Simon Guilfoyle
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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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Tag Archives: systems
The Railway Children
Recently, I had the opportunity to have a look around a railway network control room. It looked a bit like this: Pretty impressive eh? What struck me was what a fantastic example of a system the railway network is. Think … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged management, performance management, systems, systems thinking
8 Comments
‘Tis Not The Season…
***Warning – if you are a small child do not read all the way to the end of this post*** Well it must be that festive time of year again as all things Christmassy are starting to appear everywhere around me. … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged binary comparisons, demand, management, systems, systems thinking, targets, variety
7 Comments
Silos
These imposing monolithic structures, silhouetted against the moody twilight sky, are silos. Actual silos. Not theoretical silos in a book about organisational structures or systems design, but vast, towering, dirty, functional, tangible silos, silently displacing thousands upon thousands of cubic metres of … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged division of labour, flow, handovers, management, silos, systems, systems thinking, variety, waste
6 Comments
The People vs The System
GRUDGE MATCH!! In the red corner: “Our people are our greatest asset”. “The people ARE the system”. In the blue corner: “94% of performance comes from the system; 6% from the people”. Which is better? There’s only one way to … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged efficiency gains, management, performance, police, systems, systems thinking
1 Comment
The Six Greatest Myths of All Time
In no particular order… 1. A London bus has been found in Antarctica. 2. Numerical targets don’t cause dysfunctional behaviour. 3. A World War Two bomber was once photographed on the moon. 4. League tables are a statistically robust method of comparing peers. … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged binary comparisons, league tables, management, systems, systems thinking, targets
2 Comments
Message From The Skies
What’s this? These strange lights were seen above my house last night. (Well, sort of…) It’s actually a photo of a lightning bolt stretching across the sky from left to right, as seen through the eyes of someone who only understands … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged binary comparisons, control charts, management, performance measurement, police, systems, systems thinking, variation
8 Comments
A System Fit For Heroes
When I was 10, my favourite TV series was ‘Cover Up’. Recently I even found the title sequence on Youtube, with its soundtrack of Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out for a Hero. Class! (I actually remember buying the 7″ single with … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged command and control, management, systems, systems thinking, targets, vietnam, war
3 Comments
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
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged assumptions, binary comparisons, control charts, data, deming, management, measures, performance management, police, priorities, purpose, systems, systems thinking, targets
31 Comments
Pull The Other One
After a couple of forays into the worlds of wildlife and motorway driving, I return briefly to the subject of food and drink, largely because once you have been afflicted with seeing everyday situations from a systems perspective, the pub … Continue reading
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged demand, efficiency gains, flow, nhs, police, pull, purpose, systems, systems thinking, variety
12 Comments
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
Posted in Systems thinking
Tagged assumptions, deming, extrinsic, intrinsic, management, motivation, performance management, police, public service, systems, systems thinking, targets
5 Comments
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