Tag Archives: decision making

Freeze Frame

Watching the TV programme ‘The Force’ last night (which follows the work of officers from Greater Manchester Police), I thought of yet another analogy to help explain why binary comparisons are rubbish. (Yes, I know I go on about this, … Continue reading

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 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 , , , , | Leave a comment

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 , , , , , , | 15 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

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

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

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Is That Large?

I was in the pub yesterday evening (yeah yeah I know, you can skip the feigned surprise). As I was standing at the bar a woman next to me asked for a glass of wine. The barman responded with “Which … Continue reading

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

No Cheese, Please!

Someone recently asked me, “Why don’t you write blog posts about positive things?” I was surprised at first (and probably a bit defensive) as I think my posts are positive – after all, I don’t just go about kidney-punching management … Continue reading

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Cream or Ice Cream?

This blog post could quite easily have been called ‘Another Short Pub Tale’, or ‘A Short Pub Tale XXI- This Time It’s Personal’, or suchlike. Same pub, same(ish) subject matter; I was even drinking the same beer. This place is full of … Continue reading

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

A Short Pub Tale

Here’s a little story from the pub. It has nothing to do with policing…or does it? I was waiting at the bar in a busy local pub recently when something happened that made me think about organizational trust and frontline … Continue reading

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Choose Your Own Adventure

I make no apologies* for starting this blog with another blast from the past, this time in the form of a reference to a favourite series of books from my childhood (as well as ‘The Policeman’ of course). *As an … Continue reading

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments