Targets and Managers

Problems with targets can be found in all areas of management. The NHS of course has been headlined for it but in reality it’s everywhere that management exists. That’s because using targets makes things simpler for managers. The problem is that important areas of humanity are sidelined and people focus so hard on certain things and neglect others.

The bureaucracy of the conservation industry led by that servant of the well-heeled in government, Unnatural England, is rife with targets. Favourable/Unfavourable condition statements are one example. Also in the frame are Biodiversity Action Plans, an excellent opportunity for engaging with target culture and putting aside intelligent judgement based on observation.

This flower, now gone to seed, mentioned many times in posts here, is present on Cowsick Bog just as patients at Mid-Staffs were present in their beds. A box can be ticked and I’m sure the managers at SWT did tick a box when they came here recently. I’m sure the Chief Executive approved. But, and here’s another parallel with Mid-Staffs, were these plants being respected? Had some of them been trampled by industrially bred livestock that should never have been there and splattered with faeces? Not that different to Mid Staffs when you think about it.

Targets are used because managers on numerous different levels don't know how to manage those on the level below. They can't trust them to do what they ought to be doing because they don't trust their judgement or their commitment. There's a simple, many will say simplistic, solution. Go out and do the job yourself for long enough to show you can do it and understand it and so gain the respect of those who you're managing. The problem with that is there's someone else above you who is even more remote from the workface and the basic task, and that person has expectations, i.e. targets, of you. And above them is another layer, etc. Bureaucracy creates remoteness and disengagement, unreality and unnaturalness. And, ultimately, a deficit in accountability.