Beyond Command and Control

There is growing recognition that the current system of (command and control) management isn’t working and that meeting today’s challenges means thinking differently. Traditional approaches to change through initiatives, projects and improvement ‘tools’ don’t change thinking, nor do they change the system – leaving leaders continuing to wrestle with common issues. Many are asking themselves the same questions:

• How do we maintain service, or services with a constraining budget?
• Demand for services is spiraling out of control, how do we manage?
• How can we grow further value (revenue) from our customers?
• How do we move beyond cycles of projects and initiatives that repeatedly try to solve the same problem without much apparent effect?
• We’ve integrated our services but are not seeing the level of benefits or positive change we’d anticipated. Why is that?
• Commissioning has placed citizens at some distance from us. How do we know whether what we commission actually meets need or goes under or over it?
• How do we design services that make an actual difference to people’s lives?
• Investment in digital technology isn’t achieving the desired return on invested capital. Why is that?
• NPS scores are good, but customer complaints are still rising. Why is that?

The answers lie in understanding why command and control thinking doesn’t work and in building a deeper understanding of what ‘beyond’ looks like. 

We have created a Meetup group in Melbourne, Sydney and Wellington as an opportunity for the curious and those on the journey of questioning convention to explore current challenges with the help of over 30 years of experience in this field. With different challenges and issues explored at each Meetup, this is an opportunity to share experiences, stories and learnings as we explore the next level of management.