'Potholes'

Members and their guests were entertained to a stimulating talk from John Seddon on September 2nd entitled “The Failure of Public Sector Reform” but there were lessons for all managers not just those from government.  John, a psychologist by profession, spoke from considerable experience of seeing cost reduction projects going very wrong.

 

He argued passionately against a culture of meaningless targets, highly standardised working practises and generally treating front line staff like machines rather than as thinking feeling people.  He urges leaders to seek a clear understanding of demand by management getting down to the ‘shop floor’ and really understanding what is going on if we want to improve service and reduce cost, an exciting prospect.

 

John gave one example of modern management gone mad when applied to repairing potholes.  He talked of UK council that established a special task force to evaluate potholes and paint with a different colour depending on the seriousness of the hole. Teams were then tasked with completing the repair of high priority holes according to detailed instructions as to how to do this, low priority but adjacent holes obviously could not be filled.  Hole filling targets were set and regular reports prepared. Of course staff also had meetings about whole evaluation methods.  John asked why not just get a team to repair the holes road by road and give them the tools and discretion to get on with it? This is the sort of madness many of us have experienced and perhaps contributed to.

 

For those who missed this thought provoking talk it sounds like John’s book “System Thinking in the Public Sector - The failure of the reform regime and a manifesto for a better way” will be a very timely and interesting read.

 

Retail & Supply Committee