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Here’s What You’ve Missed!
- 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
- Toads
- 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: thinking
3 reasons why I hate pretty graphs
People prefer the pretty guy over the uglier guy cos they like pretty things more than they like things that are right. For over a decade I’ve been working in an area where the obsession has been about finding just … Continue reading
Posted in data, measures, statistics, systems thinking, thinking, vanguard method
Tagged measures, run chart, scorecards, variation
7 Comments
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity OR Why webstats don’t exist
I’ve been learning how to get data on our website usage from Google Analytics. It’s very hard, both cos Google Analytics front end is so badly designed and cos you need to learn how websites work. There’s lots of different … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, customer, data, learning, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged Call centres, google analytics, measures, vanity metrics, webstats
6 Comments
One more time… Why values are a pile of cobbler’s
This month I’m going to be handed a piece of paper with the Organisation’s new “Values and behaviours”, in my annual performance review. So this means what I value and how I behave will change once I read what they’re … Continue reading
Posted in change, command and control, psychology, thinking
Tagged appraisals, change, values
9 Comments
I openly mock Myers Briggs, but an INTP would do
Remember the ThinkPurpose team role quiz? Well, turns out I was a racoon. But ignoring all the distastefulness of categorising people into 16 types in a Buzzfeed style quiz based on bleeding JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES, let’s… Oh, hang on…I CAN’T ignore this idiocy. … Continue reading
Looking good, Billy Ray!
This is a systems thinking blog. There’s a type of systems thinking I don’t mention here called Soft Systems Methodology, or SSM. I’ve never actually used it as a method, not out loud and proud. But the key word is … Continue reading
Posted in change, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged clarity of purpose, Peter Checkland, soft systems, SSM
6 Comments
You are no Daniel Kahneman, sir, and I would have you unhand me before I call the gendarmie
This is Daniel Kahneman He won a Nobel prize, he has written loads of books, all about how you think and how you make decisions. He has simply loads to offer to help people make better decisions. You’d think that people … Continue reading
Posted in all wrong, psychology, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged daniel kahneman, leaders, systems thinking, Thinking
6 Comments
Look around my eyes, don’t look into my eyes. LASER BEAMS come out ’em
I am trained in advanced persuasion and negotiation. Advanced, mind. So much so that you really should look around my eyes, not into my eyes, cos God knows what I could do with my madd skillz in brain manipulation. This … Continue reading
Posted in experiment, plausible, plausible but untrue, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged Experiment, learning, persuade, selling
2 Comments
The 1 thing nobody has ever said about a scorecard (and the 7 things they often do)
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 performance reports, scorecards, systems thinking
6 Comments
Give it away for FREE!
Imagine you go to a bus-stop and take out a ten pound note and shout to the people waiting…. Everybody will think you’re mad and ignore you. Now imagine you took that £10 and posted it through your neighbour’s letterbox. … Continue reading
Posted in communication, customer, learning, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged creativity, Paul Arden, Seth Godin
2 Comments
Service Level Agreement- 3 little lies
A Service Level Agreement sounds so reasonable. Eminently reasonable. It sets out explicitly what will be done for a customer. A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider (either internal or external) and the end user … Continue reading
I’m a glittering generality!
I have a job! A proper job which pays taxes, but I’m no hard working taxpayer. This is not because I’m bone idle, though I am, but because “hard working taxpayers” don’t exist. There are people who work hard at a job, … Continue reading
Posted in communication, plans, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged communication, glittering generality, plans, slogans, taglines
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Naughty…but nice
Say the phrase “Command and control management” out loud. Doesn’t sound nice does it? What do you think when you hear it? Things like… Call centre staff told to poo on their own time. Hospital patients dying to meet hospital targets. … Continue reading
What fresh hell is THIS?
No fresh hell sweetie. Just the latest incarnation of a stale and very familiar hell. Do you recognise this… yawning at yet another exactly-the-same organisational transformation? wiping sleep out of your eyes at yet another whizz-bang IT venture that’ll save lots … Continue reading
Miss Universe and who’s to blame
Miss Colombia was crowned Miss Universe 2015! And THEN a few minutes later, the tiara was removed from her head, the sash from her shoulders and put on Miss Philippines. Miss Philippines was now Miss Universe instead of poor Miss … Continue reading
Posted in human brains are weird, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged cognitive bias, daniel kahneman, feminism, Miss Universe, Sexism
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How to write a report (part one)
Hi! If you’re anything like me, you’re an office drone who types for a living. It isn’t as important as making things or healing people, but it IS a living. One of the main tasks of modern-day typists like me is … Continue reading
Posted in communication, public sector, purpose, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged blog, communication, documents
12 Comments
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
250,000 ways to be a management consultant
Tomorrow my blog should hit a quarter of a million views. Yay me. This actually means nothing at all. It’s an arbitrary number that allows me to use the word “million” and thus transfer some glamour onto the act of … Continue reading
Posted in public sector, strategic, systems thinking, thinking, vanguard method
Tagged deming, systems thinking
27 Comments
When I hear the word “values”… I reach for my gin
That man was a Nazi, and this blog has no truck with that, but I have a similar reaction to talk of organisational culture, in particular, values I don’t get values. I think they’ve been spoiled for me by too … Continue reading
Posted in change, public sector, systems thinking, thinking, vanguard method
Tagged culture, systems thinking, values
5 Comments
The evolution of the error
For the past two years or so you’ve been getting bills from npower for gas. But you’ve had no gas supply in your flat for about 20 years when you had the boiler and meter taken out, and your heating … Continue reading
How to do a SWOT
In the most strategic of rooms in my building, I found an agenda on a flipchart. It is not exceptional, it is typical. This probably happens in your building. This is how decisions are made…. *the photo is real **the words … Continue reading
Posted in communication, learning, public sector, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged meetings, swot, systems thinking
5 Comments
The loneliest whale in the world.
Meet the loneliest whale in the world. She doesn’t speak the same language as other whales so they can’t hear her. This is the same as systemsy talking. Once your mental model changes from stupid ol’ command and control to … Continue reading
How to create phonecalls you don’t want
Step 1: Do something that doesn’t solve the customer’s problem for them. Step 2: Err… that’s it. A fellow onion informs me of the fantastic efforts of a Government benefits department to create phonecalls from nothing. The department has to pay … Continue reading
Why the [insert favourite] sector is best
This is Michael Portillo on my telly five minutes ago on BBC1 TV programme “This Week” speaking complete… He was talking about a revolting scandal in a hospital that came to light. In a hospital midwives who were infatuated with … Continue reading
Posted in all wrong, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged hsbc, michael portillo, public sector
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The meeting room rules
This meeting room is only in my head. But the rules are very strict regardless.
Posted in experiment, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged Experiment, management thinking
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Fedoras and other hallmarks of failure
Have you noticed the HUGE amount of men in their 20s and 30s who wear Fedoras? A fedora is a hat that Humphrey Bogart or Indiana Jones wears. However the typical fedora wearer these days looks more like this… As Urban Dictionary … Continue reading
Posted in all wrong, systems thinking, thinking, tools, vanguard method
Tagged systems thinking, thinking not tools, Vanguard method
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Why targets are good
Targets are good. They work. Comparing this quarters performance with last quarters, is good. It works Benchmarking performance against a group of other organisations, is good. That works too. Calm down! Let’s go back a bit…. Q: What’s the first … Continue reading
Posted in data, systems thinking, targets, thinking, vanguard method
Tagged Data, performance management, performance reports, Vanguard method
2 Comments
Lesson learned
This is a fellow onion. Look how sad she is. We’d just finished, or rather abandoned, a project, so decided to do a lessons learned exercise. These are specific lessons we learnt during the work and what we wrote on … Continue reading
Posted in knowledge, learning, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged double loop learning, learning, systems thinking
1 Comment
The Highlander principle
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will … Continue reading
Mordecai and Rigby clear up a few common misconceptions
Performance Management doesn’t manage performance. Distance from the work doesn’t provide senior leaders with a strategic view. Distance provides distance. Signing off reports does not ensure quality. It ensures they are slightly worse. Not doing the right thing because “we’ve … Continue reading
The one thing you never see on an improvement plan
You don’t have a performance management problem. You don’t have a staff engagement problem. You don’t have a data quality problem. You don’t have a budget problem. You don’t have a culture problem. You don’t have a risk management problem. You … Continue reading
Posted in leadership, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged command and control thinking, systems thinking
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Why pink is a girls colour
A philosophy club is starting soon at my son’s school. For 5 weeks, for one hour after lessons they will… “have the opportunity to think outside the box and explore new ideas that they may not have the chance to … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, learning, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged philosophy, questions, systems thinking
5 Comments
Stay safe, stay stupid
THANKS ZOMBIE DEMING! Enough of systems thinking, let’s talk stupid. Stupid is normally easy to spot. It’s walking into doors, slipping over banana skins and the like. But what happens if “stupid” is so normal, that nobody notices it? What … Continue reading
How to NAIL it!
You read a management book about the latest thing. It makes out you can do all-sorts of wondrous things like this… But when you try and do it in your workplace it doesn’t quite turn out like it did in … Continue reading
On the internet nobody knows you are a Policy Officer
A few months ago I got an email from Seth Godin, world famous internet man. This week Nassim Taleb, sent me a tweet, the guy who predicted the 2008 economic crash. I am a Policy Expert nobody, and Seth and … Continue reading
Posted in systems thinking, thinking
Tagged blogging, blogs, internet, leaders, nassim taleb, Seth Godin, twitter
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What is a Googleplex?
This letter appeared on the internet in 2006. [Snopes, the bible of internet myths, says it’s truthfulness is undetermined. But just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it’s not true.] A few months ago I told my 9 year old … Continue reading
Posted in learning, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged Google, googolplex, learning, Ofsted, school
7 Comments
How to measure a meeting
I’ve been in a meeting today! How can I tell how successful the meeting was? Measure it! With numbers! -it was held in room 42 -it lasted 75 minutes -there were 10 people -there was 1 PowerPoint -I ate 2 … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, public sector, purpose, thinking
Tagged Command and control, meetings, purpose
8 Comments
How to achieve immortality in one easy step
Do you want to be remembered in your workplace? Want to be talked about when you’ve gone as that person who…? Here’s how in one easy step. Step one… 1: Do work that helps the end customer That’s it. Whether … Continue reading
Posted in all wrong, public sector, purpose, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged purpose, value, waste
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How to be a Policy Expert
I’m a Policy Expert! YOU TOO can be a Policy Expert if you follow these simple steps! Step 0: DON’T follow what other Policy Experts do.Most self-proclaimed Policy Experts write up policies, they don’t change things so that policy happens. … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, public sector, purpose, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged local government, policy officer, Strategy, systems thinking
4 Comments
4 ways job interviews ruin organisations
1. They encourage people to pretend to be someone they are not “Lie to us well enough, and your in”, is the very first message a prospective employee receives. This is not a healthy way to start any type of … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, John Seddon, plausible but untrue, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged job interviews, systems thinking
9 Comments
How to get it
Has she got it? Well, has she? This is what I’ve heard people ask, if someone has got it or not. Meaning systems thinking. Of course. It’s not like getting the measles, I know that, but I’ve been puzzled for … Continue reading
Head-smashed-in buffalo jump
Yes, you read right. Head-smashed-in buffalo jump. For 6,000 years in North America the Blackfoot tribe ate, dressed and made their homes with bison that fell to their deaths at some cliffs called Head-smashed-in Buffalo jump The bison were not … Continue reading
Think Data
Here is Seth telling it how it is. “presenting information […] in a way that allows people to hear and see and think, is one of the most powerful tools available to people who’d like to make change. It’s far more … Continue reading
Posted in plausible, questions, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged sethgodin, wealth distribution
3 Comments
Welcome to Work Club!
It is your first day at work. You are wearing your interview suit, slightly nervous. You sign lots of forms, then eventually are shown to your new desk. Lying on top of your computer’s keyboard is a single sheet of … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, leadership, thinking
Tagged chris argyris, defensive culture, moral mazes, robert jackall, systems thinking
8 Comments
What goes all the way down?
Ho, ho, ho! But stop! This can be very serious indeed. Ever asked someone why something is being done, and they’ve replied by pointing to something somewhere else, some plan? They’re just turtles too! No, it doesn’t happen. But people pretend … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, leadership, public sector, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged systems thinking
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Book learning
Which one? Pick one.
Why I care about systems thinking
If I worked in a real job I mightn’t care, as I’d have the job to care about so I might never have got interested. But I don’t, so I did. My job is promoting and implementing an incorrect theory. … Continue reading
6 things Local Government gets wrong about you
1: It thinks you care most about big projects Name several things you care about your Council doing right. It might be making sure the roads aren’t full of pot-holes. Or keeping your street free of litter and graffiti. Perhaps … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, leadership, public sector, thinking
1 Comment
Goodbye ICT, you’re already dead
There was a ruckus earlier between me and ICT. There was an “engagement exercise” where they came to my floor on a specific day and time, for us to “see how they work” and for them to give us “tips … Continue reading
The curse of positivity
I don’t mind optimism. I love joy-in-work. Fun is down right enjoyable. But I can’t stand positivity. I reserve a special place in my systems thinking Hell for the use of the word “positive” to describe things approved of in … Continue reading