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- So long, and thanks for all the fish
- How soon is now?
- The Kung Fu Panda principle.
- 3 reasons why I hate pretty graphs
- How to make the world seem REEAAALLLY BOORRRIIIING
- The 2,500 year old lesson everybody ignores cos it’s too hard
- I am a police officer.
- When is a team meeting NOT a team meeting?
- Folk management
- Double Trouble
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- WANTED: systemsy stuff to cheer me up
- The secret management model that must not be named
- Why WIFFY’s are bad and to be squashed at birth
- First they came for the desks, and nobody said NUFFINK
- Vanity of vanities, all is vanity OR Why webstats don’t exist
- One more time… Why values are a pile of cobbler’s
- How i learned to skip with Toyota
- The man who mistook his wife for an actual change in performance
- There are only 6 graphs you’ll ever see on a performance report and they’re all rubbish. Here they are.
- If it’s too complicated to understand it’s probably total nonsense
- Can you count up to 8?
- I am totally positive
- I am totally negative
- Thor describes my purpose
- I openly mock Myers Briggs, but an INTP would do
- The Law Of The Instrument
- Reality has a liberal bias
- Why killing Sweat Angels is the most valuable work I do all day
- Cloud cuckoo-land
- Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is a pony
- One weird trick to design your organisation, in one easy step! (Management consultants will HATE you!)
- The Varieties of Human Work
- There really is only one test!
- The Curious Case Of The Chart That Didn’t Bark In The Night
- Looking good, Billy Ray!
- Computers are weird
- We’re number 2! We’re number 2! Yay us! Now who’s US exactly?
- I am an average employee
- How to be hopelessly untrendy
- Why you SHOULDN’T try to improve performance measures!
- The sun is in Uranus
- Lean, ISO and 6 Sigma all walk into a bar. Hilarity ensues.
- Three Reasons Why National Customer Service Week Is Rubbish! Again!
- What’s the purpose of a-SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
- How to have an organisational detox!
- Your job is not what you think it is
- This mug cost £224,000,000
- Wanted: idle, indifferent and irresponsible staff for absurd work.
- You are no Daniel Kahneman, sir, and I would have you unhand me before I call the gendarmie
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Category Archives: deming
WANTED: systemsy stuff to cheer me up
I’ve been working in an ordinary command and control organisation TOO LONG. I’m miserable and it makes me think that all work is like this and it can never change. I know it isn’t. I’ve been a part of, and … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, deming, systems thinking
7 Comments
Can you count up to 8?
Do you produce loads of whizzy hard performance data? I bet if you do you use one of these clever whizzy performance applications to showcase your wares… There’s lots of different types of these things, and an even larger number of … Continue reading
Posted in data, deming, statistics
Tagged Command and control, davis balestracci, performance reports, performancey
3 Comments
I don’t know much about control charts (but I know what I like)
I’ve never been trained in using control charts, never passed a test or worked with anyone who’s knowledgeable in them. Everything I’ve learned has been off of the Internet Or books, books as well, they’re famously good for learning. Cunninghams Law … Continue reading
Posted in data, deming, information, learning, measures, statistics, systems thinking
Tagged control charts, deming, heuristics, variation, winchart
1 Comment
Not one reply
Exactly a week ago I invited readers to send in their own stories about how offering data, creating normative learning opportunities and plain nagging had resulted in some type of systemsy incident. That it is possible to create change upwards … Continue reading
Posted in change, deming, leadership, psychology, systems thinking, thinking, vanguard method
Tagged systems thinking
24 Comments
Deming sucks
I can’t stand Deming. I used to have a mug with his photo on and a snappy quote, but thats all changed now I think he’s dangerous. Not the old bald dude who was an actual person who did actual … Continue reading
Posted in deming, John Seddon, systems thinking
Tagged deming, systems thinking, Vanguard method
4 Comments
Learning is a thing
Today I learnt that… Nope, it’s gone.
Posted in deming, knowledge, learning, questions, systems thinking, very short posts
Tagged cicero, deming
1 Comment
3 word Deming
I found this sorry article left in a meeting room. As you can see, not much progress had been made. Flip charts in meeting rooms are brilliant evidence of the thinking that was in the room. Imagine that is you … Continue reading
Posted in deming, learning, questions, systems thinking
Tagged continuous improvement, deming, systems thinking
4 Comments
4 pie charts you won’t see in a performance report
I do performance reports for a living. Here are the most important 4 pie charts that I will never be able to put into a performance report.
Posted in all wrong, deming, systems thinking, targets
Tagged 95% system 5% individual, pi
23 Comments
Happy Halloween
Celebrate this Halloween the systems thinking way! Put this up in your office to warn your managers that they’d best wise up or face the consequences. Please note: ThinkPurpose does not accept any responsibility. In general, like. But also for any … Continue reading
Posted in deming, systemz comix, Uncategorized
Tagged Very short posts, Zombie Deming
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Zombie Deming teaches about learning
There’s a difference between learning and knowledge. Somewhere on the internet, there are the silly words, “Knowledge is the banquet spread out on the table. Learning is how much of the banquet you partake of.” As if it’s about stuffing … Continue reading
Zombie Deming advises on the use of targets
Targets! Robust! Stretch! Aspirational! Bollocks. When the Audit Commission was around targets were everywhere. Partly due to the existence of a national framework of indicators that Local Authorities and lots of other public sector bodies had to report against. With … Continue reading
Zombie Deming eats his own arse in frustration at it all
Oh dear. With Zombie Deming on the hunt “sharing good practice” is as dangerous to the integrity of your skull as rubbing raw liver on your head and sticking it in a lions cage. Can we guess the thinking behind … Continue reading
Posted in deming, inspection, systems thinking, systemz comix, Uncategorized
Tagged benchmarking, Zombie Deming
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Friends at work
I don’t have any friends at work. Don’t feel sorry for me though, because probably neither do you. People act as if they have friends at work though. They go on lunches, team away days, team nights out. They buy … Continue reading
Zombie Deming takes issue with a poster
Oh dear! Somebody should have warned him! So, what would cause a perfectly sane manager to stick “WORK HARDER” posters up and not expect to be lynched? Command and control thinking as at it’s heart control through commands. The purpose … Continue reading
Posted in customer, deming, systemz comix, Uncategorized
Tagged customer, deming, systemz comix
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Zombie Deming is on the prowl
Deming is celebrating the return in 2 weeks of The Walking Dead by arising from his grave and continuing his hunt for bad thinking-and live humans. Being undead hasn’t lessened the old coves infamously short temper, if anything it has made it … Continue reading
Long live the King!
Long live the King! But what are the four words that come before those ones? The King is dead. Long live the King! In the olden days, or in England which is the same thing, when a monarch died those … Continue reading
Posted in deming, leadership, systems thinking, Uncategorized
Tagged deming, leaders, systems thinking
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gud at maffs
The Civil Service Reform Plan. There, said it. Come back! That’s the boring bit over with, those dull words in that boring order. As a reward let’s laugh at it, specifically the bit where Senior Civil Servants get maths all … Continue reading
Posted in deming, statistics, systems thinking
Tagged 95% system 5% individual, alfie kohn, appraisals, systems thinking
3 Comments
9 questions about your cake and you
Organisations are layer cakes. There is a long way between the cherries on the top and the damp base at the bottom. Answer these 9 questions to align yourself in the cake and find out what that means for you … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, customer, deming, purpose, systems thinking, Uncategorized
Tagged customer, layer
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Punching above your weight
What would give you extra prowess in the meeting room? More bang for your buck? Data! But not just any data, made-up data. This is my secret. The best data is made-up. Pretend! Nobody ever has real data, not to … Continue reading
How clean is my table?
The last post was about there being “no true value” of a measure, unless you define what you mean to measure, and that the way to know what you are supposed to be measuring is to define measure by purpose. … Continue reading
Posted in clarity of purpose, deming, purpose, systems thinking, Uncategorized
Tagged Data
1 Comment
A prediction, a plan, a wish or a warning?
“The individual, once transformed, will: Set an example Be a good listener, but will not compromise Continually teach other people Help people to pull away from their current practice and beliefs and move into the new philosophy without a feeling … Continue reading
Posted in deming, systems thinking, very short posts
Tagged deming, systems thinking, Very short posts
2 Comments
Magical pixie dust
The following are all real answers given in organisations in answer to the question: “How will we achieve our targets?” “Improvements in service delivery focussing on services which really matter to customers” “Ongoing training and evaluation of training needs. Increase … Continue reading
So you work in The Adminisphere…
That’s OK! You can still learn lessons from your mug of tea. What can you learn from this mug of tea? Assuming you work in the adminisphere, and are therefore an adminisphereaucrat for short, look at the work you are … Continue reading
Posted in clarity of purpose, customer, deming, systems thinking, Uncategorized
Tagged clarity of purpose, purpose, systems thinking
1 Comment
Do you work in The Adminisphere?
Do you work in The Adminisphere? Answer the questions below, score 10 points for each “yes”. Whatever the score don’t hate yourself, it’s the system, innit? Do you regularly put the words “policy” (meaning longwinded) and “brief” (meaning short and … Continue reading
Who’s trained the system?
A colleague is leaving and is clearing their desk and cupboards of decades of training manuals, never used, as the training was never used. It is like unearthing the last few decades of training fads that have plagued the public sector. … Continue reading
Keep systems thinking, and have a lovely day!
Why wish “Keep systems thinking, and have a lovely day!”? Here’s why. It is very hard indeed keeping positive and enthusiastic, in a command and control environment where it very much feels like you against the world, it is much easier to become … Continue reading
Posted in deming, systems thinking, vanguard method, very short posts
Tagged don't let the bastards grind you down
1 Comment
Plausible and untrue
“Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in deming, plausible, vanguard method
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Hawaiian shirt Fridays aren’t always the answer
Hawaiian shirt Fridays aren’t always the answer. No they’re not, but just look at that moustache. A welcome reminder that Movember is almost upon us, time for Gillette and Wilkinson Sword’s stock price to take their annual 30-day nose-dive. Sponsor a tache near … Continue reading
