In 1987, John Seddon developed the Vanguard Method, a combination of systems thinking and intervention theory. Uniquely, this method’s sole purpose is to transform organizations by changing management thinking, thus helping leaders design more effective services with dramatic consequences for performance; leaders who use the Vanguard Method achieve fast, tangible, and sustainable results. John articulated and defined ‘failure demand’ – a feature of all conventional service designs – the Vanguard Method is the means to its eradication.
Applied in eleven countries worldwide, the Vanguard Method has produced remarkable results in a wide range of service organizations, from telecommunications, utilities, and financial services to health and care, council services, emergency services, and public housing providers.
The Vanguard Method in the private sector leads to redesigned customer-shaped services, enabling better ways for attracting, acquiring, growing, and retaining customers. Private sector clients have transformed customer satisfaction ratings and staff morale while growing their profits.
When applied across public and third sector organisations (which we call ‘people centred systems’), the Vanguard Method offers a huge opportunity to significantly reduce costs and, more importantly, to improve people’s lives. We help leaders design public services that actually work. As a result, costs fall dramatically. But that’s not all. The wider consequence of providing services that work is that demand falls. Not only do you wipe out the strangling effect of high failure demand, but you also learn that fewer people experience problems. Happier people, better families, strengthened communities. Isn’t that what public services ought to be about?
The 1970s – where it all began:
John Seddon worked in the prison service as a prison psychologist. This work and a meeting with the academic Nick Georgiades introduced John to the idea that working on the system would have a greater impact than focusing on the people. John went on to study under Georgiades for an MSc in Occupational Psychology and became fascinated with Intervention Theory and Method. This informed a lot of what eventually followed.
The 1980s – a shock to the system:
John was teaching performance management to managers in Africa. They (kindly) told him what he was teaching didn’t fit with their culture, so John began wondering whether management is grounded in knowledge or merely convention. John became preoccupied with how organizations really work.
John then got involved with the ground-breaking British Airways culture change program. The British Airways experience taught him the importance of focusing on the customer but raised questions about ‘culture change.’
John learned the critical importance of studying demand in transactional services, the most significant lever. There, he first discovered the idea of ‘failure demand.’
The 1990s – developing the Vanguard Method:
Vanguard expanded rapidly in the 90s, working with Honeywell Bull, IBM, and Digital Equipment Corporation. The early work was based on delivering training, but the team soon realized this was ineffective at changing management thinking. Instead, we decided to help leaders get into the work and study it as a system. This is now known as the Vanguard Model for ‘Check.’
Throughout the 1990s, the Vanguard Method was honed through trial and error, working with various service organizations. It became clear that the principles of study and redesign worked with all transactional services.
The 2000s – going mainstream:
John Seddon published his best-seller, Freedom from Command and Control 2003. In 2008, John published his first book on Vanguard’s work in the public sector, Systems Thinking in the Public Sector.
The 2010s – more recognition for the Vanguard Method:
During this period, Vanguard became increasingly involved in the public sector, with John publishing four books, including The Whitehall Effect, an analysis of why public reform failed and how a systems approach was a profoundly better way. John also lobbied for the closure of the Audit Commission in 2010 as an egregious form of specification and ‘best practice’. John's work showed this to be a bad idea.
In 2010, John Seddon and Owen Buckwell were awarded the first Management Innovation Prize for Reinventing Leadership.
More recently:
Vanguard has continued to grow and now has a presence in 12 countries. In recent years, we have turned our attention to the ‘management factory’—all the activities sitting above operations—which has grown in numbers and had an impact on John’s lifetime. John’s newest book, Beyond Command and Control, describes everything Vanguard knows today.
