The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
Russell Ackoffthesystemsthinker.com
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The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
Profit is to a corporation as oxygen is to a human being: necessary for existence, not the reason for it
Russell Ackoff • The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
When science divides reality up into disciplinary parts and deals with them separately, it reveals a lack of understanding of reality as a whole, as a system.
Russell Ackoff • The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
Science, I believe, consists of the search for similarities among things that are apparently different; the humanities consist of the search for differences among things that are apparently similar. Science and the humanities are the head and tail of reality—viewable separately, but not separable. It is for this reason that I have come to refer to ... See more
Russell Ackoff • The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
Problems are disciplinary in nature. Effective research is not disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or multidisciplinary; it is transdisciplinary. Systems thinking is holistic; it attempts to derive understanding of parts from the behavior and properties of wholes, rather than derive the behavior and properties of wholes from those of their parts.
Russell Ackoff • The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
When science divides reality up into disciplinary parts and deals with them separately, it reveals a lack of understanding of reality as a whole, as a system.
Russell Ackoff • The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
The best thing that can be done to a problem is to solve it. False. The best thing that can be done to a problem is to dissolve it, to redesign the entity that has it or its environment so as to eliminate the problem.
Russell Ackoff • The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
Improving the performance of the parts of a system taken separately will necessarily improve the performance of the whole. False. In fact, it can destroy an organization.
Russell Ackoff • The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
I have very much enjoyed denying the obvious and exploring the consequences of doing so. In most cases, I have found the obvious to be wrong. The obvious, I discovered, is not what needs no proof, but what people do not want to prove.
Russell Ackoff • The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
Identifying and defining the ways we can control the future: vertical integration, horizontal integration, cooperation, incentives, and responsiveness.
Russell Ackoff • The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
The principal function of most corporations is not to maximize shareholder value, but to maximize the standard of living and quality of work life of those who manage the corporation.