Systems Thinking in the Public Sector - The Failure of the Reform Regime and a Manifesto For a Better Way John Seddon, Triarchy Press, £20
Public management is inherently pluralist. Public services are too diverse to be crammed into any single framework. A school can be compared with a surgery, but there are manifest differences in culture, styles and expectations between them. The Forestry Commission does not do the same things as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and while hoping they share values and a public service orientation we should celebrate diverse ways of working. Let's beware managerial monotheism.
Unfortunately John Seddon wants to be a messiah. He hates targets as a way of motivating public sector workers and says some of their advocates have been dogmatic. That's true, but his book is gratingly dogmatic too, except in his case the true faith comes from the Far East, from wise Japanese car makers. A well known figure on the consulting landscape, especially in local government, Seddon is an advocate of the "lean" techniques pioneered at Toyota and of something he never quite explains, systems thinking. His plan is simple - abolish all target setting and regulation and inspection. Trust public managers to get on with it and deliver "free from the obligation of compliance". Rely on their pride in performance and abandon external controls. The problem with the book is that those propositions are baldly stated but never explicated. Can we rely on innate professionalism; what's the balance between financial and "ethical" incentives; are all workers motivated to give their best all the time?
