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
Second, the separation of our different points of view encourages looking for solutions to problems with the same point of view from which the problem was formulated. Quoting Einstein: “Without changing our pattern of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current patterns of thought.”
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
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
Identifying and defining the hierarchy of mental content, which, in order of increasing value, are: data, information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. However, the educational system and most managers allocate time to the acquisition of these things that is inversely proportional to their importance.
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.
Russell Ackoff • The Systems Thinker – A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
The perceived need to learn something new is inversely proportional to the rank of a manager. Those at the top feel obliged to pretend to omniscience, and therefore refuse to learn anything new even if the cost of doing so is success.
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
The most valuable and least replaceable resource is time.