Black Country news and blogs Monday 19 June 2017
Inspector Guilfoyle
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Where Are The Stick People? 
Inspector Guilfoyle 29 Jul 16
It’s been quite a few months since I last published a blog post and I’m often asked what’s happened to Stick Child and his friends.
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The Professionals
Inspector Guilfoyle 22 Nov 15
Imagine a police force that handed out firearms to its officers without training them.
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Chain Reaction
Inspector Guilfoyle 14 Oct 15
No, nothing to do with an old Diana Ross track, but the title of a presentation I gave at the UK’s first ever TEDx policing event in Leeds yesterday – #OldBillRebuilt, ably organised by Gareth Stubbs.
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Freeze Frame
Inspector Guilfoyle 11 Sep 15
Watching the TV programme ‘The Force’ last night (which follows the work of officers from Greater Manchester Police), I thought of yet another analogy to help explain why binary comparisons are rubbish.
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Short Circuit
Inspector Guilfoyle 10 May 15
This is Stick Boss.
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Maths Class
Inspector Guilfoyle 4 May 15
Here’s Stick Teacher.
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Detox
Inspector Guilfoyle 25 Apr 15
Whilst flicking through TV channels recently, I came across a consumer advice programme, where the reporter was researching the effectiveness of self-administered ‘detox’ products.
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Comfort Blanket
Inspector Guilfoyle 17 Apr 15
When Stick Child was a bit younger, he had a little comfort blanket.
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The Wrong Conversation
Inspector Guilfoyle 28 Mar 15
Stick Child has been getting increasingly irritated by the slack methods some adults use to present information about really important stuff, such as how long it takes for patients to be seen in Accident and Emergency (AE) departments.
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Avoidable Harm
Inspector Guilfoyle 6 Dec 14
I recently had a conversation on Twitter about a national campaign called ‘Sign up to Safety’, which aims to reduce avoidable harm in the NHS.
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A Tale of Two Kings
Inspector Guilfoyle 16 Nov 14
At bedtime, Stick Child’s Daddy often reads his son a story from his favourite story book, “Medieval Stories from Stick Kingdom with an Inevitable Systems Thinking Moral”.
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Stick Child and The Fraggles
Inspector Guilfoyle 12 Nov 14
Recently, Stick Child was watching the television channel ‘Stick Gold’, when he came across an episode of the 1980s children’s show, Fraggle Rock .
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Top of the Table
Inspector Guilfoyle 27 Oct 14
When the Chair of the House of Commons Education Committee asked Michael Gove (Secretary of State of Education at the time) about comparative performance measurement between schools, this happened:
Chair: If “good” requires pupil…
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It’s Criminal
Inspector Guilfoyle 10 Oct 14
I’ve been meaning to get around to writing about the issue of using crime figures as an indicator of police performance for a while now.
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Find The Treasure
Inspector Guilfoyle 27 Sep 14
“It’s just the starting point for asking questions”.
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The Real Thing
Inspector Guilfoyle 26 Sep 14
Have a look at these three handguns… (Glock 17s to be precise): One is real.
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Stick Child’s Kitchen Nightmares
Inspector Guilfoyle 19 Sep 14
One evening Stick Child was awake a bit later than usual and saw part of a programme about a TV chef who goes into failing restaurants and helps them get back on track.
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Method in the Madness?
Inspector Guilfoyle 9 Sep 14
Deming was fond of saying, “By what method?”
In other words, if you want to see performance improvements you need to have an actual method for achieving them.
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Leadership is Not Enough
Inspector Guilfoyle 6 Sep 14
Much is made of the importance of leadership, and I don’t disagree.
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A Better Way
Inspector Guilfoyle 28 Aug 14
One day during the school holidays, Stick Child’s daddy took him to an outdoor adventure park, where people climb through the trees using various ropes, nets, rickety bridges, zip wires and other things.
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Nonsense
Inspector Guilfoyle 16 Aug 14
If you use this…
“Total recorded crime this month (2,325 offences) shows an increase of 64 offences compared to last month (+2.8%), and an increase of 97 offences compared to the same period last year (+4.4%).
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Face the Facts
Inspector Guilfoyle 11 Aug 14
We like actual evidence, don’t we? Then don’t be like the guy on the right…
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Three Different Things
Inspector Guilfoyle 7 Jun 14
I almost called this blog post ‘Spot the Difference 2′ because it follows on from this old post.
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DO NOT USE!
Inspector Guilfoyle 22 May 14
Remember all that recent Incontrovertible Evidence suggesting targets cause dysfunctional behaviour in policing? (Yes, I can feel your shock and surprise).
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Why Binary Comparisons are Really Silly
Inspector Guilfoyle 5 May 14
Imagine having a rich resource of useful information at your fingertips, but then deliberately ignoring most of it for no logical reason whatsoever… No, I don’t understand either.
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Weak Excuses for Using Binary Comparisons
Inspector Guilfoyle 2 May 14
Due to the popularity of my last ‘poster’ blog, here’s another… You can download a pdf of the poster here: Weak excuses for using binary comparisons .
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Get Help Now!
Inspector Guilfoyle 11 Apr 14
After all the heavy news coverage of recent days about the adverse impact of numerical targets within policing (e.
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Incontrovertible Evidence
Inspector Guilfoyle 9 Apr 14
Today, on the 9th April 2014, the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) published their report into allegations of police mis-recording of crime statistics.
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Stick Child says…
Inspector Guilfoyle 28 Mar 14
Today, the 28th March 2014, is the first anniversary of the publication of my book, Intelligent Policing .
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The Weather Man
Inspector Guilfoyle 20 Mar 14
Sometimes when Stick Child and his friends are out playing, they see an old man walking his dog.
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Stick Child’s Guessing Game
Inspector Guilfoyle 22 Feb 14
Stick Child and his friends sometimes play a game where they take turns to throw dice and everyone tries to guess the number that will come up.
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Straight Lines
Inspector Guilfoyle 19 Feb 14
The other day, Stick Child was playing with his next-door neighbour, Stick Friend.
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Stick Child Tries to Buy Milk
Inspector Guilfoyle 3 Feb 14
Stick Child is a healthy little chappie and he loves a nice cold drink of milk at break time.
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Stick Child’s Guide to Systems Thinking
Inspector Guilfoyle 1 Feb 14
“What is systems thinking?”
This is a question I’ve heard quite a lot recently.
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Stick Child’s School Project
Inspector Guilfoyle 23 Jan 14
Over the last few weeks, our little friend Stick Child has been doing a really interesting school project about a thing called variation .
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Stick Child and the Flat Tyre
Inspector Guilfoyle 19 Jan 14
Here’s the problem – you have a flat tyre! So, let’s look at a couple of options for resolving this issue…
Option 1
One approach might be to inflate the tyre, then check the air pressure on a regular basis to see if…
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Understanding Targets (For the Under 10s)
Inspector Guilfoyle 16 Jan 14
This is Stick Child.
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Why ‘Year-To-Date’ is Rubbish
Inspector Guilfoyle 5 Jan 14
‘Year-to-date’ figures are often used in performance frameworks, both in the public and private sectors.
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The Tunnel
Inspector Guilfoyle 31 Dec 13
A teacher once angrily called me one of “the three most stupidest boys in the school”.
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The Railway Children
Inspector Guilfoyle 21 Dec 13
Recently, I had the opportunity to have a look around a railway network control room.
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Angry Driver
Inspector Guilfoyle 29 Nov 13
Do you anyone with this approach to performance management? Actually, it doesn’t work.
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Take The Targets Test!
Inspector Guilfoyle 15 Nov 13
Quiz time! Have a go at the challenge below.
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How To Win Any Argument
Inspector Guilfoyle 7 Nov 13
There is a technique which some people seem to think is capable of winning any argument – even when faced with a compelling and well-evidenced line of reasoning.
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My Trip to America – A Systems Thinker’s Diary
Inspector Guilfoyle 1 Nov 13
I’ve just got back from America, and because I don’t have the ability to switch off the systems thinking part of my brain, I kept noticing ‘systemsy’ stuff whilst I was there, so I thought I’d share a few observations …
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Right Measures, Measured Right
Inspector Guilfoyle 12 Oct 13
…is a phrase I often use when talking about measuring stuff in performance systems.
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‘Tis Not The Season…
Inspector Guilfoyle 22 Sep 13
***Warning – if you are a small child do not read all the way to the end of this post***
Well it must be that festive time of year again as all things Christmassy are starting to appear everywhere around me.
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Silos
Inspector Guilfoyle 25 Aug 13
These imposing monolithic structures, silhouetted against the moody twilight sky, are silos.
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The People vs The System
Inspector Guilfoyle 15 Aug 13
GRUDGE MATCH!!
In the red corner:
“Our people are our greatest asset”.
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The Six Greatest Myths of All Time
Inspector Guilfoyle 9 Aug 13
In no particular order… 1.
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How To Spoil A Perfectly Good Car
Inspector Guilfoyle 8 Aug 13
This beast is the legendary Scoobmeister.