Category Archives: targets

Reality has a liberal bias

Posted on January 9, 2017 by

This is a  quote from an American comedian, taking the mickey out of imaginary Republicans complaining that reality itself is as biased as the liberal-elite media against Republican beliefs and actions. It is a joke about how people convinced they … Continue reading →

Posted in command and control, public sector, statistics, systems thinking, targets | Tagged , , , | 22 Comments

How to spoil someone for work (for ever more)

Posted on July 15, 2016 by

  There were 7 reasons why you shouldn’t touch systems thinking, and here’s an 8th… 8: You might get a sniff of systemsy heaven, but then end up working in command and control hell. Systems thinking makes no promises about being … Continue reading →

Posted in systems thinking, systemz comix, targets | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

The 1 thing nobody has ever said about a scorecard (and the 7 things they often do)

Posted on June 20, 2016 by

What people often say about scorecards 1. This colour symbol is wrong, shouldn’t it be a green? 2. Why isn’t that an up arrow? 3. There’s a spelling mistake in the comments 4. The formatting is slightly off. Needs more … Continue reading →

Posted in all wrong, command and control, measures, purpose, questions, systems thinking, targets, thinking | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

How NOT to do demand

Posted on January 14, 2016 by

Just like Batman, demand management is an insane attempt to solve a problem. In this case demand  management is an attempt to solve the problem of less money in the public sector, but in a totally insane way. We here … Continue reading →

Posted in all wrong, clarity of purpose, command and control, Demand, purpose, systems thinking, targets, vanguard method | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Only bullies, cowards or fools set targets

Posted on August 29, 2015 by

This is the story of a teacher in a UK school who was set a target of 75% exam pass rate. This summer the pass rate was 65%. If we ignore all the things we know about measures and targets … Continue reading →

Posted in systems thinking, targets | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

A manager’s guide to good and bad measures

Posted on July 21, 2015 by

How can you tell if you’ve been sold a pup? If some performance spod is fobbing you off with nonsense instead of good sound performance information? Just check what’s put in front of you against this 5 point guide to … Continue reading →

Posted in measures, systems thinking, targets, vanguard method | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Hitler gets the SATS results

Posted on May 16, 2015 by

See, even Hitler was driven to tears by irrational target based standard setting.

Posted in all wrong, command and control, systems thinking, targets | Tagged , ,