Simon Guilfoyle
- @smkiess The what on your phone? 'Int-er-net'? What's that then? 9 hours ago
- @TomCLloyd @Antincam Thanks for the kind words 12 hours ago
- @smkiess You're my 2000th follower. Thanks mate, you helped me meet my arbitrary numerical target for followers! 12 hours ago
- @christerhedlund @haselour @SysThinkReview Fantastic. Nice one mate. 12 hours ago
- RT @TomCLloyd: @antincam Well worth following for insights into performance mgt. + dangers of targets @SimonJGuilfoyle Read this http://t.c… 13 hours ago
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Recent Posts
- Ant Death Circle
- Dial ‘F’ For Failure
- My Name is Bill King
- Finding the Source
- Panic!
- Ministry of Silly Systems
- One Thing Leads To Another
- Play Your Cards Right
- Do Something Different
- This Time Last Year
- Must Try Harder
- A System Fit For Heroes
- Barking Up The Wrong Tree
- Free Beer!
- On Purpose
- The Bells! The Bells!
- Spot The Difference
- Get Back! Stay Back!
- Pull The Other One
- Oh Deer
- Life in the Fast Lane
- Epic Fail
- Great Expectations
- Equally Wrong
- Troubled Thinking
- Poo-Pooing Performance Indicators
- Toilet Humour
- (Not So) Bad Performance Measurement On Tour (#3)
- Would You Like Sub-Optimization With That?
- Bad Performance Measurement on Tour (#2)
- Bad Performance Measurement on Tour (#1)
- How To Lose Weight With Systems Thinking
- Is That Large?
- Would You Sit Next To Me?
- No Cheese, Please!
- Please Take A Ticket
- Water on the Brain
- Check It Out
- Left Hand, Right Hand
- Potted!
- Cream or Ice Cream?
- A Short Pub Tale
- Divide And Don’t Conquer
- Pie In The Sky
- Binary Finary
- Watch Your Waste
- The Perfect Target
- “What’s Your Favourite Cheese?”
- Choose Your Own Adventure
- Stay Calm And Don’t Knee-Jerk.
Blog Stats
- 58,377 hits
Category Archives: Systems thinking
Ant Death Circle
On the train to work this morning, a friend told me about a fascinating phenomenon known as the ’Ant Death Circle’ (also called the ‘Ant Death Spiral’ or ‘Ant Mill’). What happens is that ants sometimes lose the pheromone track laid down for … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged command and control, management, performance, performance management, short blog, systems thinking
1 Comment
Dial ‘F’ For Failure
The NHS recently launched its non-emergency 111 number. Staffed by ‘a team of fully trained advisers’, the scheme’s aim is to quickly and accurately identify the most appropriate medical response to the caller’s needs. What’s important to note is that … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged blame, demand, division of labour, management, nhs, risk aversion, systems thinking, variety
5 Comments
My Name is Bill King
‘Bilking’ (also known as ‘making off without payment’) was an offence under the Theft Act 1978. The most common forms include running off from a taxi without paying the fare, running off from a restaurant without paying for your dinner, … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged assumptions, management, policy, risk management, systems thinking
2 Comments
Finding the Source
As I go about my formal and informal research into the effects of target-driven performance management, I regularly have conversations with people at all levels of organisations. One thing I’ve found is that the people at the very top of … Continue reading
Panic!
There’s… “Panic on the streets of London! Panic on the streets of Birmingham!” So says the song of the same title by UK band The Smiths, anyway. The true story that follows (yes, I’ve caved in to popular demand and … Continue reading
Ministry of Silly Systems
Recently, I had cause to write to a Government department to ask a question. I knew my query was in good hands as soon as I received an automated reply advising me of their service level agreement for replying to … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged demand, flow, purpose, systems thinking, targets, variety, waste
8 Comments
One Thing Leads To Another
Being as I know you love my artwork, I thought I’d treat you to this pictorial representation of a particularly nasty little cycle that is behind a lot of serious organisational failures. Look at the sort of stuff that starts … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged blame, command and control, cover your back, criticism, management, nhs, performance management, short blog post, systems thinking, targets
11 Comments
Play Your Cards Right
Remember the classic TV game show ‘Play Your Cards Right’? (Showing my age now). If not, then the basic premise was to predict whether each card in a row was higher or lower than the previous one. If the contestant … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged binary comparisons, performance measurement, prediction, systems thinking, targets, variation
5 Comments
Do Something Different
I recently came across this blog post by Bernard Rix, the Acting Chief Executive of the Confederation of Police and Crime Commissioners (CoPaCC). Bernard has been thematically analysing the draft Police and Crime Plans that Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are … Continue reading
This Time Last Year
Question: What have these four things got in common? 1. Choosing a random number generated by a lottery machine. 2. Reading tea leaves. 3. Blindfolding yourself and sticking a pin in a board. 4. Tossing a coin. Answer: They’re all better methods of … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged binary comparisons, control charts, management, performance management, systems thinking, variation
8 Comments
