Systems, Chaos, and Control

'You see, if we have someone on night shift at the front door, there's someone there to fight with. If there's no one there, the drunk angry guy just goes to bed instead of starting a fight. We're actually better off with less control.'

This is just one of the surprising statements from the mouth of Mr. Gordon Wiebe, my mentor. This guy is forcing me to think - really think. Not the kind of thinking required to get an A on a paper, but the kind of thinking required to actually re-evaluate life, leadership, and God. I like it.

How do complex systems emerge? How do we truly be a 'servant of all'? What does it take to create stability on a street of continually-shifting chaos? What really is salvation, what truly is a 'better' life?

I don't have answers for these questions. I can barely formulate them into coherent thoughts. However, the idea of organic growth, of growth based upon a truly (and some would say extreme) servant-leadership model is astounding. To my brain, it shouldn't work. Having no night shift at the front desk of a hotel in downtown Hastings should lead to chaos within the building, but it hasn't. The building is actually better off and more stable than it was a year ago, when more safeguards were in place. It's weird, crazy, and it's working.

Of course, there are still rules, and still problems. There is just enough structure here to create a system which allows growth to take place, if one knows how to look for and define growth.

Day one, and my head is already exploding. This will be an interesting time.