June 30, 2023
Human-Centered Systems Thinking
A holistic approach to problem-solving starts with people.
People are at the heart of every complex human system--but they’re often the most overlooked. Effective problem solvers today know how to visualize the larger dynamics of the system while staying grounded in the needs of people. In this course, you’ll learn to combine the analytical tools of systems thinking with the creative mindsets of human-centered design to make sense of complex systems challenges. Explore mapping tools to identify the right places to focus, surface insights about your stakeholders, and pick the most impactful solutions to experiment with so you can go beyond the obvious and design lasting solutions.
Course Outcomes
- Gain techniques for mapping complex systems and identifying the root causes of a problem.
- Establish a shared view of the system and reframe problems from different perspectives to uncover new solutions.
- Find the right problems to solve and pick the best solutions to experiment with.
- Deepen your understanding of your organizational systems by taking an iterative approach to testing solutions and gaining insights.
Posted by ACASA on June 30, 2023 at 10:27 PM in Systems Articles | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 15, 2018
An Evaluation of R.L. Ackoff’s Interactive Planning: A Case-based Approach
Russell L. Ackoff developed the Interactive Planning (IP) methodology as a conceptual tool to guide systematic and systemic development of organizations. One of its unique features is that such development should be ideal-oriented. IP has been well received
within the Systems Thinking community in particular; where more than 300 applications of IP are mentioned. However, it has not been easy to answer the question:‘‘does the use of IP enable that which it is proposing to enable?’’ as there have been no systematic, empirically grounded, and critically oriented, evaluations of IP. This study attempts to offer such an evaluation. In this case, IP was employed to support a comprehensive development of a Department within a company. This IP application was evaluated using a set of predefined evaluation criteria derived from the IP as such and also from its critique. The results suggest that IP is indeed a powerful methodology to guide organizational development. While IP has several positive merits, a set of limitations were
identified and serve here as a basis for deriving recommendations for the practitioners of IP and also suggestions of areas that merit further IP research.
Download Evaluation of Interactive Planning
Posted by ACASA on March 15, 2018 at 03:31 PM in Systems Articles | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 19, 2008
How to sweep away a safety mess
In the current issue of ISHN, James E. Leemann, Ph.D. writes: " The safety and occupational health world is a total mess." He defines the "mess", and proposes the systems approach to dissolving the mess, based on the work of Russell Ackoff.
To read this article, please click on the following link: How to sweep away a safety mess
Posted by ACASA on September 19, 2008 at 12:40 PM in Systems Articles | Permalink | Comments (0)
November 02, 2007
Leadership and Systems Thinking
Posted by ACASA on November 2, 2007 at 03:47 PM in Systems Articles | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 19, 2007
Terrorism: A Systemic View
Russell L. Ackoff1* and Johan P. Stru¨mpfer2
1The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
2Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Broadly
speaking, ‘terrorism’ is regarded as extremely violent behavior by what is
normally considered to be a minority subgroup of society. The value system in
which terrorism is imbedded is not universally shared within the larger society
from which it emanates. Terrorists form a movement that pursues a cause defined
by its aims which, in turn, are defined within a value framework that may be
political, religious, social or economic. Its objective is to obtain acceptance
of its value system and its aims. In pursuit of this objective it applies
violence aimed at creating terror and anxiety in one or more target societies.
To read this article, please download the pdf file: Download Terrorism.pdf
Also, if you wish to see the ppt presentation, please click on: http://www.infoamerica.org/documentos_pdf/ackoff01.pdf
Originally published in:
Systems Research and Behavioral Science
Syst. Res.20, 287^294 (2003)
Posted by ACASA on April 19, 2007 at 03:17 PM in Systems Articles | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 07, 2007
Why few organizations adopt systems thinking
BY: Russell L. Ackoff
I frequently talk to groups of managers on the nature of systems thinking and its radical implications to management. In doing so I use several case studies involving prominent American corporations. At the end of the presentation I am almost alwaysasked, "If this way of thinking is as good as you say it is, why don't more organizations use it?"
It is easy to reply by saying that organizations naturally resist change. This of course is a tautology. I once asked a vice president of marketing why consumers used his product. He answered, "Because they like it." I then asked him how he knew this. He answered, "Because the use it." Our answer to the question about failure of organizations to adopt systems thinking is seldom any better then this.
There be many reasons why any particular organization fails to adopt systems thinking but I believe there are two that are the most important, one general and one specific. By a general reason I mean one that is responsible for organizations failing to adopt any transforming idea, let alone systems thinking. By a specific reason I mean one responsible for the failure to adopt systems thinking in particular.
To read the rest of this article, please download the the pdf file: Download Why_few_aopt_ST.pdf
This article is also published in Systems Research and Behavioral Science. 23, 705-708 (2006).
Posted by ACASA on March 7, 2007 at 11:25 AM in Systems Articles | Permalink | Comments (3)
March 08, 2006
Consumer Idealized Design: Involving Consumers in The Product Development Process
by Susan Ciccantelli and Jason Magidson
A product or service is designed effectively if it provides consumers with what they want, rather than merely removing what they do not want. But determining what consumers need or will want is an effort that does not often meet with success. In fact, suppliers' beliefs about consumers' wants have led to more product failures than successes. The main reason for this is not hard to understand: Consumers' needs and desires are elusive because consumers themselves generally have not consciously formulated what they are or how to fulfill them.
Even when consumers are aware of what they
want and are willing to reveal it, their wants are likely to be conditioned
by what is available. And when the product or service available is basically
unsatisfying to them, they are unlikely to reveal startling new desires or
concepts. At best, the typical ways in which
consumers are involved in
product design-focus groups, surveys and questionnaires-tend to elicit mostly
information about what they do not want, rather than startling new insights
about what they really want or need. This is due in part to the fact that
people often attempt to provide answers that they think the inquirer wants,
rather than probe for their own preferences.
So the search continues, and product developers continue to seek ways to help consumers (1) become more aware of what they need or want, and (2) reveal these wants as accurately as possible. One such way, developed by Russell L. Ackoff, is a process called Consumer Idealized Design (Consumer Design).
To read this article, click on the link: Consumer Idealized Design: Involving Consumers in The Product Development Process.
Posted by ACASA on March 8, 2006 at 01:14 PM in Systems Articles | Permalink | Comments (3)
February 01, 2006
A Major Mistake That Managers Make
By Russell L. Ackoff
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
…
in business, if mistakes are made and laws are not broken, you rarely see any
formal investigation. Even when the companies themselves look into what
happened, they don’t do it in a structured and rigorous way. They don’t learn anything
from the process. (Mittelstaedt, Jr., 2005)
Schools, including
business schools, do not even reveal the fact that there are two kinds of
mistakes.
To read this article, click on the link: A Major Mistake That
Managers Make
Posted by ACASA on February 1, 2006 at 01:53 PM in Systems Articles | Permalink | Comments (2)
July 18, 2005
Social Network Analysis and Systems Change
Roberta
M. Snow, Ph.D. and Evan A. Leach, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania and
Contact: Roberta M.
Snow @ [email protected]
Snow and Leach provide an example of how systems methodology and
social science methods have evolved on parallel tracks. Social network
analysis provides a tool for systems thinkers and interventionists to describe
and understand a system from its members points of view.
To
read this article, click on the link: Social Network Analysis and Systems
Change.
Posted by ACASA on July 18, 2005 at 02:15 PM in Systems Articles | Permalink | Comments (2)
December 03, 2004
A Systemic View of Transformational Leadership
By Russell L. Ackoff
Systemic Practice and Action Research, (1998), 11(1), 23-36
What do systems thinkers think about leadership? Russell Ackoff provides his response, and goes further to describe "transformational" leadership. Important distinctions are drawn between the concepts of leadership and transformation, efficiency and effectiveness, growth and development. Ackoff discusses four types of systems and emphasizes that leaders must understand the particular nature of their system in order to achieve transformation.
To read this article, click on the link: A Systemic View of Transformational
Leadership.
********
A Systemic
Transformation
Types of Systems: Deterministic, Animated, Social,
Ecological
Transformational leaders are driven by ideas, not by the expectations of others. They are skillful at beating the system, not surrendering to it.
Transformational leaders must understand the nature of a system. A system is a functioning whole that cannot be divided into independent parts and be effective.
A system is transformed when the type of system it is thought to be is changed.
Posted by ACASA on December 3, 2004 at 02:26 PM in Systems Articles | Permalink | Comments (2)