I still rember Dr. Brian Joiner speaking about process improvement and the role of data well over a decade ago. He spoke of 3 ways to improve the figures: distort the data, distort the system and improve the sytem. Improving the system is the most difficult.

There is an interesting article on the effects of distorting the syste: Tony Blair says he will ensure NHS targets do not stop people from seeing their GPs when they want to, from BBC News.

In order to make the data meet the targets the system is distorted to achieve the target, rather than to serve the customer.

From Peter Scholtes‘ article published in National Productivity Review in 1993, Total Quality or Performance Appraisal: Choose One:
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The Ackoff Center has posted a presentation, From Mechanistic to Social Systemic Thinking (pdf format), given by Russell Ackoff in November 1993 at the Systems Thinking in Action Conference. As usual he presents many great ideas well. And ten years later the ideas presented are still fresh and worth reading. The ideas are more familiar than they were in 1993 but are still powerful. The presentation concluded with

Russell Ackoff Biography and links to more of his papers and resources on his ideas.

5 June 2005 Dilbert Strip on motivational posters - [update - well the pointy haired bosses running the site removed the page so we removed the link] (maybe this was a reprint from Sep 6, 1995?):

Dilbert can show the silliness that is common place in many workplaces, as just that - silly. Point 10 of Deming’s 14 points called on management to eliminate slogans. Deming refined the wording as he learned: the text from the Deming Institute site now states:

That text works well for me, but I think Dilbert provides a great service in pointing out the same idea that such slogans are silly and even harmful in a way many others find more accessible. Of course most managers don’t seem to notice when Dilbert points out that a management “tool” they use lacks value - that the “emperor has no clothes” (The Emperor’’s New Suit by Hans Christian Andersen, 1837).