Converge Consulting Group Inc. Articles and News » robertgerst

Never trust a statistical ranking

robertgerst — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:10:59 +0000

Measuring education system performance CALGARY, AB, Mar. 13, 2012, Troy Media/ – It’s that time of year when across North America we begin reporting on the performance of the educational system. In Canada, the Fraser Institute’s rankings of schools was released recently to much fanfare in the media. This hasn’t gone over well with everyone.

Alberta health review gets one small piece of the puzzle right

robertgerst — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:32:46 +0000

The review will now go through the political wringer CALGARY, AB, Mar. 6, 2012, Troy Media/ – A year ago, I authored The Decline of Health Services in Alberta, an analysis of the issues plaguing Canadian health care, drawing heavily on examples from Alberta. That report concluded nothing will improve in the health care system

Converge goes to New York

robertgerst — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:07:54 +0000

Converge Consulting Group Inc, partner Robert Gerst was invited to the Fordham University in New York to present his paper on The Decline of Health Services of Alberta to the Deming Institutes 18th Annual International Deming Research Seminar. The paper details how the command & control management model and its faulty economic assumptions have diminished access to

Curing health care

robertgerst — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:10:33 +0000

Our health care issues won’t be solved by yesterdays thinking CALGARY, AB, Feb. 15, 2012/ Troy Media/ – With all the talk of healthcare recently, people can be forgiven for thinking something is being done to address issues plaguing the system. There is some good news. The Federal governments’ new laissez-faire approach to funding, and

Expert calls out Alberta Health

robertgerst — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 19:36:54 +0000

Alberta may be trumpeting the efficiency of our centralized health-care superboard but a keynote speaker plans to tell a national conference this month that Alberta’s experiment has been disastrous. The bigger-is-better, command-and-control model has failed in Alberta and other provinces shouldn’t replicate it, warns management consultant Robert Gerst. “Alberta is an ideal case study of

Decline of Health Services in Alberta Paper a Keynote Presentation at Healthcare Efficiency Conference

robertgerst — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:30:47 +0000

The Decline of Health Services in Alberta, The Triumph of Professional over Real Management is gaining considerable attention. John Seddon highlighted the paper in Vanguard Consulting Group’s newsletter providing both a link and a recommendation. Downloads from Europe nearly crashed our server. The paper will form the basis of a keynote presentation by Robert Gerst

The Cult of Statistical Significance – Simplified

robertgerst — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:19:59 +0000

Converge Consulting Group clients have heard us talk about the misuse of statistical significance testing, specifically, using statistical significance as a test for practical importance or material significance. This is the reason why so much employee, customer and operational research gets the answers so wrong, so often, amounting to little more, and often less, than junk

U. S. Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects ‘Statistical Significance’

robertgerst — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:01:31 +0000

Demonstrating both common sense and scientific reasoning, on March 22, the United States Supreme Court unanimously rejected arguments that materiality can be defined using statistical significance. This is a lesson that any organization conducting employee, customer and operational research should learn and one made repeatadly by Converge Consulting Group . . . Statistical significance is not a

The Decline of Health Services in Alberta

robertgerst — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:42:07 +0000

The Triumph of Professional over Real Management The past 20 years have seen a steady decline in the provision of health services to Albertans. Waiting times for surgeries, diagnostic services and emergency room visits is increasing, costs are escalating and quality of care has remained constant at best. A day doesn’t go by without the

Inspections and Audits

robertgerst — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:20:29 +0000

Developing a cost effective approach Some organizations equate quality with the level of inspection. The greater the number of inspections, checks, audits or evaluations, the greater the level of quality that is assumed to be in the final product or service. Unfortunately for these organizations, just the opposite is true. Quality assurance is only required when processes