John Seddon trained originally as an occupational psychologist. He is known around the world for his pioneering work on change in organisations and for translating and adapting the Toyota Production System (TPS) for use by service organisations. John is also known for his consistently informed and controversial criticism of management fads and of much of the theory that has underpinned public sector reform. He is the leading advocate of systems thinking in business and in the public sector. John is a widely published author and lectures at seminars conferences, universities and management schools around the world. He is Managing Director of Vanguard Ltd, a consultancy specialising in organisational change, and is a visiting professor at the Lean Enterprise Research Centre, University of Cardiff.

The free market has become the accepted model for the public sector. Politicians on all sides compete to spread the gospel. And so, in the UK and elsewhere, there's been massive investment in public sector 'improvement', 'customer choice' has been increased and new targets have been set and refined.

But our experience is that things haven't changed much. This is because governments have invested in the wrong things. Belief in targets, incentives and inspection; belief in economies of scale and shared back-office services; belief in 'deliverology... these are all wrong-headed ideas and yet they have underpinned this government's attempts to reform the public sector.

John Seddon here dissects the changes that have been made in a range of services, including housing benefits, social care and policing.

His descriptions beggar belief, though they would be funnier if it wasn't our money that was being wasted. In place of the current mess, he advocates a Systems Thinking approach where individuals come first, waste is reduced and responsibility replaces blame. It's an approach that is proven, successful and relatively cheap — and one that governments around the world, and their advisers, need to adopt urgently.