Traditional Red-Amber-Green reporting often wastes effort and drives misguided interventions instead of real operational improvement.

In this short trailer episode of Beyond Deming, we talk to Sam Riley, founder of Spuddling Solutions and former lead of NHS England’s Making Data Count initiative. Sam explains how she helped shift healthcare performance monitoring away from superficial dashboard metrics towards Statistical Process Control.

Having successfully trained over 56,000 NHS staff across all organisational tiers, from executive boards to frontline clinical personnel, Sam outlines the principles behind widespread data literacy.

The conversation highlights her upcoming interactive workshop in Coventry on 5 November, where she will share practical techniques for converting technical data tools into engaging, routine practices.

Listen to discover how structured data analysis can eliminate unproductive habits and drive continuous improvement across public and private sector organisations.

How can a bank thrive without budgets or financial targets? In this episode of Beyond Deming, James Lawther speaks with Brett Salisbury, branch manager at Handelsbanken, about the bank’s unconventional yet highly effective approach. Since the 1970s, Handelsbanken has followed a humanistic leadership philosophy, prioritising customer service and cost efficiency over traditional metrics. The result? Consistent outperformance of industry peers across financial cycles.

Brett shares how this model fosters long-term sustainability and profitability, challenging conventional banking norms. If you’re curious about how eliminating targets can drive remarkable success, this discussion offers actionable insights. Join us on September 8 at Nettlehill, near Coventry, to explore these ideas further.

Visit demingalliance.org for details.

Why do so many culture change initiatives fail to stick?

In this episode of Beyond Deming, James Lawther and Frank Devine discuss Rapid Mass Engagement, a system designed to create sustainable, employee-owned cultural transformation.

Frank shares how early-career frustrations—watching improvements unravel after leadership changes—led him to develop this method, which flips traditional hierarchies by giving employees the power to shape their workplace culture.

Listen as they explain the three-stage process: Diverse Workshops to identify obstacles, Consensus Day for collaborative decision-making, and creating Behavioural Standards tied to a deeply emotional higher purpose. Frank also addresses common challenges, such as overcoming blame culture, ensuring psychological safety, and preventing burnout by tackling root causes.

Discover how this approach fosters adult-adult relationships, aligns entire workforces, and delivers rapid, measurable results—without relying on charismatic leaders or superficial engagement.

Essential for managers ready to build cultures that outlast individual tenures.