Review: Systems Thinking in the Public Sector: The Failure of the Reform Regime and a Manifesto for a Better Way John Seddon Triarchy Press; 2008; pp 216; £20, pbk ISBN: 978—0—95500—818—4
| Author | Len Cheston |
| DOI | 10.1177/02645505090560010402 |
| Date | 01 March 2009 |
| Published date | 01 March 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
80 Probation Journal 56(1)
Systems Thinking in the Public
Sector: The Failure of the
Reform Regime and a
Manifesto for a Better Way
John Seddon
Triarchy Press; 2008; pp 216; £20, pbk
ISBN: 978–0–95500–818–4
For me, this book provided a rare experience. It is unusual
to come across a book that is so insightful that I have
been able to use the learning on a daily basis. The author
is Managing Director of Vanguard Ltd, a management consultancy agency and
Visiting Professor at Cardiff University.
The author, John Seddon, argues that bureaucracy and red tape have driven
the UK Public Sector in the wrong direction. Services have been developed that
meet targets but provide a poor service to users. He argues that a regime that is
obsessed with audits and inspections, back office functions, call centres, so-called
choice, targets, vision and leadership, activity-based costing, and benchmarking
and specification design, provides a very poor service to service users, many of
whom are drawn from the poorer sections of society and unlikely to vociferously
complain. The book does not look directly at the prisons and probation world but
many staff will be familiar with the language used and will have experienced some
of the methods highlighted in the chapters.
The opening chapter offers an excellent analysis of why the current Labour
government has driven forward this ideology. In Chapter 8 the author looks directly
at the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, which has driven forward this agenda with
a focus on the police. The other chapters use a range of case examples and dis-
cussion to illustrate and reinforce the main arguments. These include chapters on
the Police, Trading Standards, Adult Social Care, Housing Benefit and Supporting
People. Seddon provides some interesting insights. I particularly liked his de-
construction of the prisoners’ dilemma game that I had experienced on manage-
ment training. The game is based on a two prisoners who are given a choice to
confess and go free...
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