A Message from Dean of The Wharton School, Tom Robertson about Ackoff Memorial Service

Dear Colleagues,
 
As many of you already know, Penn lost a great citizen when Russell L. Ackoff passed away on October 29, 2009 at the age of 90. Russ was the Anheuser Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science, a transformative scholar dubbed the “father of operations research,” and an admired colleague, teacher, mentor, and friend. He had been on the Wharton faculty from 1964 until he retired in 1986, although he continued to be involved with programs in the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Wharton.
 
The Penn community will honor Russ’s legacy on February 12, 2010, from 2 to 3 p.m. in Ambani Auditorium, Jon M. Huntsman Hall. This date was selected by his family as it would have been his 91st birthday. There will be a reception immediately following in Huntsman Hall’s Patty and Jay H. Baker Forum. All are invited to attend.
 
The Ackoff family has requested that all charitable gifts in memory of Russ be directed to the Russell L. Ackoff Systems Thinking Library at Penn. Your tax-deductible contribution, payable to the "Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania," can be mailed to:
Organizational Dynamics
School of Arts and Sciences
Office of External Affairs
3615 Market Street, Floor 2Philadelphia, PA 19104-6318
 
Donations may also be made online at https://medley.isc-seo.upenn.edu/giving/jsp/fast.do?program=SAS&fund=843142
 
The Penn Program in Organizational Dynamics also is collecting memories of Russ. If you would like to add your own, please email them to dynamics@sas.upenn.edu with “Russ Ackoff” in the subject.
 
Sincerely,
 
Tom
 
 
Thomas S. Robertson
Dean
 
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
3620 Locust Walk
1000 Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall
Philadelphia, PA  19104-6364

Ackoff Memorial Service Date Set

NEWS BULLETIN

NOVEMBER 6, 200

from BECKY COLLINS ~ collinsb@sas.upenn.edu

The Memorial Service for Dr. Russell Ackoff will be held on February 12, 2010 (at The Wharton School, Huntsman Hall, 38th and Walnut St., Philadelphia), which would have been Dr. Ackoff’s 91st birthday. The Ackoff family has requested that all financial donations, gifts, and support in memory of Russ should be directed to the Russell L. Ackoff Systems Thinking Library in Organizational Dynamics at University of Pennsylvania. Your tax-deductible contribution, payable to the "Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania," can be mailed to:

Russell Ackoff Memorial Fund

Organizational Dynamics

School of Arts and SciencesOffice of External Affairs
3615 Market Street, Floor 2
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6318

Donations may also be made online at Russell Ackoff Memorial Fund:

https://medley.isc-seo.upenn.edu/giving/jsp/fast.do?program=SAS&fund=843142

Russell L. Ackoff, Management Consultant & Systems Thinker, 1919 -2009

Professor Russell L. Ackoff has been described as a Renaissance Man, architect, city planner, philosopher, behavioral scientist, trailblazer in the field of organizational operations, the pre-eminent authority on organizational systems theory, best-selling author, world traveler—even a humorist.  Recognized internationally as a pragmatic academic, Russ, as he was known to all, devoted most of his professional life to “dissolving” complex societal and organizational problems by engaging all stakeholders in designing solutions.

Born in Philadelphia to Jack and Fannie (Weitz) Ackoff, he completed undergraduate studies in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1941. From 1942 to 1946 he served in the U.S. Army, stationed in the Philippines. Upon returning from the war, he obtained a doctorate in the Philosophy of Science from Penn, where he met and married Alexandra Makar.

From 1947 to 1951 Dr. Ackoff was Assistant Professor in Philosophy and Mathematics at Wayne State University. It was here that he first sought to establish an institute devoted applying philosophical beliefs about the nature of man to the design and improvement of social institutions. In 1951, Ackoff and a group of colleagues were invited to join the Case Institute of Technology School of Engineering, where they were instrumental in establishing one of the world's first Departments of Operations Research, an accomplishment that still identifies Ackoff as the “Father of Operations Research.”

In 1964 the fledgling graduate business program at the Wharton School recruited Ackoff and his colleagues. In 1980, the Social Systems Sciences Department was established at Wharton. This innovative program combined organizational design theory and practice, sought to escape traditional disciplinary bounds, and cultivated students motivated by independent thought and action.  

In 1986 Dr. Ackoff retired from the Wharton School, became Anheuser Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science, and founded INTERACT, a consulting firm and think tank.

In September 2000, he was honored at Penn by the establishment of the Ackoff Center for Advancement of Systems Approaches (ACASA) in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the result of generous contributions of Ray Stata (chairman of the board, Analog Devices), the Anheuser-Busch Foundation, and the General Motors Foundation.  In 2002 the Russell Ackoff Doctoral Student Fellowship for Research was established in the Wharton School.

In 2003, at age 87, he returned to Penn as Distinguished Affiliated Faculty  in the Organizational Dynamics degree program in the School of Arts and Sciences in order to teach a graduate course in “Systems Thinking Applied to Management” and to advise graduate students.

In 2005, he co-founded Adopt a Neighborhood for Development, Inc., an organization dedicated to encouraging and facilitating self development programs in disadvantaged communities, and continued to lecture in universities around the world.

In 2007, the Ackoff Program, Tomsk University, Tomsk, Russia was established. In 2008 the Russell L. Ackoff Systems Thinking Library and Archive was created in the Organizational Dynamics program in the School of Arts and Sciences.  The Library holds his more than 300 scholarly publications and nearly three dozen books, his private manuscripts and personal library of more than 3000 books on systems, design, philosophy, social science, as well as his awards, fellowships, medals, endowment fund, and his 6 honorary doctorates in science and letters.  His books which include Introduction to Operations Research, The Art of Problem Solving, Creating the Corporate Future, and Management in Small Doses are read around the world and several have been translated into 15 or more languages.

In 2008  the Ackoff Program, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria was established, and in 2009 the Ackoff Center for Design Thinking, Da Vinci Institute, South Africa was created.

Over his years of teaching, traveling and lecturing he acquired a fiercely loyal following of students, colleagues and clients. Resisting always the moniker of “guru” so often applied to him in the popular business press, he once said “I am not a guru...gurus encourage followers who do things their way. I am an educator...I encourage others to go out and adapt these ideas...to do whatever is going to be the most effective solution for them.” Dr. Ackoff continued to teach including in September 2009 in Wharton’s Executive Education programs.  

Dr. Ackoff is survived by his wife of 22 years, Helen Wald Ackoff, three children from his first marriage, Alan Ackoff, Karen Ackoff, and Karla Ackoff Kachbalian; his stepson, Richard Wald. He passed away on October 29, 2009, due to complications following hip replacement surgery.

Link to Short Profile of Russell L. Ackoff:

http://ackoffcenter.blogs.com/ackoff_center_weblog/announcements/

Safety & Health Worst Practices. We Need to Learn from Our Mistakes.

In the current issue of ISHN magazine, James E. Leemann, Ph.D.  explores the value of learning from "Safety and Health Worst Practices" as opposed to always focusing on "best practices" through systems dynamics archetypes.  To read his column:  Download Leemann ISHN S and H Worst Practices

Systems Thinking: Ancient Maya's Evolution of Consciousness and Contemporary Thinking

Posted by Assistant Professor Tadeja Jere Lazanski, University of Primorska, Portoroz, Slovenia on her blog:  "Systems thinking is a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. The only way to fully understand why a problem or element occurs and persists is to understand the part in relation to the whole. (Capra, 1997)

There are some historical facts regarding systems and systems thinking. Systems thinking as a modern approach for problem solving was revived after WWII even though it had been an ancient philosophy. We can track systems thinking back to antiquity. Differentiated from Western rationalist traditions of philosophy, C. West Churchman often identified with the I Ching as a systems approach sharing a frame of reference similar to pre-Socratic philosophy and Heraclitus. (Hammond, 2003)

The first systems thinkers can be found in the oldest of human societies – the ancient Phoenicians with their cuneiforms, the Egyptians with their pyramids, Greek philosophers and Maya Indians are the earliest ancient societies of system thinkers. The Mayan numerical system and long count units has been proven as one of the most accurate systems for describing the present and future of the civilization in which we have all evolved. The Mayan calendars Tzolkin and Tun, based on mathematics as a strictly rational factor and enriched by intuition, are examples of an evolutionary system of human consciousness. The calendars and their meaning for sustainable society were completely explained and scientifically proven by Swedish microbiologist and Professor Carl Johan Calleman. The calendars presented personal intents of individuals and prophetic meanings for civilization. (Calleman, 2004) Basically, he deciphered the purpose of the calendars, what they represented and meant to the Mayans and how they used them. He discovered that the calendars were timing the development and evolution of consciousness (individual, societal, universal)."

To read this posting, click on the link: Systems Thinking: Ancient Maya's Evolution of Consciousness and Contemporary Thinking

Systems Thinking and Design Thinking

Fred Collopy, co-editor of "Managing as Designing" (Stanford Business Books, 2004), has posted an essay on Design and Systems Thinking called "Why the failure of systems thinking should  inform the future of design thinking" on Fast Company magazine's web site... 

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/fred-collopy/manage-designing-0

This - combined with two videos from last week's Business as an Agent of World Benefit conference at Case Western University .

The videos show (a) Peter Senge and Russ speaking about Systems Thinking and (b) Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the Univ. of Toronto doing the same... at this leading edge corporate social responsibility conference which had "Management as a Design Activity" as one of its themes.

The video of Peter Senge and Russ Ackoff is here...

http://bawbglobalforum.ning.com/video/6409-systems-thinking-russ

The video of Roger Martin is here...

http://bawbglobalforum.ning.com/video/6409-design-and-management

Case Western's Dr. David Cooperrider's introductory remarks last about 3 minutes.  Roger Martin then speaks for about 25 minutes.  He also acknowledges Russ Ackoff before talking about how design thinking should be incorporated into business education.

The Search For Leadership

Dear Colleague,

Even the most sophisticated Leadership Development programs in even the most forward-thinking organizations can seem like little more than glorified fish polishing.

Systems Thinking (and our own experience) tell us that individual managers and leaders are like fish in a fish tank. All HR’s efforts to train, develop and polish the fish will be wasted if the water remains foul.

So, while 2009 might seem like a good year to look for heroic, archetypal leaders to lead us out of the fear and uncertainty wrought by recession, climate change, British MPs’ expenses and pig flu – maybe it isn’t.

Peter Senge started the discussion about Systemic Leadership. Now Bill Tate, formerly head of HR Strategy at British Airways, has developed the definitive guide to Systemic Leadership. Its starting point is simple:

• a leader is only as good as the system he or she operates in

• leadership isn’t just about leaders or people, it’s about the whole organizations (its values, culture, policies, shadow-side, strategies, systems, etc.)

• ‘leader development’ [what Bill Tate calls ‘polishing fish before putting them back into the murky water of the fish tank’] is a fatally flawed solution

• a more distributed leadership culture is vital if organizations are to tap into front-line experience and generate energy for change

To find out more, please visit the dedicated website at: www.TheSearchForLeadership.com

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.
alison@triarchypress.com ~ www.triarchypress.com

Alison Melvin
Triarchy Press, Station Offices, Axminster, De EX13 5PF, United Kingdom.

UK Systems Society Conference 2009

UK Systems Society Conference 2009
Tuesday 1st & Wednesday 2nd September 2009
Call for Contributions
Paper submission is open from now until 31 May 2009
Registration opens 1 March 2009
‘Systems Research: Lessons from the Past– Progress for
the Future’ Keynote speaker: Prof. Peter Checkland

More information will be posted on: www.ukss.org.uk
Further details can be found in the Download UK_Systems_Society_Conference_2009

Systems Thinking as taught by Ackoff

Posted by Chandler  on his blog, he writes about Ackoff: "I have read a few books he has written and have learned Systems Thinking from him. I am surprised that the field of Systems Thinking is not well understood. Following is my attempt to share what I learned from one of Ackoff's recent lectures."

To read this blog, click on the link: Systems Thinking as taught by Ackoff

Ackoff's Keynote Address at ICSTM 2004 Conference

ICSTM 2004 keynote address on YouTube. 

The three videos run a total of 30 minutes.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLU3aoQ7t7c              (part 1)
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsF32GAHVfI              (part 2)
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z3hJIGHdfk               (part 3)