Rules

Exodus 32:15 “Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.”

Forgive me when I fail.

As an educator my wife has spent her fair share of time in the classroom and has moved on to administrative duties over the course of her career. She has focused on special education. I think I’m her best student. All kidding aside, ignore the pun, I’ve learned a lot from her. She helps to give me a better perspective, so today I’m focusing on rules.

As an elementary school teacher you need to keep control of your classroom so sometimes you need to implement rules to counter, correct or instill the behavior you want to see. If a student is running in the classroom the first rule might be, “No Running”. But then the behavior changes and now the rule is amended to be, “No running, no skipping.” Which leads to, “No running, no skipping, no hopping.” Then, “No running, no skipping, no hopping, no jumping.” You get the idea. Then my brilliant wife, who has years of experience says. “Only walking is allowed.” And out of the safety of her reach I say, “But what if we are in the gym or on the playground?” To which she replies, “Did you read the first part? It said rules for the classroom.”

When people ask me what I do, I say, “I navigate government”. As a former Safety Manger of a munitions production facility, compliance across all regulating entities is hard. How about Fed OSHA 1910.95(b)(2) Table G-16 Footnote (1) …If the sum of the following fractions: C(1)/T(1)+C(2)/T(2)C(n)/T(n) exceeds unity, then, the mixed exposure should be considered to exceed the limit value. Let me navigate, “Is the noise level to high?”?

I got on this kick last night as I was leaving a location and engaging in a conversation with a Deputy Director. The location is a state agency leasing office space from a private entity. I asked the Deputy Director if a person could have a firearm in their office. He said, “No, I don’t think our policy allows it.” It got a lot more complicated from there as there was much more that needed to be considered and evaluated. The answer is, it depends, who’s asking?

In the past I would go on Economic Development Administration (EDA) trips in over 10 states to assist in organizational peer reviews required by law. My selfish endeavor was to seek out and find good policy that I could adapt for my own organization. What I learned was that a lot of people don’t know their own self imposed policy’s, rules, regulations, or bylaws let alone contracted grant compliance or state and federal required statutes. Sometimes just a simple observation of the difference of one organization that still used a chalkboard and the another a whiteboard would indicate how up to speed they might be in their compliance endeavors.

When bad things happen our reaction is to attempt to find a way to regulate it back into compliance. It happens even in our homes. How about, “Clean your room and if you don’t “X” is going to happen.” As we pile on the rules it consumes more of our time and then we find ourselves loosing productivity. I was recently in a conversation about bad actor (misleading criminal) laws. Do they work or do they just make more work for those that comply? Do bad actors just find another way around or set up shop under another name (like a debarment list)? What is the goal that we are really attempting to achieve? Out west we would say, “Good fences make good neighbors and locks are for honest people.” The bad actor will ignore both and just cut them. That’s a different set of rules.

What I have learned is that it’s hard work to establish good policy, rules, regulations and statutes. Politics is different from statesmanship. A spirited debate is different from an argument. Less can be more. We need a speed limit of 15 to 25 MPH in a school zone, and not 100 MPH, but we don’t need a law for school prayer. Students already pray to pass a test without a law. Situations change, classroom to playground. Let’s face it, we all have a hard time just following 10 basic rules. In the meantime, communities and organizations will still need help navigating government.