Comments for Performance and Strategy

Comment on Summer of discontent revisited by Disquiet in the Country | Performance and Strategy

Disquiet in the Country | Performance and Strategy — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:14:25 +0000

[...] Summer of discontent revisited [...]

Comment on Why middle managers need to ‘Wake up and smell the coffee’ by Why middle managers need to ‘Wake up and smell the coffee’ | Performance and Strategy

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:33:19 +0000

[...] Why middle managers need to ‘Wake up and smell the coffee’ [...]

Comment on Excessive bureaucracy hinders performance management. by Does it pay to be incompentent? | Performance and Strategy

Does it pay to be incompentent? | Performance and Strategy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:47:26 +0000

[...] Excessive bureaucracy hinders performance management. [...]

Comment on At last No Keyboard….Review update by David Anson

David Anson — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:25:13 +0000

As you have said, it benefits from the investment of time it the beginning of the process. Having just returned from 2 weeks in the Caribbean (yes, thank you, it was nice, especially the scuba diving) and the panic/rush before going away, I had to revert to typing manually (which I am actually quite fast at) and intend to pick it up again once the Sergeants’ exam is out of the way on Tuesday. You will therefore have to await my judgement.

Be interested to know if anyone else out there is using the Mac version.

Comment on At last No Keyboard !!!! by Simon

Simon — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:35:39 +0000

I am using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for nearly one year now. And I can say: it works very well! I also use this software to control my computer – and it works fine.
In comparison to Windows 7 speech recognition and MacSpeech Dictate the learning curve amazes me – I really can say my accuracy is near to hundred percent.
The main language I’m dictating is German, but since one year I’ve tried speech recognition software, I can say, recognition in English is always working better and faster than any other language.

Comment on At last No Keyboard !!!! by David Anson

David Anson — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:57:36 +0000

Shortly taking delivery of MacSpeech Dictate which I think uses the same engine as Dragon. Watching it work on YouTube the other week it looked very impressive, can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Comment on Performance Landscape article. by Alan

Alan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:12:26 +0000

Thanks for your response Gwyn. I fully agree that metrics and the confidence agenda can be good bedfellows and it was never my intention to suggest that metrics should be done away with although, from your response, perhaps I have.

There are many customer focused organisations that also use metric measurements and I think both are essential. However, from the work we’ve recently been doing with public services it is apparent that, because of the government focus, we have a generation of managers who have been developed on metrics alone, so there is a whole development process needed to enable them to merge quantitative and qualitative measurements. These managers have also lived through more than two decades of sustained growth so, at the same time, also need to adapt to the agenda of doing more with less.

My reason for advocating the ‘mature discussion’ is that, in this new world of performance, education cannot just focus on education, police cannot focus just on police, health service cannot just focus on health service etc. Survival of the public services, as an entity, is going to depend on integrated working to achieve maximum cost effectiveness, together with measures, both quantitative and qualitative, that are complimentary not contradictory.

Your response to this article is one step further in this debate, so thanks again.

Comment on Performance Landscape article. by Gwyn Thomas

Gwyn Thomas — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:39:45 +0000

Sorry, no picture!!! In the main i agree with the comments, particularly as to the need for radical change and radical decision making within the context of the new financial challenges that lie ahead for the public sector that are unprecedented on a global scale. However, whilst the point is made as to the impact of performance targets etc and the apparent adverse impact that this has had on innovation, creativity and enhancing public confidence I think that it is important to say that metrics and the confidence agenda do not need to be exclusive and in my view can sit well together as good bedfellows provided there is a clear understanding as to how they interact with and interrelate to each other, after all as far as the police service is concerned I think that we have to absolutely be about ‘keeping our communities safe’ (tackling local and serious crime – and having some meaningful measures around that) and ‘feeling safe’ (confidence, visibility, satisfaction, quality of life issues).

Comment on Publc Services ‘Wealth Warning’ by Performance Landscape article. | Performance and Strategy

Performance Landscape article. | Performance and Strategy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:21:50 +0000

[...] Publc Services ‘Wealth Warning’ [...]

Comment on Navigating across the new Performance Landscape by Performance Landscape article. | Performance and Strategy

Performance Landscape article. | Performance and Strategy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:10:19 +0000

[...] Navigating across the new Performance Landscape [...]