Systems Thinking Applied to Management

After more than 15 years away from academia, Russ Ackoff returned to teach a full graduate seminar at University of Pennsylvania.  In fall 2003, he taught DYNM 666: Systems Thinking Applied to Management in Organizational Dynamics graduate studies located in the Penn School of Arts and Sciences.  When the course was announced the registration requests were so high that a lottery with random drawing had to be established to admit the 25 graduate students who could attend.  The course ran for 3 hours per week for 12 weeks.  Russ was 84 years old.

To access the lecture series, click on the following link: Fall 2003: DYNM 666 Systems Thinking Graduate Course (Prof. Ackoff)

Proceedings of the 2004 Systems Thinking Conference at University of Pennsylvania

By popular request, Russell Lincoln Ackoff Systems Thinking Library, recently uploaded the proceeding of the International Conference on Systems Thinking and Management, 19 May 2004 at the University of Pennsylvania.

The theme of the conference was: Transforming Organizations to Achieve Sustainable Success.
The University's Ackoff Collaboratory for the Advancement of Systems Approach (ACASA) and the Association For Enterprise Integration (AFEI)  co-hosted the conference.

The Conference featured a celebration of over 50 years of contributions to the management sciences by the late Russell L. Ackoff.  Many of the top systems thinkers in the world were present including: the late Russell Ackoff, Vince Barabba, Peter Checkland, Michael C. Jackson, Allenna Leonard, Michael Maccoby, Ian Mitroff, Barry Siverman, John Sterman, and Margaret J. Wheatley. 

To watch the proceedings of the conference, please click on the link: http://www.organizationaldynamics.upenn.edu/node/2026

The Decision Loom: A Design for Interactive Decision-Making in Organizations

a triarchy press publication, by Vincent Barabba Publication Date: 30th November 2011No of pages: 292Book type: Paperback

Drawing on a lifetime of experience, Vince Barabba sets out, in The Decision Loom, the four core capabilities that any organization needs to put in place to make his proposed approach to decision-making work. They cover 1) having an ‘Enterpris Mindset that is open to change’, 2) thinking and acting holistically, 3) having an adaptable business design and 4) using the right combination of problem-solving and decision-making methods.

Part 1 of the book – The Journey – chronicles the author’s professional life, focusing on more than 30 ‘Lessons Learned’. To name just one: ‘Surface and make explicit the underlying assumptions that would have to be true for your particular problem-solving approach to prevail.’ Each lesson is derived from – and illustrated by – his professional experience in major political campaigns and at Xerox, Kodak, GM, the U.S. Census Bureau and elsewhere.

Part 2 describes an ‘Interactive Decision Loom’, sets out the capabilities required to make it work, and sketches an ‘idealized design’ for creating a Decision Loom in your own organization. It focuses on the process of inquiry (which must underpin decision-making), anticipating problems, and the four core organizational (not individual) capabilities needed in a dynamically complex organization (that is to say, all organizations).

The four capabilities all draw on the lessons learned in Part 1 of the book and are illustrated by brief case studies from: LEGO, Xyntéo, Patagonia Clothing, Nintendo, Cisco, and McDonald’s.

If you choose to create a Decision Loom yourself in your own organization, the outcome will be:

Greater interaction across the enterprise leading to an enterprise that is greater than the sum of its parts.

The Decision Loom: A Design for Interactive Decision-Making in Organizations

Philosophical Speculations On Systems Design

C. West Churchman

This working paper was written in 1973, Center for Research in Management Science, University of California, Berkeley. The original paper is kept at the archives of the Russell Lincoln Ackoff Systems Thinking Library at the Organizational Dynamics Graduate Studies, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania.

To download the paper click on the link: Download Philosophical Speculations on Systems Design -West Churchman

Stafford Beer, Cybernetics and More!

Here are several videos that have Cybernetics as their main topic, as provided to us by Javier Livas. Some have been made using material from Stafford Beer directly. The rest deal mostly with Management Cybernetics as applied to different situations. Included are two major videos each of which last for more than two hours. The first is UNIVERSO KUBERNETES which talks about the evolution of the science of Cybernetics and its implications. The second is THE UNIVERSAL MANAGER which puts together Beer's ideas on management in a single package.

What is Cybernetics?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hjAXkNbPfk

Feedback / Stafford Beer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3yNJPkdtYo

The Intelligent Organization PART I Stafford Beer // Javier Livas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7COX-b3HK50

The Intelligent Organization PART II Stafford Beer // Javier Livas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxomXq-X1M0

The Intelligent Organization Q&A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gk1ayL7_kE

Viable System Model
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d-05pG3pcE

Viable Systems meet Complex Adaptive Systems
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QrPxTUWt8A

Management Cybernetics: Science of Effective Organization
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tMokYFaZMQ

Management Cybernetics & Redesigning Government
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSTIZiNHFvQ

Management Cybernetics & Chaos Theory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HVRniR3GrQ

Management Cybernetics: The Law of Requisite Variety
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu9yMq4z2cA

Management Cybernetics: The Cybernetic State
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrgRJiJBU2I

Pycho-Cybernetics and Management Cybernetics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VaHRe7L7cc

Law & Cybernetics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLBiudoyDT8

The Human Brain & Cybernetics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYDdJNeUGHM

Stuff, Life & Cybernetics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmDh1SJKGA4

Soros, Popper & Cybernetics
(The Budapest Conferences and Financial Times Videos by George Soros)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8_eIlugO10

Model of a Living Organization
http://youtu.be/dFHQEtPdEV4

The Financial Crisis and Cybernetics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh2jeBRWVXg

Cybernetics vs Status Quo: Ideas from Stafford Beer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgNEZhc6eog

Cybernetics and Systemic Traps
http://youtu.be/X9XYxXSmmoU

The Universe and You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9AJI6lECIE

The US DOLLAR, a recursive theory of money creation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bo5ogY9Bhw



CAPTAIN of the Brain Explorer Submarine (ALL)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOcSRqohbk

UNIVERSO KUBERNETES
PART ONE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hiUl3He4qE

PART TWO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMuoYu48HY8

PART THREE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPX6xqaQ4Pw

THE UNIVERSAL MANAGER, based on Stafford Beer's Viable System Model // Javier Livas
http://youtu.be/wxp0CQAjUXI

Idealized Design: How Bell Labs Imagined -- and Created -- the Telephone System of the Future

Idealized design is a way of thinking about change that is deceptively simple to state: In solving problems of virtually any kind, the way to get the best outcome is to imagine what the ideal solution would be and then work backward to where you are today. This ensures that you do not erect imaginary obstacles before you even know what the ideal is.

Nothing better illustrates the power of this idea in action than the experience that Russell L. Ackoff, had many years ago. The experience both enlightened him and proved to him that the idea could facilitate profound change in a major corporation. To watch the video, please clik on the following URL:

http://www.organizationaldynamics.upenn.edu/ackoffvideos

A converstaion between Russell Ackoff and Edward Deming

This is the unedited transcript of the only conversation between Ackoff and Deming, as moderated by Clare Crawford Mason. This transcript reveals the views of two pre-eminent thinkers in systems thinking. They discuss the relevancy and the application of a systems worldview to intractable problems and societal ills.

The conversation took place in l992 and was edited and released as Volume 21 of The Deming Library series in l993.  It is called "A Theory of a System for Educators and Managers"  It is available from CC-M Productions and includes a second DVD with discussion/teaching guides for it and the rest of the Deming Library at The CC-M website @ www.managementwisdom.com

Drs. Deming and Ackoff explain why systems theory is essential knowledge for managing an organization in a world of change and uncertainty. Dr. Ackoff discusses synthesis as a necessary logic for understanding why a system behaves the way it does. He contrasts synthesis with analysis, which is useful for understanding how an organization and its units operate. Analysis is synonymous with thinking in the traditions of Western cultures.

Dr. Ackoff was fond of saying the East is learning scientific thinking  more rapidly than the West is learning systems thinking.  The combination of the two is the next leap forward in ability to manage and predict change and complexity. 

To read this transcript download the attached PDF file.

Download Dr. Ackoff & Dr. Deming

Differences That Make a Difference by Russ Ackoff

Dear Colleague,

We're very pleased, and a little sad, to be announcing the publication of Differences That Make a Difference by Russ Ackoff. Sad because this publication marks for us the completion of over four years of working with Russ and his writing. Pleased because it is a true privilege to have been involved in these publications, arising as they did from the culmination of his distinguished and influential career in management thinking.

The simple philosophy behind Differences That Make a Difference is that complicated problems can often be avoided if you take a moment to define your terms at the outset. Ackoff's aim was to dissolve (not solve or resolve) some of the many disputes in professional and private life that he saw as the result of quite basic instances of miscommunication and misunderstanding.

For example, there is more than one type of error: there are Errors of Commission (doing something that should not have been done) and Errors of Omission (not doing something that should have been done). Once you understand this distinction, you will also understand the benefits to be gained from leading people to act responsibly rather than managing them through fear.

Differences That Make a Difference brings together 57 definitions of such important terms and concepts, many of which underpin Russ Ackoff's contribution to improving organizational health.

This book is a perfect introduction to his writing and thinking. It is, as Charles Handy says in his Foreword, "a manual for clear thinking" - and a fitting tribute to the man.

Read more about the book, and/or order a copy here.


Also by Russ Ackoff...
 
Differences That Make a Difference completes our set of four books by Ackoff. Each gets to grips with the serious (and often amusing) business of how organizations work, how they are run and how they could be improved.
 
Russ Ackoff's books make perfect gifts - for managers, leaders, executives, MBA students, hierarchs and heterarchs of all ages.
 
Read more about Management f-Laws, Systems Thinking for Curious Managers, Memories and Differences That Make a Difference (with links to order copies) here.
 
About Triarchy Press
Triarchy Press is an independent publisher of books and pamphlets focusing on organisations, how they work and the way we work in them.

On business school’s alleged education

By Late Russell L. Ackoff

The talk was given in 2005, to the students and faculty at the University of Hull - Business School

Cottingham Rd, Hull, North Humberside HU601482 347 500‎, United Kingdom.

 

A pdf file is attached. Download UK TALK 05