Ten Hard Lessons Learned

David CouperNovember 28, 2016November 28, 2016police

Over the years, these always seem to be the “hard lessons” inherent in organization change and improvement. What’s your experience in leading change/reform?

Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation

[Sometimes it helps to look back and try and find out why something that seemed so important, so necessary, years ago seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Statistician W. Edwards Deming and his followers greatly influenced me by their work to show us how to improve the quality of our goods and services. After all, shouldn’t everyone of us be interested in improving things and doing so continuously at work, home, and at play? Isn’t the quest to improve that which we do a part of our culture? Isn’t that what we do in America?

I wrote the following article for the “Quality Progress” magazine to explain what happened in my city when top leadership changed hands. I began to see that there were some things in our society, work and political systems that work against improving things. After reading this, you may find an answer to your question about why things don’t improve in your workplace like they should.]

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT…

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Published by David Couper

I served over 20 years as the chief of police in Madison (WI), four years as chief of the Burnsville (MN) Police Department, and before that as a police officer in Edina (MN) and the City of Minneapolis. I hold graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota and Edgewood College in Madison. I have written many articles over my years as a police leader. After retiring from the police department, I answered a call to ministry, attended seminary, and was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. After 25 years leading two Episcopal Churches in Portage and North Lake, Wisconsin, I now serve as Associate Pastor in a growing, dynamic, and Spirit-filled Lutheran congregation in nearby Mazomanie. View all posts by David Couper