A Major Mistake that Managers Make

Full Transcript of the Talk given by Russell L. Ackoff at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006.

All through school we are taught that making a mistake is a bad thing. We are downgraded for them. When we graduate and enter the real world and the organizations that occupy it, the aversion to mistakes continues. As a result one tries either to avoid them or, if one is made, to conceal it or transfer blame to another.

We pay a high price for this because one can only learn from mistakes; by identifying and correcting them .

To read the transcript, Download Ackoff: A major mistake that managers make.