Russell Lincoln Ackoff

By Maurice W. Kirby and Johnathan Rosenhead

A chapter from the book: Profiles in Operations Research, Pioneers and Innovators

Written, Compiled and Edited By Arjang A. Assad and Saul I. Gass

The book which is published by Springer, includes 43 profiles of who is who in OR, organized chronologically. The book exposes "the history of the origins and early development of OR, how it evolved, all interwoven with personal backgrounds, tales, vignettes, and pictures." The chapter on Ackoff is very interesting and informative. Specifically, It covers his early years including his relationship with his parents and his family as well as his education at the University of Pennsylvania.

 

The Ackoff Centre for Systems and Design Thinking at Da Vinci Institute, South Africa

The Ackoff Centre for Systems and Design Thinking at Da Vinci Institute, Johannerburg, South Africa was launched in May 2010. The Da Vinci Institute is a school of management leadership focusing on, the Management of People, Innovation, Technology and  Business. In celebration of the pioneering work in Systems and Design Thinking developed by the late Prof Russell Ackoff, Da Vinci embarked on a journey to develop an intimate working relationship with Prof Ackoff which resulted in the Design Thinking methodology offered by The Ackoff Centre for Systems and Design Thinking at Da Vinci.

The Ackoff Centre at Da Vinci

 

 

A call for participation in San Jose, CA USA, July 15-20, 2012

The systems sciences provide a platform of concepts and language that enables communities of interest to transcend disciplinary boundaries towards developing new knowledge and perspectives. The ISSS 2012 theme of Service Systems, Natural Systems draws attention to complex issues in today's world, where dialogue amongst the learned may lead to better futures.

The 56th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, July 15-20 2012, at San Jose State University, California

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