29 June 2010

It’s Red Beads Time, Willing Workers Unite: Why most management information is rubbish and what you can do to make it better

Paul Hollingworth, 4GM Consulting

For our second meeting in the North East, Prof. Paul Hollingworth took us through some of the common misconceptions surrounding the effective use of KPIs and how to use data to deliver continuous improvement.  This included an opportunity to experience Dr Deming’s famous and profound ‘experiment with red beads’.  No lab coats or electric shocks were involved. But that’s not to say participants weren’t shocked by what they learned. The method teaches some basic understanding of statistical thinking and clarifies why so many common management practices such as targets, quotas and league tables are ill-founded.

The Speaker

Based in York, Paul Hollingworth is an Organisational Development specialist who has worked for over 30 years in the business of performance improvement.  A skilled communicator with an international reputation as a systems thinker, Paul has that rare ability to make ‘difficult’ concepts easy to understand. Since founding 4GM Consulting in 1992 he has helped hundreds of organisations to achieve more with less.

Resources

You can download a copy of Paul’s slides from the session.

What participants said…

“Great day, well worth the early get up and drive.”

“Paul Hollingworth was a real thought provoking speaker.”

“While I found Paul very engaging the presentation focused more upon SPC than anticipated. I expected it would be more rounded, KPI-based. Also, I thought the red bead experiment (whilst interesting) took too large a proportion of the time.”

“The room was scorchio. Otherwise the event was great, thanks.”