Dr. Russell Ackoff, Design is the Answer

by Haley Campbell

Dr. Russell Ackoff was an architect, system thinker, and philosopher who constantly studied human systems and human behavior. Although, one of the most fascinating systems of human behavior he examined was problem solving.

His overall mantra seemed to mimic the famous Albert Einstein quote:

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”

— Albert Einstein

Like Einstein, Ackoff thrived on creative thinking and would constantly shift boundaries to reframe problems, including the problem of problems and problem solving. How very meta of him.

He explained his thinking so beautifully, when he said, “a problem is to reality what an atom is to a table. People experience tables not atoms”. We experience the whole, and reality is a whole mess of problems interacting simultaneously. “Reality is a system of problems”.

Dr. Russell Ackoff, Design is the Answer