Tag Archives: deming

Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Posted on March 1, 2013 by InspGuilfoyle

“The system must be held to account!” How often do you hear that in the wake of the latest scandal? Not that often. Usually, it’s “People must be held to account! / Who is responsible? / This must never happen … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged assumptions, blame, command and control, deming, education, error management, management, nhs, organisational culture, performance management, police, risk management, systems thinking | 12 Comments

Free Beer!

Posted on February 23, 2013 by InspGuilfoyle

Right, hopefully the title will have drawn you in (I’ve fallen for it myself three times whilst writing this blog post). If you stay to the end you’ll see the reason for it anyway. Unfortunately this time I’m not going … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged assumptions, deming, management, performance management, systems thinking | 14 Comments

Spot The Difference

Posted on January 31, 2013 by InspGuilfoyle

Sometimes when I say this… …people hear this: Not being able to differentiate between targets, measures and priorities is a deadly obstacle to effective performance. Let me explain why… Targets First of all, if you’ve ever met me, heard me … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged assumptions, binary comparisons, control charts, data, deming, management, measures, performance management, police, priorities, purpose, systems, systems thinking, targets | 25 Comments

Oh Deer

Posted on January 7, 2013 by InspGuilfoyle

In the film ‘Stand by Me’ (which I saw again yesterday, for the first time in years), there’s a scene where a young lad out camping with his friends sees a deer early one morning. I won’t spoil the storyline, … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged assumptions, deming, extrinsic, intrinsic, management, motivation, performance management, police, public service, systems, systems thinking, targets | 5 Comments

Epic Fail

Posted on December 19, 2012 by InspGuilfoyle

Yesterday, I saw this headline in a newspaper: “£136million spent by customers waiting to get through to HM Revenue and Customs”. The article bemoaned the amount of time that HMRC customers were left on hold (if they got through at … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged assumptions, demand, deming, division of labour, failure demand, flow, management, systems, systems thinking, tax, variation, waste | 5 Comments

Troubled Thinking

Posted on November 23, 2012 by InspGuilfoyle

Well, the ridiculous examples of bad performance measurement keep flooding in. I’ve lost count of whether we should be on Episode 5 or 6 by this point, so I’ll just stick to new titles from now on. This time, I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged deming, education, gaming, health, incentives, management, outcomes, payment by results, PbR, performance management, society, systems, systems thinking, targets, unemployment | 8 Comments

Poo-Pooing Performance Indicators

Posted on November 22, 2012 by InspGuilfoyle

At the beginning of the ‘Bad Performance Measurement On Tour’ series I issued a call-to-arms for eagle-eyed readers, asking them to send me their examples of bad performance measurement. Twitter user @Wiggies13 responded to this rallying cry and sent me the … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged charts, data, deming, operational definition, performance measurement, policy, systems thinking, targets | 8 Comments

Bad Performance Measurement on Tour (#2)

Posted on October 20, 2012 by InspGuilfoyle

Just one day after Episode One of this tragedy series, one of my faithful readers told me about a target so ridiculous that it would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. During a hospital training session, those attending were … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged deming, nhs, performance, performance management, police, systems, systems thinking, targets, variation | 7 Comments

Bad Performance Measurement on Tour (#1)

Posted on October 18, 2012 by InspGuilfoyle

A friend at work told me that whilst giving blood recently, he noticed there were performance indicators on a nearby board showing the number of blood donations, in the dreaded ‘this week vs last week’ format. Nothing’s sacred, is it? Anyway, this … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged binary comparisons, control charts, data, deming, management, performance measurement, systems, systems thinking, targets, variation | 8 Comments

Potted!

Posted on May 14, 2012 by InspGuilfoyle

These beauties are my baby chilli plants, grown from seeds I cut out of chillies during my Mexican cooking efforts a few weeks ago. As you can see, they are only about an inch high at the moment, but if they … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged blame, command and control, criticism, deming, inspection, management, organisational trust, policy, systems, systems thinking | 3 Comments