RE: TARGET SETTING

[Farey Bob <Bob.Farey@metronetbcv.com>]

Targets are often local / parochial and set one department against another.

People find all sorts of devious ways to meet / cheat targets (stockpiling
hidden inventory for a rainy day).

Targets are only aspirational unless they are break even / stay in business
numbers.

The way things are measured are changed to "meet" targets.

Do the wrong thing to meet the target (send people with chest pains to see a
gynaecologist but within the target time to see a consultant)

Any argument would include people using all their ingenuity to defeat
imposed targets are not using all their ingenuity to satisfy customers. Also
discuss how most organisations do not measure performance properly, and have
no idea what capability is, or what the theory of variation is. Talk to John
Seddon and see if he will let you quote his work, where targets were
abandoned and then performance quickly leapt to undreamed of levels well
above the old targets - obviously the systems approach. Ask to remove
targets from one small part of a business and then use systems approach /
standard improvement tools. Finally ask them why performance remains poor
even after years and years of target setting.

BOB FAREY