• “EFFECTIVE PEOPLE DON’T JUST KNOW WHAT TO DO, THEY KNOW They have concrete goals – essentially a vision of what they want to achieve. “In short, they have purpose, which informs everything they do. That’s why remarkable people appear so dedicated, organized and consistently on task, quick to eliminate roadblocks and put aside distractions that stand in the way.” After Goals are clear, they next determine what needs to happen in order to get there – Objectives – followed by a ‘Plan’ for the people, processes, resources and systems to make it happen.  Committing to a Business Plan “makes all the difference in achieving Goals… Indecision is born a lack of purpose: when you know what you truly want, most decisions can and should be almost automatic, based on the simple framework: Will this help me reach my Goals?”  DCG have decades of experience in strategic planning. Failing to plan is effectively planning to fail. Let us help. [INC MAGAZINE – Sep 7, 17]
  • “FALLING DOWN IS ONE OF LIFE’S OVERLOOKED PERILS.” Over 30,000 Americans and some 400,000 people worldwide die annually from simply falling down in everyday life settings (like stairways, shower stalls, store aisles, etc.). And falls are the leading cause of death after car accidents, with injuries triple those from car accidents. “Falls have three stages: initiation, descent and impact… It’s the sudden stop at the bottom which is the problem.” So most research on preventing injury from falls relates to (1) Balance Maintenance, avoiding “incorrect weight shifting from excessive sway during standing, or missteps during walking”; and to (2) ‘Deceleration’ to minimize damage when hitting the ground, by “first protecting your head, and then not falling forward or backward. Instead the idea is ‘rolling’ by reaching back for the floor with hands and trying to let the fleshy side parts of the body absorb impact. You’d much rather break a wrist or leg rather than a hip.”  [THE WEEK – Sep 8, 17]
  • BESIDES THE EQUIFAX HACK, ANOTHER NEW INTERNET SECURITY BREACH involves login credentials & passwords for over 8000 unique IP addresses that “allow take-over of home routers and more than 1,700 ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) devices to make them part of a destructive botnet… Since most of the malware can’t survive a ‘reboot,’ a single device can further be taken over by rival botnet operator groups… Given such devices’ reputation for poor default security, and the lackadaisical approach many users have for securing them, there almost certainly are tens of thousands of other vulnerable devices that can be easily detected doing a simple internet scan.” Any device which connects to the internet is an open invitation. [ARSTECHNICA.COM – Aug 25, 17]
  • “WE ARE LIVING THROUGH ‘CULTURAL CLIMATE CHANGE’ – one of the most profound revolutions in all of human history, a time of political, economic and social change brought about by the internet; a revolution which is the greatest and most fateful since the invention of printing in the 15th century… What is happening is that the West had three master narratives held since the 17th or 18th century which have all broken down: the world progressively becoming more secular, becoming more Westernized, and religion accommodating to society… In the 21st century we are seeing (1) the world (at least in the Middle East, Africa & Asia) getting more non-secular; (2) Ancient civilizations suddenly returning with a vengeance (in China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia & Iran), all of whom believe that tomorrow belongs to their cultures, not to the West; and (3) the conservative churches and ultra-orthodox synagogues growing fastest, with religion opposing, challenging or simply withdrawing from the world as tension between the half who become more versus the half who become less religious grows day by day… In the contemporary world, these factors impact family, community and society – our shared values and the way we act towards one another.”  For a deep and fascinating analysis: standpointmag.co.uk/node/6938/full   [STANDPOINT MAGAZINE – Sept 17]

       Americans’ political divisions continue to widen in perspective on social & cultural values. Latest polls show Democrats eight times as likely to favor action on climate change, and more than twice as “comfortable with societal changes that have made the U.S. more diverse.”  Economic disparity also continues to rise; ‘Consumer Units’ (families, financially independent individuals, and single households who share expenses), on average, spent more on taxes last year than on food & clothing combined, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Politicians are like junkies who can’t stop spending and taxing forever… creating endlessly creative ways filled with pretty words dedicated to separating you from your money.”  – Michael Levine

       Humans have become the rulers of planet Earth thanks to language (that no other species shares) which allows our capacity for collective cooperation, by communicating imagination through stories we have invented – a fictional reality which now overrides objective reality. A fascinating TED talk:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzj7Wg4DAbs