An interview with John Seddon, managing director of Vanguard, about his new book, Beyond Command and Control.
John Seddon on Agile, the most dysfunctional management fad there is
John Seddon on Agile, the most dysfunctional management fad there is
Author: vanguard-method
Announcing our latest book
We delighted to tell you that Beyond Command and Control will be published in September. As well as covering familiar ground in an unfamiliar way this book says more about the ‘how’ of change and the need for whole-system change in our service organisations, in other words what do we do about HR, Finance, IT and so on. John also takes on Agile, the most incredible of fads, to point out its fallacies and describe how to design digital services that work without any of the rituals, roles and new-speak that Agile has brought. And more besides…
Read the reviews and order your copy.
“…the thinking behind traditional management and the resulting practices are both ruthlessly challenged.”
Bjarte Bogsnes, Chairman, Beyond Budgeting Institute
“Aviva PLC sees the change method described in these pages as a strategic signature…”
Darren Cornish, Aviva PLC Group Director
Videos
Beyond Command and Control
This event was held at the Milton Keynes stadium, England, on June 20th 2017.
Beyond Command and Control: a Masterclass
This event was held at the Forest of Arden, near Birmingham, England, on June 20th 2019.
One-Day Introduction to the Vanguard Method
New Dates Coming Soon
This event will give you an Introduction to the Vanguard Method: a better way to make the work work.
Delivered by an expert Vanguard Consultant, on this One-Day Programme you will learn why traditional management approaches make things worse; why targets, inspections and specifications impair performance; the importance of good measures and how to approach re-designing your system.
To tailor the exploration of the Vanguard Method to your specific circumstances, these courses are run for small numbers of senior leaders at a time. These one-day introduction courses are run in response to demand. As such, if you are interested in attending, please register your interest by emailing the office at office@vanguardconsult.co.uk. Please include your name, role, organisation, address and contact number, together with the name/s and role/s of any colleagues who may also wish to attend. We will then contact you when the next course dates are released.
We also offer the option of running this course in-house, tailored for delegates from the same organisation. If you would like to discuss this option, please contact us at: office@vanguardconsult.co.uk, or 01280 822255.
CapChart
Available from Vanguard
£145 + VAT
Buy Now
CapChart only does one thing; it produces charts that show the Capability or Capacity of a system. It is the only SPC* Control Chart software specifically designed for service systems. CapChart helps people to ask different and better questions about the design and management of work.
If you’d like to purchase more than one copy of CapChart, please call us on +44 (0)1280 822255 or email us: office@vanguardconsult.co.uk.
*Statistical Process Control
CapChart runs on Windows 7 or a later version of Windows.
Please note that Vanguard’s CapChart application only works on a PC. If you want to install it on a Mac, you’ll need emulation software (e.g Parallels) to make this work.
One day all leaders will work this way
Following Vanguard’s Leaders Summit event in London, on 10 March 2016, read the Nordic Business Forum’s write up of the event. Senior leaders from Barclaycard Germany, Aviva UK, and Crawford and Company display the future of leadership, applying the Vanguard Method to halve costs, drive up sales by 30%, and achieve soaring morale.
You can read the full article here and watch highlights from all the leaders speaking at the Leaders Summit event here.
Hendrik Ascheberg, Vanguard Germany, has translated the article into German and you can read ‘Eines Tages werden alle Führungskräfte auf diese Weise arbeiten’ here.