Authors of standing

Congratulations to Buzz Wilms, whose Liberating the Schoolhouse (published by Triarchy under that title for US readers and as Erasing Excellence for the rest of the world) won second place in the Los Angeles Press Club awards last night (June 14th).

The book tells the story of what happened to a failing California High School when staff were given the freedom to take their own decisions, set agendas and act like autonomous adults - and what happened when the command and control regime removed those freedoms.

It's a modern-day morality tale for anyone interested in the distribution of power in organisations.


Congratulations also to John Seddon, nominated to be the UK's Public Services Tzar on the No. 10 Petitions website.

John's Systems Thinking in the Public Sector - welcomed by Simon Caulkin in The Observer and Philip Johnstone in the Daily Telegraph (and they're not the most natural bedfellows) continues to unsettle the UK government and the Audit Commission. It also continues to delight a growing number of public sector leaders who know from experience that targets, standards, 'deliverology', centralisation and back-office warehouses JUST MAKE THINGS WORSE.

Finally, Good luck to Jemima Gibbons (author of a forthcoming Triarchy book on Leadership 2.0) who is standing for election to the RSA Fellowship Council.