Simon Guilfoyle
- @JSHKT20 @grahamwettone @CarolinejGoode @SirIanBlair @remmy_308 Indeed, and well documented too - Irene Curtis's Re… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago
- @SirIanBlair @JSHKT20 @grahamwettone @CarolinejGoode @remmy_308 I might have to fetch the #StickPeople out again so… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago
- @JSHKT20 @grahamwettone @CarolinejGoode @SirIanBlair @remmy_308 Someone once warned that arbitrary numerical target… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago
- @MPS_n_P That was the easy section! 😆 3 days ago
- https://t.co/s8FVIqOAZy 3 days ago
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Recent Posts
- Where Are The Stick People?
- The Professionals
- Chain Reaction
- Freeze Frame
- Short Circuit
- Maths Class
- Detox
- Comfort Blanket
- The Wrong Conversation
- Avoidable Harm
- A Tale of Two Kings
- Stick Child and The Fraggles
- Top of the Table
- It’s Criminal
- Find The Treasure
- The Real Thing
- Stick Child’s Kitchen Nightmares
- Method in the Madness?
- Leadership is Not Enough
- A Better Way
- Nonsense
- Face the Facts
- Three Different Things
- DO NOT USE!
- Why Binary Comparisons are Really Silly
- Weak Excuses for Using Binary Comparisons
- Get Help Now!
- Incontrovertible Evidence
- The Weather Man
- Stick Child’s Guessing Game
- Straight Lines
- Stick Child Tries to Buy Milk
- Stick Child’s Guide to Systems Thinking
- Stick Child’s School Project
- Stick Child and the Flat Tyre
- Understanding Targets (For the Under 10s)
- Why ‘Year-To-Date’ is Rubbish
- The Tunnel
- The Railway Children
- Angry Driver
- Take The Targets Test!
- How To Win Any Argument
- My Trip to America – A Systems Thinker’s Diary
- Right Measures, Measured Right
- ‘Tis Not The Season…
- Silos
- The People vs The System
- The Six Greatest Myths of All Time
- How To Spoil A Perfectly Good Car
- What’s Your Poison?
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Category Archives: Systems thinking
A Tale of Two Kings
At bedtime, Stick Child’s Daddy often reads his son a story from his favourite story book, “Medieval Stories from Stick Kingdom with an Inevitable Systems Thinking Moral”. One recent story they particularly enjoyed was called “A Tale of Two Kings”, which … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged command and control, management, organisational trust, Stick Child, systems thinking
2 Comments
Stick Child and The Fraggles
Recently, Stick Child was watching the television channel ‘Stick Gold’, when he came across an episode of the 1980s children’s show, Fraggle Rock. If you’re about the same age as Stick Child’s Daddy, you may well remember it too. Fraggle … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged decision making, management, performance management, Stick Child, systems thinking
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Top of the Table
When the Chair of the House of Commons Education Committee asked Michael Gove (Secretary of State of Education at the time) about comparative performance measurement between schools, this happened: Chair: If “good” requires pupil performance to exceed the national average, and … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged command and control, league tables, performance management, Stick Child, variation
3 Comments
It’s Criminal
I’ve been meaning to get around to writing about the issue of using crime figures as an indicator of police performance for a while now. Aside from the risk of mis-recording crime due to target-driven performance management, I believe there … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged crime, decision making, measures, performance management, police, Stick Child, systems thinking
15 Comments
Find The Treasure
“It’s just the starting point for asking questions”. That’s what I often hear people say about this sort of thing. (Look at all the pretty colours). Well, it’s not. And the questions are usually the wrong questions, asked of the … Continue reading
The Real Thing
Have a look at these three handguns… (Glock 17s to be precise): One is real. One fires plastic balls. One fires blanks. Which is which though? Can you tell which is the real one? Even upon handling them in real … Continue reading
Stick Child’s Kitchen Nightmares
One evening Stick Child was awake a bit later than usual and saw part of a programme about a TV chef who goes into failing restaurants and helps them get back on track. Being as Stick Child is only 9 … Continue reading
Method in the Madness?
Deming was fond of saying, “By what method?” In other words, if you want to see performance improvements you need to have an actual method for achieving them. This means understanding the system and improving system conditions to help the workers … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged demand, deming, performance management, performance measurement, police, Stick Child, systems thinking, targets
3 Comments
Leadership is Not Enough
Much is made of the importance of leadership, and I don’t disagree. However, what’s often overlooked is the importance of system conditions. Deming talked about this when he pointed out most troubles and possibilities for improvement come from the system. Think … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged deming, management, performance management, Stick Child, systems thinking
6 Comments
A Better Way
One day during the school holidays, Stick Child’s daddy took him to an outdoor adventure park, where people climb through the trees using various ropes, nets, rickety bridges, zip wires and other things. Stick Child’s daddy thought he’d be pretty … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged binary comparisons, league tables, performance management, Stick Child, systems thinking, targets
2 Comments
InspGuilfoyle 