When Tony Blair was the UK prime minister, he created a delivery unit in Whitehall. Its purpose was to deliver public sector reform. Sir Michael Barber was the man in charge. It was he who invented Deliverology the so-called ‘science of delivery’.
In his book, Systems Thinking in the Public Sector: The Failure of the Reform Regime and a Manifesto for a Better Way, John Seddon, MD of Vanguard Consulting, argues that Deliverology actually made public services in the UK worse.
Read Chapter 8, ‘Deliverology: the science of delivery, or dogmatic delusion?’