In 2017, I wrote “Beyond Metrics: an open letter to Michael Barber.”
I congratulated him on his role as Chair of the newly formed Office for Students, and acknowledged that his commitment to accessible, low cost, innovative education, and to whole system reform preceded him, as did his reputation for deliverology. Deliverology, in a nutshell, is the process of setting the right targets, combined with the right incentives and penalties, and then standing back to watch as the sector reshapes itself to deliver those targets.
I noted, colourfully I thought, the dangers of creating perverse incentives, also known as Goodhart’s Law, using the case study of Hamsterdam from the legendary television series The Wire, where in response to impossible targets to clean up crime from street corners and reduce the homicide statistics, the police create a zone for the Baltimore drugs cartels to operate freely. I asked Sir Michael to look beyond the statistics and recognise the value of less easily quantifiable benefits.
But that was then and this is now, and I think I’ve been won over to deliverology.
