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Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity
book

Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity

by Michael C. Jackson
April 2019
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
728 pages
28h 12m
English
Wiley
Content preview from Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity

10 The Vanguard Method

The Vanguard approach to systems thinking is a methodology for change and improvement that engages the organisation. Any change is based on an understanding of demand from an “outside‐in” or customer perspective, identification of the value work, adoption of relevant measures and then designing out the waste within key processes. People who do the work must be engaged in these activities. The results: better service, reduced costs and improved morale

(Seddon 2005, p. 179)

10.1 Prologue

In 2006, the housing department of Portsmouth City Council owned and was responsible for the management of over 17 000 tenanted and leasehold properties in which around 51 000 people lived (O'Donovan and Zokaei 2011). The department's operational budget was £80 million and it delivered its services through a directly employed staff of approximately 600 and a variety of private sector contractors. The housing service was meeting the Council's own Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the Audit Commission rated it highly. Despite these favorable results, the Head of Housing Management, Owen Buckwell, was constantly having his ears burned by councilors whose surgeries were full of residents complaining of poor service. Buckwell decided to find out what was really going on and began by applying Seddon's Vanguard Method (VM) to “reactive repairs,” where residents were complaining of having to wait for ages to get repairs completed satisfactorily (see O'Donovan and ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781119118374Purchase book