Beyond Command and Control

I stumbled upon John Seddon’s website, The Vanguard Method, a few years ago. At the time, I read every page, post, and short tutorial in one sitting. I followed that binge-reading with his book, Beyond Command and Control, which is the topic for this episode. John teaches us about failure demand, break-fix systems, the destructive nature of arbitrary targets, and budget management. We also gain greater insights into outside-in thinking through a systems mindset.

Interview Highlights

• “The curious person goes and finds out more about themselves.”
• “Mankind invented management. We can change it, so let’s change it for the better.”
• Thinking differently as an occupational psychologist.
• Inspiration from Deming and Out of the Crisis.
• What’s worse, commanding or controlling inside the organization?
• The opposite of command and control.
• Failure demand – a definition and an example.
• The use and role of targets.
• Incentives and profit sharing.
• The 3Cs of a cost mindset.
• Mental models and their impact on benchmarking.
• What is industrial tourism?

Books Mentioned

1. Out of the Crisis – Deming
2. Beyond Budgeting – Hope and Fraser
3. The Fifth Discipline – Senge
4. Punished by Rewards – Kohn
5. Any book by Russell L. Ackoff

Important Links

1. Vanguard Consulting website
2. The Vanguard Method YouTube channel
3. The first video Mark watched about The Vanguard Method
4. Twitter