Targets for ASB Cases

15/07/2009 12:00 pm

None of the experts want to advise Peter on the dangers of targets and why setting them is a bad idea?

None of the experts want to point out that numbers of cases will give the governance board no useful information whatsoever? In fact it may lead it to do the wrong thing?

21/07/2009 10:11 am

Oh no, please don’t mention ‘systems thinking’. I’ll pull my hair out if I hear that phrase one more time. lol Yes, I’ve read the article you cite and the system you refer to where tenants and residents had direct contact with offices was widely and popularly in use 10/15 years ago. Then though it was common sense: you pick a phone up and speak to an officer who had their ear to the ground about happened on estates instead of speaking to someone in one of these daft ‘one-stop-shops’ where receptionists don’t have a clue what you are talking about. Thing is though, the great and good back then changed that very pragmatic way in which anti-social behaviour officers (they were housing officers previously, by the way) understood what tenants wanted, and came up with today’s newer “systems” that were trumpeted as INNOVATIVE. Remember that phrase too. Blimey, so these systems thinking you refer to being used by Hounslow Homes are actually nothing more than what was used a decade-and-half, and, remarkably, it too is heralded as something innovative. You couldn’t make this up could you!

21/07/2009 11:52 am

Hang on a minute; now let me get this right. Picking a phone and speaking to an anti-social behaviour officer directly is about as sophisticated as making a cup of tea. There is nothing to be learned. And to call it ‘systems thinking’ is just absolutely barmy.

21/07/2009 12:40 pm

Nooooooo there are no experts. It’s like what’s-her-name the other week when she was speaking of ‘housing professionals’. Doctors and solicitors are professionals, not folk walking around estates telling tenants to tidy their front gardens up. Housing professionals and experts is all part of this gigantic-ism mentally that bigs things up beyond all reality.

21/07/2009 6:38 pm

I'm struggling to see what the fuss is about too. 90% of people working for an RSL can tell you that all of these processes and targets don't work. We could also tell you that our tenants generally hate us and that there is nothing we can do to stop that, given what we have to work with.

As Alan says, 'systems thinking' appears to be about applying a little intelligence to how you deal with something, rather than just setting something up to log KPIs and send a report back to the board. That's great, but why the stupid name?

Having said that, if using a silly name is what it takes to make senior managers and policy makers see sense, put people back on the front line and stop ignoring the fact that their performance statistics aren't leading to improved customer service, I will happily say 'systems thinking' every day for the rest of my life.

As for the original question, measure it the first year. Aim to improve on it the next.

22/07/2009 8:36 am

Thanks for the caution Joe.

I would like to dip into this one if I may.

There is much more to Systems Thinking than speaking to residents face-to-face. The fact that in systems thinking interventions the outcome is satisfied service users, happy staff and hugely increased quality at massively reduced cost was enough to interest me to investigate further.

When I looked into it at more depth, what had seemed common sense had much more texture, richness and depth. In fact it so engaged my interest that I changed my profession to learn more about it. I haven't been disappointed once yet.

22/07/2009 9:55 am

Are you one of the experts?

Lacking in any knowledge whatsoever, facts or even having investigated anything at all you will dismiss it at a moments notice. even if it is working.

22/07/2009 10:30 am

How would you know if it was common sense dressed up as something different? You don't know anything about it.

22/07/2009 10:41 am

I am not being pedantic for the fun of it.

How would you know if systems thinking merely goes back to what used to happen before? My understanding is that systems thinking DOESN'T just go back to what happened before. It sees things as a whole, and there is quite a bit of method behind it.

I don't know all the ins and outs but i know that. As for people in the front line being able to tell directors that it was a dumb idea. I don't know about that. some of the ideas that have happened over the last couple of decades have sounded pretty reasonable on the face of it.

Look I am not being difficult on purpose but i think that there is a real point at issue here.

22/07/2009 11:18 am

I am not saying 'systems thinking' means 'going back to what you did before' per se, but it is certainly the case in the Hounslow Homes example. Throughout my career, and the history of business, people have constantly vascillated between two approaches to most problems, finding that each didn't work as they'd hoped so going back to the other.