Prison Reform Front and Center

Prison Reform Front and Center

In the wake of the Vaughn Correctional uprising that ended in the death of Steven Floyd, prison reform is on the minds of many. It's too bad that it took the death of a guard to put prison reform on anyone's agenda. But this is the way things work in the States, we wait till something spirals out of control before we do something about it.

Culture Beats Strategy

Once you've internalized this axiom; "Culture Beats Strategy" it is easy to easy to see every contest or competition through that lens. That was a nice strategy the Atlanta Falcons had last night. too bad that were playing against a team with a strong culture. A strategy is a nice thing to have. A culture is essential. When a team, group, company or family builds a culture it doesn't need for things to go perfectly. People know what to do in situations that haven't been thought through and game planned. A team with a culture has a lot of group cohesion around a few basic assumptions. People can take independent action because they know the organization's goals without having to be directed. A strategy is merely a list of things you want to happen. A culture operates on an entirely different plane. When Republicans beat Democrats with policies that add up to a lot of threadbare nonsense under the most fleeting scrutiny - they are winning on culture. Democrats seem to be constantly confused about this. They shouldn't be. Culture beats strategy. Group membership means something to people in a culture. Group membership is a means to personal ends for people executing a strategy. Members of a culture share values, spoken and unspoken, and you don't need to explain how any given policy fits into the values of a culture. It either does or doesn't on its face.