On the Use of Models in Corporate Planning’ by Russell Ackoff- and Why Militaries Should Read this.

Ben Zweibelson, PhD

 

Image source: https://twitter.com/reuterspictures/status/1623019893720248320/photo/1

When the military thinks “problem”, what is the very next word associated? 100% of the time, it is “solution.” We correlate a “problem-solution” formulaic arrangement through our particular doctrinal, linear-causal, systematic manner of pairing a managerial decision-making methodology (called JPP, MDMP, MCPP, and a host of cloned equivalents) with a mechanistic, Taylorism inspired and Newtonian styled frames (paradigms) for interpreting reality. But is there more than “Imagine goal, find problem preventing said goal (ends), identify solution, direct ways and means to solve problem, achieve predetermined goal, rinse, repeat?”

Okay, I just tossed out a bunch of concepts that either cause readers to say “what the hell is that”, or for some, a fierce crossing of the arms and a “harumph, that is not true! Military doctrine is the best. Have you read the new FM 3–0?” If you are still reading, rest assured, I can provide links and sources to these important concepts. But let’s get to Ackoff and this nice, short article that is pound-for-pound, one of the most powerful articles I use in design education. Ackoff delivers in a mere 8 pages some mind-blowing content, all conveyed in non-academically dense sentences. This article should be read by everyone involved in military education, particularly at the cadet and basic levels in my opinion- as this would help confront the complete dominance of our ancient Greek logic that posits “individual plus designed action leads to planned result”, or “it is better to do anything rather than nothing”- the basis for our legends and lore of heroic action, our basis for leadership, and our basis for “ends-ways-means is the best framework for appreciating complex reality and simplifying it so we can observe, orient, decide, and act faster and better than a rival”- hence the Boydian priests that overlap with the High Priests of von Clausewitz (they share common ground in ancient Greek logics).

On the Use of Models in Corporate Planning’ by Russell Ackoff- and Why Militaries Should Read this.