Russell Ackoff and Mission Statements

On the Mark Frisse's Policy Blog Mark Frisse, wrote the following post on mission statements: "Participating in the AHIC 2.0 discussions, I am repeatedly reminded of an influential talk and paper delivered by Russ Ackoff several years ago. His advice should be heeded when one is talking of ambitious, sincere, and inclusive 'public private partnerships.'

I have located a copy of this paper attributed to him on Charles Warner's Web Site. It seems to be the paper I read long ago. I reprint in full. Emphases in bold or italics are mine."

Continue reading this content at the Mark Frisse's Policy Blog.

International Council on Systems Engineering

Delaware Valley Chapter Meeting
(Non-members welcome to attend)

Social Systems Modeling for Systems Engineering
Speaker: Gnana Bharathy, Phd, PMP, Ackoff Collaboratory for Advancement of the Systems Approach [ACASA]

April 15, 2008, 5:30 p.m.
For more information, please click on the following link:

Download Flyer_INCOSE-08_DV_15Apr.doc

A. Stafford Beer and Project Cybersyn

Stafford Beer,  a systems thinking advocate and pioneer and a close friend and colleague of Russell Ackoff over the years and stemming from their roots in Operations Research from which they both progressed their own paths, attempted, in his words, to "implant" an electronic "nervous system" in Chilean society. Voters, workplaces and the government were to be linked together by a new, interactive national communications network, which would transform their relationship into something profoundly
more equal and responsive than before - a sort of socialist Internet, decades ahead of its time.

Recently, an article was published in New York Times detailing the "Chilean" experiment conducted by Stafford Beer and his colleague for the Allende administration. To read the article click on the following URL: Before '73 coup, Chile tried to find the right software for socialism

Blind Spot Creativity

On Creativity Central blog, there is an interesting post .  Here's an excerpt from that blog:

Like an earthquake, every eureka moment has a series of aftershocks.  One of the most fascinating of these after sights is discovering your blind spots.  Typically, you'll hear lines like "The answer was right in front of me and I couldn't see it."  "I was solving the wrong problem."  "I never challenged the conventional thinking."

Isn't fallibility great?

Years ago, Russell Ackoff, a teacher at the Wharton School wrote a great article called "Infallibility."  I am paraphrasing some of the highlights because it sheds some more light on our blind spots.  In an experiment conducted by Alex Bavelas at MIT, subjects were taken into a room where slides were projected.  The slides were produced by waving a flashlight in dark room over unexposed film.

The subjects sat at desks in front of two buttons.  They were told to press one of the buttons after each slide. Here's the twist.  If they pressed the "right" one they would be paid, if they pressed the wrong one, they would get nothing. 

There was nothing said about what parameters determined the "right" choice. After a few slides, most subjects began to formulate theories to explain the rewards they received and soon they were quite sure that their theory was correct.

When the experiment was completed the subjects were asked to reveal their theories.  Then Bavelas told them that they were rewarded at random. There was absolutely no relationship between the buttons pushed and the rewards.   Most of the subjects were surprised, but insisted that they theories were correct.  They would not abandon their theories.

The blog post continues with more details on the blind spot creativity, and additional footnotes.  Continue reading this content at  Blind Spot Creativity.

Building Resilience: Responding to a Turbulent World

Call for Papers - UK Systems Society International Conference 2008

At Oxford University on the 1st -3rd September 2008

Keynote speakers:

Professor Ralph Stacey, Professor of Management at the Business School, University of Hertfordshire, author of numerous books on complexity.
Dr. Tony Kendle, Foundation Director at the Eden Project.
Mark Lynas, Journalist and author of three books on climate change.
Sarb Sembhi, Director of Metis-For, is a world expert on networked surveillance, IT security and cybercrime.

Please download the Conference 2008 Flyer

Turning Learning Right Side Up

Putting Education Back on Track

Russell L. Ackoff, Daniel Greenberg

Jul 2008, Hardback, 224 pages
ISBN13: 9780132346498
ISBN10: 0132346494

Description

Over the past 150 years, virtually everything has changed... except education. In the age of the Internet, we educate people much as we did during the industrial revolution. We educate them for a world that no longer exists, instilling values that are antithetical to those of a free, 21st century democracy. Perhaps worst of all, too many schools extinguish the human creativity and joy they ought to nourish. In this book, legendary systems scientist Dr. Russell Ackoff and "in-the-trenches" education innovator Daniel Greenberg offer a radically new path forward. In the year's most provocative conversation, they take on the very deepest questions about education: What should be its true purpose? Must schools be the way they are? Do classrooms make sense anymore? What should we teach? What should individuals contribute to their own education? What if students did the teaching and teachers did the learning? Is it possible to eliminate old-fashioned distinctions between subjects and between the arts and sciences? What would the ideal lifelong education look like: at the K-12 level, at universities and colleges, in the workplace, and beyond? How do you educate for a world that doesn't yet exist? And how do you pay for tomorrow's "ideal schools"? Ackoff and Greenberg each bring a lifetime of success making radical change. Here, they combine deep idealism with a relentless focus on the real world and arrive at solutions that make far more sense than anything we're doing now.
To read more about this book, click on the following URL: Turning Learning Right Side Up

University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

July 13-18, 2008

ISSS2008: Systems that Make a Difference

Location: University of Wisconsin, Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street, Madison, Wisconsin

The title for this conference borrows from Gregory Bateson’s definition of information as “a difference that makes a difference.” The question for systems researchers and practitioners is, “what difference are we making?”

For more information see the Madison 2008 main page, and the Madison 2008 Conference Announcement

Knowledge versus Information

On the Extreme Productivity by Design blog, Skip Walter wrote the following post on Ackoff's hierarchy from data to wisdom perspective.  Here's an excerpt from that blog:

As I was wandering into a client today, Greg asked one of those questions that lead to a teachable moment: "So Skip, it's clear from our working sessions that you think that knowledge and information are two different things. I've always thought of them as interchangeable. What is the difference?"

What a great question. It took me a long time and a lot of work by one of my mentors, Russ Ackoff, to help me see that these two concepts are very different. My simple definition of information versus knowledge is that information is structured data and knowledge is information in action. However, to put the question in a larger context, I then introduced Ackoff's hierarchy which I've come to call WUKID - Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Information and Data.

The blog post continues with more details on the knowledge management, and additional footnotes.  Continue reading this content at the Extreme Productivity by Design.

Interesting Systems Thinking Videos on YouTube

From YouTube

Systems thinking mirrors ecological thinking - looking at the context for problems and situations, treating them as emergent rather than isolated. It involves a sensitivity to wholes that is missing in analytical thinking (less)

Added: November 02, 2007
To watch the video, click on the following link: Change in Thinking - Systems Thinking

Value-creating Systems and Business Models: Systems Thinking Inside

On the Coevolving Innovation blog, David Ing wrote the following post on business models from a systems thinking perspective.  Here's an excerpt from that blog:

On my quest for management research based on systems theory, I’ve generally been disappointed since the systems foundations are rarely apparent from a superficial reading. Typically, when I read management research, I get a queasy feeling inside, because a lot of the content written is anti-systemic.

In contrast, when I read Johan Wallin’s 2006 book, Business Orchestration: Strategic Leadership in the Era of Digital Convergence, I felt strangely comfortable. I attribute this to the lineage from which Wallin has come, so that there is “systems thinking inside”. Wallin completed his dissertation in 2000 in association with Rafael Ramirez. Ramirez is a graduate of the Social Systems Science (S3) program¹ at the University of Pennsylvania, and now a professor at Oxford. In addition, Wallin worked closely with Richard Normann, immersing him in the Value Constellation model. I suspect that the average reader would be oblivious to the fine distinctions that systems theory makes. For management researchers, however, such foundations enable a strong scientific foundation, rather than simplified metaphors that break down under scrutiny.

This book is not targeted at academics, and includes many examples (e.g. Nokia, IBM, Toyota) that make the content easily digestable. For my research interests, however, I’m intrigued that Wallin has provided very specific definitions … with which I’m comfortable. I’m not necessarily a believer in objective definitions for business jargon, but they’re sometimes necessary to move forward. Thus, I’ll highlight some common business terms that everyone uses … and few define well.

The blog post continues with more details on the writings of Johan Wallin and Rafael Ramirez, and additional footnotes.  Continue reading this content at the Coevolving Innovations blog.