
My classrooms weren’t chaotic, either–most of the time. I learned that the best way to keep kids engaged was an interesting learning experience. When I offered that, the rest usually sorted itself out.
Somewhere along the way I encountered the term resilient systems. Rather than trying to control the future and prevent all problems (impossible) I tried to create a flexible, adaptable framework in which we could learn, solve problems, and address concerns.
We still implemented reasonable controls. Leave homework in this basket. Here’s where you make an appointment to come in early. Don’t let air out of wheelchair tires. (Yeah, a kid did that once. Made him walk up the street knocking on doors until he found a pump with the right kind of valve.)
Mostly, though, a resilient system doesn’t try to anticipate and solve important problems before they happen–because it can’t. It’s designed to allow the people involved to work together, assess the situation, and solve the problem.
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I want the FREEDOM TOUR to operate as a resilient system. I believe, in many respects, it was Jesus’ design for the church.
Joy, freedom, and passion happen when people engage beyond self-interest and minimum standards. Resilient systems can’t guarantee that; nothing can. But bosses who manage through power and control will almost certainly stifle the engagement they seek.
Jesus never handed out rules, exerted power, or gave His disciples the means to control people. If you’re involved in any sort of group, I invite you to consider whether the whack-a-mole strategy of trying to control people with an ever-increasing list of rules and policies is effective for your team.
I think Jesus might have been onto something. You?
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