Tag Archives: assumptions

Stick Child’s Guessing Game

Stick Child and his friends sometimes play a game where they take turns to throw dice and everyone tries to guess the number that will come up. It’s an enjoyable game, but the stick children know it’s just a bit of … Continue reading

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Angry Driver

Do you know anyone with this approach to performance management? Actually, it doesn’t work.

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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

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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

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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

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Barking Up The Wrong Tree

“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

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Free Beer!

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

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Spot The Difference

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

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Oh Deer

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

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Epic Fail

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

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