The Squawk Point

Organisational Mechanics

  • Home
  • Blog
    • People
    • Data
    • Process
    • Wild Cards
    • Index
  • Podcast
  • Book

Cigarettes and Alcohol

10 May, 2019 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Prohibition Noun: The act of forbidding something, especially by law In 1919 the US government attempted to reduce levels of alcohol consumption.  They passed legislation that prohibited its production, transportation and sale.  The ban was almost complete, bar a few exceptions for religious and medical use.  During the 1920’s the U.S government spent about $220m […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: compliance, culture, human nature, management style, motivation, political intervention, reinforcing behaviour

A Culture of Fear, Intimidation and Retaliation

21 September, 2017 by James Lawther 8 Comments

Nervous Teacher

The scandal In 2011, a state report to the Governor’s office in Georgia claimed that there was “organised and systemic misconduct” in 44 of Atlanta’s 56 schools.  2 years later 35 teachers, head teachers and administrative staff were brought to trial and charged with racketeering and other offences. The smoking gun The accusations revolved around […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: command and control, conformity, data is not information, fear and anxiety, Goodhart's law, key performance indicators, performance management, political intervention, poor service, targets

Is £500 a Lot of Money?

13 August, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

The BBC has reported that the  Department for Communities and Local Government is publishing all spending over £500.  It states that last year the department spent £310k on catering. That sounds like a big number until you look at the graph that is also published. Personally I would be a little more worried about the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: bureaucracy, cost saving, local government, political intervention

Have You Heard The News?

12 August, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

I read a Hodding Carter quote today: “Television news is like a lightning flash. It makes a loud noise, lights up everything around it, leaves everything else in darkness and then is suddenly gone.” Politicians manage to the news, think about the recent furore over bonus payments to bankers. I wish they would worry a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: bureaucracy, Hodding Carter, political intervention, purpose

Tony Hayward

12 July, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Has been sacked.  (With a year’s salary and a pension of £600,000 p.a. BP are welcome to sack me as well). Does sacking Tony help clear up the mess in the Gulf? I imagine he knows more about it than most people and I guess he is a capable person, you don’t get to run […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: fessing up, political intervention, supply and demand, video

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Explore

accountability assumptions beliefs best practice blame bureaucracy capability clarity command and control communication complexity continuous improvement cost saving culture customer focus data is not information decisions employee performance measures empowerment error proofing fessing up gemba human nature incentives information technology innovation key performance indicators learning management style measurement motivation performance management poor service process control purpose reinforcing behaviour service design silo management systems thinking targets teamwork test and learn trust video waste

Receive Posts by e-Mail

Get the next post delivered straight to your inbox

Creative Commons

This information from The Squawk Point is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Creative Commons Licence
Customer Experience Update

Try This:

  • Regression to The Mean

  • Glory Lasts Forever

  • Fish Bone Diagrams – Helpful or Not?

  • Should You Punish Mistakes?

Connect

  • E-mail
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • YouTube
  • Cookies
  • Contact Me

Copyright © 2025 · Enterprise Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in