Simon Caulkin’s management column in the Observer is usually worth a read. This week he is talking about a new book by John Seddon, “Freedom from Command and Control” – I talked about some of Seddon’s work in an earlier post, “Failure demand”.
In his assault on the command and control style of management Seddon is particularly scornful of what top management chooses to measure as a means of control. As Caulkin says, “Instead of being controlled by measures, people need measures and methods that allow them to control and improve the work. In this way people, and only people, can absorb variety. And the results can be spectacular: capacity rises as waste is removed. Cost falls. Better service is cheaper; not dearer.”
Seddon suggests that:
“There are three tests of whether the measuring stick you are using to assess performance is a good one:
? Does it help in understanding and improving performance?
? Does it relate to its purpose, as established by the customer?
? Is it integrated with work (that is, in the hands of those who do it)?”
He goes on to argue that most managerial targets, standards, service levels, activity measures and budgets failure to meet these criteria. Certainly I have seen some excellent organisation have all the quality, in the commonly accepted, as opposed to managerial, use of the term, sucked out them by the imposition by senior management of “quality” standards and processes.