Failing to learn - or learning to fail?

New research the University of Birmingham and the University of Manchester warns that there's no quick fix for tackling public sector failure. In fact it is often a harder and slower process than governments and regulators are willing to admit. When things go wrong, as has been well-documented in the Baby Peter case, regulators are too willing to blame frontline workers, or sack chief executives. However the research shows that failure is rarely as the result of an individual's performance; rather it is systemic and organisational in nature. Manchester Business School's Professor Kieran Walshe, who headed up the research team, explains: "Sacking staff can just make things worse. If the chief executive automatically goes - then an external specialist is often parachuted in to fix the symptoms, rather than addressing underlying organisational causes. This can then be compounded with a flight of talent, as skilled individuals move to jobs elsewhere and it becomes more difficult to recruit." The five-year project - partially funded by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) - showed that organisations need to improve their ability to learn - specifically, to acquire, assimilate and then apply knowledge to improve their own performance.