Wilson’s Opening Theme: Dollars not determinative; characteristics of clients not determinative; numbers of staff not determinative; training not determinative; so then what is?

Better schools: strong principals providing instructional leadership (colleges no in general; Silber maybe), teachers with high expectations, emphasis on basic skills, maintain good order and discipline, evaluate students regularly, devote large amounts of time to study.

Better prisons: control model vs. inmate responsibility/privilege model; strict routine; clear enforced rules; consequences attached to compliance and deviance; gangs and groupings forbidden; habituation not rehabilitation.

Better armies: mission-oriented command system; local commander/local squad leader autonomy; low paperwork; harsh discipline meted out across ranks; fraternization between officers and soldiers; divisions formed out of soldiers from same regions.

So what are the general lessons that can be learned from all of this?

Organization matters. An Anthony Alvarado is not at full until he becomes Principal Alvarado. The organization is not the organizational structure—coordination is crucial. Coordination plus structure is the essence of an organization and does much to determine success or failure.

Three key organizational issues: (1) critical task: army—infiltration not head on assault; prison—maintenance or order, schools—get the morale up as well as belief accomplishment is possible. Wilson NOTE: This is about tasks not goals. Start a goal argument in government and you get an endless debate that does nowhere.

(2) Instill a sense of mission—This is not about goals, as much as the idea that “What we are doing around here is OK!” When everybody buys in the system auto-enacts to a greater degree.

(3) The innovating institution needs freedom of action and external political support—then they can crash through many of the barriers to change.

Three levels of analysis: Operators—That’s you and me folks—the people who run the place. We operate, according to Wilson, on what we encounter and see as critical problems, our prior experiences, personal beliefs, peer expectations, the interests that impact on our agencies, and the founder’s impetus to the organization.

Managers (God Help Them!)—The further they are from the tasks, the more they deal with constraints placed on the agency by the environment. A tough spot

Executives—Are concerned with the autonomy of the agency (turf), its political position and its advancement.