JGP News
A snapshot of some of our most recent work and an insight into some of our ideas on the hot topics and issues that affect the public and not for profit sectors, and how we are responding to them.
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Calls to move reliability up the civil service agenda
"High reliability" must become the goal of government departments to avoid the "failure tolerant" culture that can occur within organisations, according to David Tranfield from the National School of Government.
He told National School head of strategy, Bob MacLennan, that there was too much focus on cost reduction which lowers morale and results in organisational failures.
"In times of cost reductions, people will keep on cutting until things start to go wrong. This is an important step in removing waste, but can give a covert message that failure is part of normal working practice," Professor Tranfield said.
He pointed to the creation of "information rich environments" as a means of dealing with failings and inefficiencies.
He explained: "If alerted to the minor failure of a component in – for example – a car, it can be traced back to the individual supplier or manufacturer and corrected at source, solving not only the presenting problem but ensuring such a situation never recurs."
Some schools have implemented such a strategy, gathering a spread of information about each student over time, enabling weaknesses to be pinpointed effectively.
Professor Tranfield believes a failure free public service would serve to inspire and motivate civil servants.
