Making a Little Fun of Russia’s Powerful By ELLEN BARRY Cartoon versions of Prime Minister Putin and President Dmitri A. Medvedev on a television show may be a sign that political humor is returning to Russia.
Still images from “Mult Lichnosti”
Images of President Dmetri A. Medvedev, left, and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin show a willingness of Russian TV to parody.
Lean Improvement Initiative Without Technology Government Technology Lean deals with the 95 percent of waste that William Edwards Deming, who many consider the Lean movement's founder, taught is in every work process. ...
(161) 各位戴明學院的老師 好 我是12/14(六) 參加該學院的新朋友 很高興認識各位前輩 祝新的一年 大家身體健康 心想事成 另外 恭喜 官老師當選真理大學97學年度教學績優教師 A cheery Christmas and the New Year hold lots of happiness for you! 盧鑫理 敬上
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Spotlight:
This Year's Honorees
Who decides who gets the Kennedy Center Honors? Each year the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees receives a list of nominations for the Kennedy Center Honors from former award recipients and members of the Kennedy Center's national artists committee. The Board of Trustees then decides who will receive the honors. An annual event since 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors are considered one of the most prestigious awards an artist can receive for his or her contributions to American culture. This year's honors were presented two weeks ago, in a gala affair, to honorees Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert de Niro and Bruce Springsteen. The awards ceremony will be broadcast tonight at 9 PM ET on CBS-TV.
Quote:
"These performers are indeed the best. They are also living reminders of a single truth... the arts are not somehow apart from our national life. The arts are the heart of our national life." — Barack Obama, on this year's Kennedy Center Honors
Move over, it's my turn (KENTA SUJINO/ THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)
A Bengal tiger cub takes a swipe at a wide-eyed Jersey calf during a "changing of the guard" ceremony to mark the passage from the Year of the Ox to the Year of the Tiger at Tsutenkaku tower in Osaka's Naniwa Ward. In keeping with tradition, the humans at the event, now in its 54th year, used humor to coin one-liners that played on words associated with the two animals and poked fun at events of the past year while praying for better luck next year.(IHT/Asahi: December 29,2009)
New York Public LibrarySketches that were drawn by New York Public Library staff members in the process of designing a new lion logo.
The library lion has shed its shaggy mane for the digital age.
For the first time in at least a quarter century, the New York Public Library has unveiled a new logo, this one designed to work both online and in print. Consisting of a profile of a lion inside a circle, it sheds the fussy detail of the old one. Instead, it uses bold, simple lines that evoke the style of stained-glass windows, woodcuts, or old printers’ marks.
New York Public LibraryThe old logo of the New York Public Library would lose detail when it was too small.
New York Public LibraryThe library’s new lion logo.
The strong lines allow for the logo to be scaled to different sizes — a requirement in an age when people are as likely, if not more likely, to see a logo on their computer as they are in print. “It’s got to be able to work that small and that large,” explained Marc Blaustein, art director for the library system, who oversaw the creation of the logo. The old logo had a hard time maintaining its detail as it shrank, Mr. Blaustein said.
At the same time a logo can’t be overly simple. “If it gets too minimal, then it doesn’t have any energy,” said Brian Collins, a designer who has been involved with a number of logo redesigns, including one for Yahoo.
The new logo has already been introduced on the library Web site and will be adopted eventually on library signs, library cards, and printed materials. (One hopes it will have a more positive response than the New York City taxi logo.)
The library started considering a redesign more than a year ago, in large part because it wanted to convey a more modern and digital-friendly image. The process also included adoption of a new color palette and a new typeface. Instead of going to an outside agency, the task fell to the library’s own staff. “This is an in-house product,” said Paul LeClerc, president of the library.
The logo started with a lion — specifically, Fortitude, the northern of the two lions that flank the steps to the main library, also known as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. The other lion is Patience.
(”It’s primarily based on Fortitude, but it’s a combination of both,” said Mr. Blaustein. “The angle is Fortitude, but some of the features are inspired by Patience.”)
While the lion had to be the focus, the conceptualization of the design was left open. “We explored dozens of concepts and did hundreds of drawings,” Mr. Blaustein said.
After searching through hundreds of typefaces, the staff settled on a sans-serif typeface called Kievit, which was designed by Michael Abbink in 2001. It was chosen in large part because it was contemporary and worked well on the Web and in print.
In contrast, there are fonts, such as Microsoft’s Verdana, that are designed to be screen-friendly. But the migration of some of these fonts into print, as in the case of the Ikea catalog, can be very controversial among typeface aficionados.
One enduring mystery: the origins of the old logo and its age. Mr. Blaustein said his search had turned up little about its history. “No one knows who designed it,” he said. Libraries excel at preserving history, but not always, it seems, their own.
(139) Japan to End Cherry Blossom Season Forecasts
TOKYO (Agence France-Presse) — Japan’s weather agency said Friday that it would stop forecasting the start of cherry blossom season, an annual headache that has embarrassed forecasters in the past.
The agency has been trying since 1955 to predict when the cherry trees will bloom, a rite that draws millions who picnic under the petals. In 2007, the chief weatherman was forced to bow in apology after a wrong forecast. The agency will continue observing cherry trees to declare the official opening of the flower season, an official said.
(133) "...the main contribution of Individual Psychology...having the right understanding of the importance of cooperation.The science of life, the meaning of life, always demands cooperation...." Adler speaks : the lectures of Alfred Adlerp.8 (132)
歲末 多鼓吹您捐獻 譬如說 捐錢公視 多做事
Dear WQXR Listener,
In 2009, WQXR was transformed from a commercial station to a listener supported, public radio station. Classical music on New York City’s airwaves has been preserved so that WQXR will continue to thrive in 2010 and beyond with the support of our listeners.
As you reflect on 2009, and what WQXR means to you consider this: the gift you make today will help keep classical music on the air in New York in 2010.
[Middle English reconsiliacion, from Old French reconciliation, from Latin reconciliātiō, reconciliātiōn-, from reconciliātus, past participle of reconciliāre, to reconcile. See reconcile.]
Drucker Society of Mt. Vernon New advocacy organization promotes corporate and government social responsibility.
By Gerald A. Fill Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Mt. Vernon resident John Romanin, a local businessman, believes that America needs to teach its youth about the importance of ethics and responsibility and, in so doing, develop a new generation of leaders who will close the "responsibility gap" that exists today in government and business. He proposes to do this by exposing high school students and others in Northern Virginia and elsewhere to the writings, philosophy, and concepts of corporate social responsibility and management espoused by the late Peter Drucker.
Romanin formed the Drucker Society of Mt. Vernon (DSMV) because "I am gravely concerned about the economic future. Drucker was prescient when many years ago he described a conflict between political belief and social reality if the American people began to seriously question our free enterprise system. The propensity of present day leaders to resort to quick fixes is creating unimaginable problems for our children. "The Drucker Society of Mt. Vernon will focus programs that address what we refer to as the ‘responsibility gap;’ the growing distance between our obligations to be effective managers and ethical leaders and our actions. We will focus significant energy and the resources of our volunteers on the ‘Drucker in the High Schools’ program to do whatever we can to develop solid, effective leaders for our future." Plans are to kick off the first DSMV event this coming spring. Drucker, author, management consultant, teacher, business "guru," and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, is viewed by many as conceiving, through his writings and 39 published books ("Concept of the Corporation," "The End of Economic Man") the basis for responsible organized management as practiced in a number of corporations throughout the U.S. and the world.
The Drucker Institute, located at Claremont Graduate College where the late author taught, acts as a hub for a global network of what now numbers 26 Drucker Societies (including in China and Korea) that are trying to influence people to apply Drucker principles to everyday problems encountered in government and business. Romanin listed the following present day disciples of the Drucker philosophy: Eric Schmidt, current CEO, Google; Jack Welch, former CEO, General Electric, and Andrew Grove, former CEO, Intel.
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梁兄
感謝造訪 並饋贈 失意錄 hand to mouth 等書 這本2月前即在誠品大廣告 我過其門而不入
《中英對照讀新聞》FEMA suggests Christmas gifts for the disaster age 美國聯邦急難管理署推薦因應災變時期的耶誕禮物
◎魏國金
Imagine tearing open that large present under the Christmas tree with your name on it and finding inside... a fire extinguisher. Or a foldable ladder. Or a smoke alarm in that smaller box.
Those, plus a home disaster kit including food, water and prescription medications for 72 hours, or a first aid certification course are just some of the gifts that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency （FEMA） is suggesting Americans give their loved ones this holiday season.
"Giving a gift of a fire extinguisher might not be the first thing that springs to mind, but for the guy who has everything, it might be perfect," FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said.
FEMA also advised that, in addition to reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids, you take the occasion of having the whole family together to "develop a family disaster plan."
FEMA也建議，除了給孩子唸「平安夜」的故事外，你可趁此全家團圓的機會，「擬定家庭災難應變計畫」。
"What we’re saying is that the holidays are the only time families really get together. So it’s the ideal time to talk about a family plan in the event of a disaster," Fugate said.
spring︰在此有突然閃現之意。例句︰A rude remark sprang to my lips, but I managed not to say it.（一句無禮粗話突然來到我嘴邊，可是我總算沒說出來。）
take（seize）occasion︰趁機。例句︰I take occasion to tell him my work.（我趁機對他談談我的工作。）
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Cf. L. festina lente, make haste slowly; after [Suetonius Augustus xxv. 4.] nihil autem minus perfecto duci quam festinationem temeritatemque convenire arbitratur. crebro itaque illa iactabat: σρɛῦδɛ βραδέως, he [Augustus] thought that haste and rashness were alike unsuited to a well-trained leader. So he often came out with sayings like ‘make haste slowly’ [etc.]; [c 1385 Chaucer Troilus & Criseydei. 956] He hasteth wel that wisly kan [knows how to] abyde.
Gently make haste. ‥A hundred times consider what you've said. [1683 Dryden Poems (1958) I. 336]
Make haste slowly. [1744 B. Franklin Poor Richard's Almanack (Apr.)]
‘Festina lente,’ Miss Dora suggested slyly. ‘Not bad advice,’ Max said cheerfully. At Annie's glare, he added quickly, ‘Make haste slowly.’ [1989 C. G. Hart Little Class on Murder xii.]
Justin Loke talks to the CEO of the Medical Research Council (MRC) about the future for medical academia and the MRC
The first time I saw Professor Colin Blakemore was when he was delivering a lecture to the Oxford Medical Alumni at an annual meeting. The talk was on the field of work that made his name, the visual system. It was a fascinating and surprisingly accessible talk on some of the historical background to this area of research. This ability to make relatively complicated topics understandable to the public is probably one of the reasons why Professor Blakemore was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Research Council (MRC), which is the largest non-commercial funder of medical research in the United Kingdom.
After completing his pre-clinical degree at Cambridge, Professor Blakemore studied at Berkeley, California on a Harkness Fellowship, which was initially for a year but turned out to be two and a half, with a PhD. He returned to the Department of Physiology at Cambridge where he started by working with Fergus Campbell, who was a leading vision researcher. Together they did influential research, with one of the most highly cited papers in the field, supporting the view that the visual system performs a primitive Fourier analysis of the retinal image. It was Fergus Campbell who had persuaded Blakemore to abandon his University Scholarship for clinical studies at St Thomas’ Hospital and to embark on an academic career. “I never really looked back” he said, “but actually,” he wryly added, “I sometimes wondered what difference it would have made.”
Bearing in mind the massive problem faced by medical academia with recruitment into its ranks, especially at the training grades, I discussed with Professor Blakemore some of the changes proposed by the recent Walport report. The report on the academic stream of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) was chaired by the director of the Wellcome Trust, Dr. Mark Walport, and his report sought to address some of the issues surrounding the dramatic decline in doctors entering academia. Professor Blakemore, who was a member of the Walport Committee, believes that the strength of the report lies in its recognition of “the complexity of the problem”, since doctors are not only placed under a financial disincentive but are under pressure to prioritise their clinical work and to pursue their professional clinical development and gain National Training Numbers. The Walport report strove not only to allow more flexibility in lectureships and research fellowships but also to increase the absolute numbers of these posts. Although Professor Blakemore feels that the approach has been remarkably successful so far, especially in rallying so many of the funding bodies, and he is impressed by “the depth and conviction” of the report, he warns that significant obstacles still remain, not least the need to overcome the scepticism of some of the Trusts and some of the Royal Colleges.
The MRC has tried to play its part by increasing the number of its Fellowships, and by bringing them into line with the recommendations of the Walport report. The MRC offers Fellowships targeted at both training-level researchers and as well those who are better established in their field.
I voiced some of the cynics’ views that medical research is often fruitless and therefore that there might be little point in having more medical academics. Colin Blakemore was quite certain of his answer. Clinical research has never been more promising or more exciting. The MRC has consistently funded research with the intention of eventual clinical benefit and he personally believes that, while it is essential to support strongly curiosity-driven fundamental research, even the most basic researchers should be constantly thinking about possible implications and applications of their research. This is particularly important at a time when there is such a focus on translational research, aimed at bringing the benefits of scientific discoveries from the bench to the bedside, as well as feeding knowledge from clinical observation of human disease back to the bench scientists. Blakemore quotes Nobel Laureate, Sydney Brenner’s opinion that “the experimental animal of the 21st century is the human being”. He believes that clinical research in the 21st century will be potentiated by the unravelling of the human genome combined with increasing sophistication in experimental studies in human beings. Blakemore backs his belief in the importance of basic scientific research with the history of monoclonal antibodies. In 1975, César Milstein and George Köhler, working in the MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, developed a method for producing large amounts of pure antibody. They won the Nobel Prize for this work in 1984. The original objectives were to study the structure of antibodies and their diversity, and to use them to probe the molecular characteristics of different cell types in the body. Antibody engineering has played a crucial role in molecular biological research. But Milstein recognised immediately the potential commercial and medical value of monoclonal antibodies.
The technique has underpinned the development of the biotech industry and has now led to a whole new generation of so-called ‘biological’ diagnostics and therapies. The translational research needed for this was also done at the LMB, by Greg Winter in the 1980s. He devised ways of making antibodies acceptable to the human immune system, and this led to the development of such important drugs as Herceptin, Avastin, and Humira. Therapeutic antibodies now produce worldwide revenues well in excess of US $12 billion, contributing to a very significant income stream for the MRC.
Blakemore stresses two conclusions from this example. First, the essential underpinning science wasn’t aimed at medical application; it was curiosity-driven research of the highest quality. Second, the process of translating the discovery into hugely valuable products took more than 20 years. While it might be possible in the future to speed up the translation process, it is essential not to neglect the investment in basic science.
It would be hard to deny that I was impressed by the rigour of Blakemore’s arguments, which were backed by a number of other historical anecdotes. We moved on to discuss his views on the level of funding of the MRC. His answers were diplomatic but unequivocal. He said that “he did not wish to sound ungrateful” because the Labour government had halted the decrease in scientific funding by the Tories in the last years of their government and the overall level of public funding for science has increased greatly since 1999.
Admittedly, much of this increase has gone to investment in infrastructure and renovation in the universities and, recently, in the new Full Economic Costs (FEC) system; here, more is given to universities by research councils to pay for the overheads of research. Once again Blakemore’s command of the figures is persuasive: in a recent comparison of percentage increases in the budgets of medical funding agencies around the world, the MRC is at the bottom of the league table compared with such countries as Singapore, Canada and the USA. Per head of population, the NIH (the US equivalent of the MRC) spends 6.5 times more, and Singapore 8 times more than the MRC.
Despite a tripling in its funding of university research grants over the past 3 years, the MRC has the lowest rate of grant approvals of all the research councils, with fewer than 20% of grant applications being accepted. It is widely agreed among funding agencies that they have great difficulty in operating with a success rate below about 15%, because the peer-review process and the award committees become disillusioned, and the administrative burden becomes intolerably high. The peer review system is under challenge at the moment, not just because of its cost, but also because it might be biased against translational and applied research. But Blakemore argues that, although different types of peer review are needed for varying kinds of research, it is essential that the rigour of the process is sustained if we are not to waste money on studies of lower quality.
The annual increase in funding of the MRC between 2005 and 2008 will be little more than 4% per annum, after FEC and other unavoidable increases in costs are stripped from the figure. This is barely higher than the rate of domestic inflation, not to mention the larger inflator for medical research. Nevertheless, the MRC has managed to launch a wide range of new schemes to stimulate clinical and translational research, and to support young scientists. The recent review of public funding through the MRC and the Department of Health — the Cooksey review — offers new opportunities for increased efficiency, especially in clinical research. But Blakemore argues that a real increase in funding for the MRC is desperately needed to feed the capacity of UK researchers to contribute to future advances in medicine. He dreams of a doubling of the budget, which he believes would allow the MRC to build on its amazing track record of 27 Nobel Prizes and to make its proper contribution to the future health of the UK.
I questioned him on what alternatives there are to raising funds from the government. In response, he reminded me of the success of MRC Technology (MRCT), the knowledge transfer company of the MRC, which produces more income for the MRC than the technology transfer offices of all the British Universities combined. Last year MRCT completed a record deal with industry, worth a total of nearly $300 million, more than $200 million of which came to the MRC, based on the licensing of the anti TNF-a monoclonal antibody, Humira. However, despite this success in securing commercial income, Blakemore believes that this is no substitute for government funding to sustain the science base.
Given a shortage in the MRC’s funding for global health projects, Blakemore emphasised that the MRC wanted to sustain its strong tradition for supporting these, with two research units in Africa and research projects all over the world, as well as here in the UK. At the MRC’s National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, there is important work on malaria and TB, as well as the World Influenza Centre, and here in Oxford there is important research on vaccines for HIV and other diseases of the developing world.
Towards the end of the interview Blakemore admitted his nervousness about the future as he contrasted the prestigious history of the MRC and its extremely high standing around the world with the current statistics, which present a serious challenge to its standing in the international world of medical research
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1988
Further Up the Organization: How Groups of People Working Together for a Common Purpose Ought to Conduct Themselves for Fun and Profit 1988
The B-2 Chronicles: Uncommon Wisdom for Un-corporate America (Paperback) ~ Robert Townsend1995 From the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Up the Organization comes an engaging parable packed with valuable insights for the next generation of business. "The most original, zany, and important management book of the '90s."--Warren Bennis, author of On Becoming a Leader. (120)
As per our yesterday's meeting, some of you know I am compiling a book on the systems thinking, including authors of Herbert A. simon, C. West Churchman and Russell L. Ackoff, G. Bateson and some of the Deming School. Last night I am thinking about including Sir Geoffrey Vickers.
This morning I download this note for your reference.
^Peter Checkland (2004), "Webs of significance: the work of Geoffrey Vickers" in: Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Vol 22, Is 4 , Pp 291-298.
Singer had been a student of William James and Henry Bradford Smith.[1] He believed that there is no consciousness to be studied objectively by a science of mind. As an object for scientific psychology, he suggested behaviour, which was observable. But he was not a materialist. Neither was Singer an empiricist, his epistemology for a science of psychology was self described as Empirical-Idealism.
His pupils included Henry Bradford Smith, Edwin Ray Guthrie Jr., and C. West Churchman
---
Thomas A. Cowan, A Note on Churchman's "Statistics, Pragmatics, Induction.".
C. West Churchman, Reply to Comments on "Statistics, Pragmatics, Induction.".
**** Hasan Ozbekhan, Philadelphia, professor emeritus of management at the Wharton School; Feb. 12. He came to Penn in 1971 as professor of statistics and operations research. In 1979 he was appointed chair of the newly created Department of Social Systems Sciences. He also served as graduate group chair through 1983. He retired in 1993. While at Penn he was director of research for the Club of Rome, the international group of planners, diplomats, scientists, and academics; a paper he wrote, “The Predicament of Mankind” became an influential core document of the group. Now considered a “forward-looking document” by his former colleagues, it addressed issues of energy, overpopulation, resource depletion, and environmental degradation, and argued that global problems were interconnected and should be dealt with collaboratively. Dr. Ozbekhan also served, during the 1970s, as a consultant to the French government; in 1977 he presented a lecture on the future of Paris before the Royal Society in London.
---- Frederick Edmund Emery, nick Fred, (27 August 1925 – 10 April 1997) was an Australianpsychologist. He was one of the pioneers in the field of Organizational development (OD), particularly in the development of theory around participative work design structures such as self-managing teams. He was widely regarded as one of the finest social scientists of his generation. His contribution to the theory and practice of organizational life will remain important well into the 21st century, particularly amongst those who feel uncomfortable with hierarchical bureaucracy and want to replace it with something more human and democratic.
The three books that perhaps best convey his thinking are Toward a Social Ecology from 1972 with Eric Trist, On purposeful systems from 1972 with Russell Ackoff, and Futures We're In from 1977. He also edited for Penguin two volumes of readings called Systems Thinking (the initial volume was reprinted six times), which will long remain a staple resource on the origins and development of open systems thinking throughout the life sciences.[1]
*Andragogy is the process of engaging adult learners in the structure of the learning experience. The term was originally used by Alexander Kapp (a German educator) in 1833, was developed into a theory of adult education by the American educator, Malcolm Knowles, (April 24, 1913 — November 27, 1997). *
A Message from Dean of The Wharton School, Tom Robertson about Ackoff Memorial Service
Dear Colleagues,
As many of you already know, Penn lost a great citizen when Russell L. Ackoff passed away on October 29, 2009 at the age of 90. Russ was the Anheuser Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science, a transformative scholar dubbed the “father of operations research,” and an admired colleague, teacher, mentor, and friend. He had been on the Wharton faculty from 1964 until he retired in 1986, although he continued to be involved with programs in the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Wharton.
The Penn community will honor Russ’s legacy on February 12, 2010, from 2 to 3 p.m. in Ambani Auditorium, Jon M. Huntsman Hall. This date was selected by his family as it would have been his 91st birthday. There will be a reception immediately following in Huntsman Hall’s Patty and Jay H. Baker Forum. All are invited to attend... http://ackoffcenter.blogs.com/
*****
Russell L. Ackoff (born 12 February 1919 -2009 ) is leading American management expert in areas including systems theory. In 1957, his book, Introduction to Operations Research, co-authored with C. West Churchman and Leonard Arnoff, appeared as a pioneering text that helped define the field. Dr. Ackoff also has been referred to as the dean of the systems thinking community.
Dr. Ackoff received his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941. He then continued to study at the University of Pennsylvania where he subsequently received his Doctorate in Philosophy of Science in 1947. He next went on to receive his Doctorate of Science from the University of Lancaster in 1967. Throughout the years, Ackoff has held positons at various universities and institutions, as well as publishing numerous books and articles. His latest jobs are Chairman of Interact, the Institute for Interactive Management, and Professor Emeritus of the Wharton School.
Ackoff's work in research, consulting and education has involved more than 250 corporations and 50 governmental agencies in the U.S. and abroad. He has authored or co-authored 20 books and published over 150 articles in a variety of journals.
The Democratic Corporation A Radical Prescription for Recreating Corporate America and Rediscovering Success by Russell L. Ackoff, 1994.
Creating the Corporate Future by Russell L. Ackoff, 1981. Presents a participative systems approach to interactive planning. Describes how to formulate the system of problems and opportunities that face a corporation.
Ackoff's Best Timeless Observations on the Life of Business by Russell Lincoln Ackoff, 1999.
The Art of Problem Solving Accompanied by Ackoff's Fables by Russell L. Ackoff, 1987. Shows how to develop an understanding of the art of creative thinking and design creative solutions. Based on real problems faced by real managers.
Systems Thinking - Managing Chaos and Complexity : a Platform for Designing Business Architecture by Jamshid Gharajedaghi, 1999. An exceptional work based on experiences in five real companies using systems practice.
Video
A Day with Dr. Russel L. Ackoff - Video by Dr. Russel L. Ackoff, Nov 2000 Highly Recommended - Video of presentation to the Chicago-Kent College of Law. "Among the topics Dr. Ackoff discussed during the workshop were: The history and application of systems thinking...
Articles
An Idealized Design of the U.S. Healthcare System by Russell L. Ackoff et. al., Jan 1994 'A consortium consisting of representative stakeholders in the National Healthcare (so-called) System has produced a "true" redesign of that system.'
A Brief Guide to Interactive Planning and Idealized Design by Russell L. Ackoff, May 2001 "Interactive planning is directed at creating the future. It is based on the belief that an organization's future depends at least as much on what it does between now and then, as on what is done to it."
Design and Planning in Organizations by Russell Ackoff, Mar 1996 A great introduction to the Spring 1996 Center for Quality of Management Journal on this topic.
Interview with Russell L. Ackoff by Carole Novak, Sep 2000 "So many people spend their lives doing things they don't want to do. . . . The best kind of life is one in which the difference between work and play is zero."
Russell L. Ackoff - Systemic Approach to Innovation by Robert J. Allio, Sep 2003 Interview of Russell Ackoff. Managers "tend to look for simple, if not simple-minded, solutions to problems. For this reason managers are susceptible to management gurus pitching panaceas."
The Future of Operational Research is Past by Russell L. Ackoff, Jan 1979 "I hold academic OR and the relevant professional societies primarily responsible for this decline-and since I had a hand in initiating both, I share this responsibility. By the mid 1960's most OR courses in American universities were given by academics..."
Resurrecting the Future of Operational Research by Russell L. Ackoff, Jan 1979 "In a previous paper I tried to show that OR is in a mess. There is no one solution to a mess. What is needed are designs and inventions that will enable Operational Researchers to formulate their ideals explicitly, pursue them effectively..."
A Systemic View of Transformational Leadership by Russell L. Ackoff, Jul 1998 "Therefore, a transformational leader is one who can produce, or encourage and facilitate the production of, a mobilizing vision of a transformed system. Equally important, the leader must be able to inspire and organize or have organized an effective..."
Transforming The Systems Movement by Russell L. Ackoff, May 2004 "Systems thinking produces radical and potentially revolutionary visions of public institutions. Nothing short of such visions can transform the state of world affairs. I believe we have an obligation to the global society of which we are a part to make..."
The characteristic way of management that we have taught in the Western world is [to] take a complex system, divide it into parts and then try to manage each part as well as ...
Outstanding Publications The Leader's Handbook: Making Things Happen, Getting Things Done, Peter R. Scholtes, New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1998. $29.95 Every manager, every ...
Outstanding Publications The Leader's Handbook: Making Things Happen, Getting Things Done, Peter R. Scholtes, New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1998. $29.95 Every manager, every ...
Welcome to ManagementWisdom.com As collaborators with the late W. Edwards Deming and Dr. Russell L. Ackoff, we are pleased to keep the video rendering of their revolutionary ... the quality of life for more and more people. The Deming Library and Dr. Ackoff’s Better Management for a Changing World series are available on ...
On purposeful systems : an interdisciplinary analysis of individual and social behavior as a system of purposeful events / Russell L. Ackoff, Fred E. Emery ; with a new introduction by Brent D. Ruben
By Peter Day Presenter, BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service
It is always exciting to meet a real subversive, especially when he (or she) is old and wise.
Henry Ford's business model still influences our thinking unduly
Russell Ackoff was in London the other day to launch a new book and he fits all the categories.
He is 88 and simply bubbles with ideas about what's wrong with the way business works.
His new book is all about the F-Laws, uncomfortable truths about the (mistaken) way most organisations are run.
The flaws come from decades of repeated management mistakes and conventional business teaching.
When I met him just before a packed session at the London School of Economics, Russell Ackoff told me how he came by his unorthodox approach to management and how much most organisations still have to learn.
"Companies and organisations get things wrong most of the time," he said.
"The average life of a US corporation is only 11-and-a-half years, the rate of bankruptcy is increasing very year. There's a great deal of evidence that we don't know how to manage organisations very effectively.
"The F-Laws are simply based on observations over the year about regularities which are destructive to organisations."
Parts and wholes
As that word "regularities" might suggest, Russell Ackoff started academic life as a specialist in operational research.
The important switch in his own life occurred with the rise of systems thinking in the 1970s.
Meet the business subversive
As he puts it, corporate problems were arising that could not be solved by simply taking care of the parts, the obsession of operational research.
"We found that we could improve part of a corporation and destroy the whole by improving the part."
From this emerged Russell Ackoff's obsession with seeing the system as a whole - a personal change which coincided with the rise of system dynamics as a brand new way of looking at organisations, in the round.
He was a friend and associate of the still-influential management expert W Edwards Deming, the man who took quality to Japan and then saw it bounce back to his native US.
Russell Ackoff thinks that, imprisoned in centuries of Western education which values only analytic thought, most people cannot do the "synthetic" thinking that sees an organisation as an intermoving whole.
Analytic thinking uses research and experimentation. Design is the way that synthetic thinking operates, putting things together rather than taking them apart.
Changing times
This enthusiasm may spring from his upbringing. Russell Ackoff trained as an architect, not at a business school.
"Architects have to start with the concept of the buildings as a whole - they don't start with the details," he says.
Russell Ackoff's insights come from his background in architecture
"Complexity is not a problem to the architect, but it is to the analyst. The architect puts things together into wholes, as opposed to what business people do, putting parts together to make wholes."
Business people still inspired by Henry Ford are told to "Keep It Simple, Stupid", to create chains of processes that cannot go wrong.
But they can and they do go wrong - and so do the businesses they run in that Fordist way.
Henry Ford arranged his production lines around untrained workers who were pouring off the boats seeking jobs in Detroit, dividing tasks up into tiny pieces which an unskilled and illiterate worker could perform.
But things were changing fast, says Russell Ackoff.
"At the beginning of the 1900s in the US, the average educational level of the worker was barely above literacy.
"By World War II, it had risen to eight years of schooling.
"During WWII, we started to employ women who were not working primarily for money.
"When the men returned, fed up with military discipline, we had a conversion from the mechanistic to the biological concept of the corporation - corpus means body, after all.
"The CEO was called the head of the corporation - machines didn't have heads. Ford had been called the 'controller' of Ford Motor Company," Russell Ackoff points out.
Interactivity
"Since then, there's been a third change, seeing the corporation as a social organisation. Now we must treat the parts as having purposes of their own, which must be served if the corporation is to be served.
Car production lines now are not the same as in Henry Ford's day
"Charles Handy is one of the principal prophets of this, looking at companies as communities."
Management is now about managing interactivity. An educated workforce is full of people who know more about their jobs than their supervisors. On the Ford production line, the supervisor was the man who knew the job best.
Ford's organisation was almost autonomous, making everything it needed. Now many companies, such as Dell Computers, merely assemble things made by others.
The interaction of independent parts has become the critical thing in organisations. And few, says Professor Ackoff, have much idea how to do it.
Russell Ackoff's book, Management F-Laws: How Organisations Really Work (with Herbert Addison and Sally Bibb), is published by Triarchy Press. In the next Work in Progress, more from the Professor: the truth about business schools.
Work in Progress is the title of this exploration of the big trends reshaping the world of work as we steam further into the 21st Century; and it is a work in progress, influenced and defined by my encounters as I report on trends in business and organisations all over the world.
In the 1970s and 1980s the at the Wharton School, according to Nicholson and Myers (1998), was "noted for combining theory and practice, escaping disciplinary bounds, and driving students toward independent thought and action. The learning environment was fostered by distinguished standing and visiting faculty such as
From 1986 to 2009, Ackoff was professor emeritus of the Wharton School , and chairman of .從1986年至2009年，艾可夫是沃頓商學院 的名譽教授兼任互動管理學院Interact, the Institute for Interactive Management主席。從1989年至1995年他任華盛頓大學(聖路易)客座市場營銷教授 。
1967年英國蘭開斯特大學授予Ackoff 名譽科學博士。1971年他得到Operational Research Society的銀牌獎。Other honors came from the Washington University in St. Louis in 1993, the in 1997, , Lima in 1999 and , UK in 1999.其他榮譽來自華盛頓大學(聖路易)在1993年，紐黑文大學University of New Haven在1997年，1999年兩所大學: the Pontificia Universidad Catholica Del Peru(秘魯，利馬)，和英國的the University of Lincolnshire & Humberside。那年從英國系統學會為他送來了系統思考與實踐領域的傑出成就獎。
Ackoff 1949年7月17日與 Alexandra Makar結婚。他們有三兒女: Alan W., Karen B., and Karla S. [ 1 ]1987年2月 Alexandra 歿後, Ackoff 於1987年12月20日與 Helen Wald再婚 。[1]
Russell Ackoff started his career in Operations Research end 1940s.阿可夫在他的職業生涯開始運籌 20世紀40年代末。His 1957 book Introduction to Operations Research , co-authored with C. 1957年他的書介紹到行動研究 ，共同撰寫的長West Churchman and Leonard Arnoff was one of the first publications, that helped define the field.丘奇曼和Leonard Arnoff是首批出版物，即幫助定義字段。The influence of this work, according to Kirby and Rosenhead (2005), "on the early development of the discipline in the USA and in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s is hard to over-estimate". [ 2 ]影響這項工作的，按照柯比和羅森黑德（2005年），“關於早期發展本學科在美國和英國在50年代和60年代，是很難估計過高。”[2]
In the 1970s he become one of the most important critics of the so called "technique-dominated Operations Research", and starting proposing more participative approaches. 20世紀70年代，他成為一個最重要的批評的所謂“技術為主的行動研究”，並開始提出更多的參與方式。His critics, according to Kirby and Rosenhead (2005), had "resonance within the USA, but were picked up both in Britain, where they helped to stimulate the growth of Problem Structuring Methods, and in the systems community world-wide" [ 2 ] , such as Soft systems methodology from Peter Checkland .他的批評，根據柯比和羅森黑德（2005年），有“共振在美國，但回升都在英國，在那裡他們幫助，以刺激增長的問題的構建方法，在系統社會世界各地的”[2 ]，如軟系統方法從切克蘭德 。
In 1972 Ackoff wrote a book with Frederick Edmund Emery about purposeful systems, [ 4 ] which focused on the question how systems thinking relates to human behaviour .阿可夫在1972年寫了一本與馮埃德蒙金剛砂有目的的系統，[4]其重點議題是如何系統思想涉及到人的行為 。"Individual systems are purposive", they said, "knowledge and understanding of their aims can only be gained by taking into account the mechanisms of social, cultural, and psychological systems". [ 2 ] “個人系統是有目的”，他們說，“知識和了解他們的目的，只能由獲得考慮到機制，社會，文化和心理系統”。[2]
Any human-created systems can be characterizes as "purposeful system" when it's "members are also purposeful individuals who intentionally and collectively formulate objectives and are parts of larger purposeful systems". [ 5 ] Other characteristics are:任何人創建的系統可以定性為“有目的的制度”時的“成員也有目的的個人和集體誰故意制定的目標和同屬大目的的系統”。[5]的其他特徵是：
"A purposeful system or individual is ideal-seeking if... it chooses another objective that more closely approximates its ideal". [ 6 ] “有目的的系統或個人的理想追求，如果它選擇了另一條...目標，更接近理想”。[6]
"An ideal-seeking system or individual is necessarily one that is purposeful, but not all purposeful entities seek ideals", [ 6 ] and “一個理想的追求系統或個人是一個一定是有目的的，但不是所有目的的實體尋求理想”，[6]和
"The capability of seeking ideals may well be a characteristic that distinguishes man from anything he can make, including computers". [ 7 ] “的能力，尋求理想的可能是一個人的特點是從什麼區別，他可以，包括計算機”。[7]
According to Kirby and Rosenhead (2005), "the fact that these systems were experiencing profound change could be attributed to the end of the "Machine Age" and the onset of the "Systems Age". The Machine Age, bequeathed by the Industrial Revolution , was underpinned by two concepts – reductionism (everything can in the end be decomposed into indivisible parts) and mechanism (cause-effect relationships)". [ 2 ] Hereby "all phenomena were believed to be explained by using only one ultimately simple relationship, cause-effect ", which in the Systems Age are replaced by expansionism and teleology with producer-product replacing cause-effect .據科比和羅森黑德（2005），“事實上，這些系統正在經歷深刻的變化可能是由於年底的”機器時代“和發病的”系統時代“。機器時代遺留下來的工業革命 ，是建基於兩個概念- 還原 （什麼都可以最終分解成不可分割的一部分）和機制 （因果關係）。“[1]特此”一切現象，相信是解釋最終只使用一個簡單的關係， 因果 “，這是時代的系統所取代擴張主義和目的論與生產者的產品替代的因果 。" Expansionism is a doctrine maintaining that all objects and events, and all experiences of them, are parts of larger wholes." [ 8 ] According to Ackoff, "the beginning of the end of the Machine Age and the beginning of the Systems Age could be dated to the 1940s, a decade when philosophers, mathematicians, and biologists, building on developments in the interwar period, defined a new intellectual framework". [ 2 ] “擴張主義理論是一個保持所有的對象和活動，以及所有的經驗，其中，有部分大的整體。”[8]據可夫，“開始的結束和機器時代的開始年齡的系統可可追溯到20世紀40年代，10年時，哲學家，數學家，生物學家，建設發展，在兩次世界大戰期間，確定了新的知識框架“。[2]
In 2006, Ackoff worked with Herbert J. Addison and Sally Bibb. 2006年，阿可夫同赫伯特J. Addison和薩利比伯。They developed the term f-Law to describe "each in a collection of subversive epigrams, co-authored with Herbert J. Addison. The f-Laws expose the common flaws in both the practice of leadership and in the established beliefs that surround it. According to Ackoff f-Laws are truths about organizations that we might wish to deny or ignore - simple and more reliable guides to managers' everyday behavior than the complex truths proposed by scientists, economists, sociologists, politicians and philosophers". [ 9 ]他們制定了長期的F -法來 形容，“每一個集合顛覆警句，合著與赫伯特J.艾迪。的F -法律的共同缺陷暴露無論是實踐的領導和建立信仰圍繞著它。據阿可夫的F -法律是對組織的真理，我們不妨否認或忽視-簡單，更可靠的指南，以管理者的日常行為較複雜的真理提出的科學家，經濟學家，社會學家，政治家和哲學家。“[9]
[ edit ]White House Communications Agency[ 編輯 ]白宮通信局
In collaboration with Dr. J. Gerald Suarez, Ackoff's ideas were introduced and implemented at the White House Communications Agency and The White House Military Office during the Clinton and Bush administrations, a historic effort to bring the White House into the age of systems thinking . [ 10 ]在合作與哲基爾醫生杰拉爾德蘇亞雷斯，阿可夫的想法，建立和實施在白宮通訊局和白宮軍事辦公室主任期間， 克林頓和布什行政當局，一個歷史性的努力，使白宮成為時代的系統思維 。 [10]
[ edit ]Relationship to Peter Drucker[ 編輯 ]彼得德魯克的關係
Russell Ackoff was friends with Peter Drucker from the earliest days of their careers.阿可夫好友， 彼得德魯克從最早的天自己的職業生涯。Mr. Drucker acknowledged the early, critical contribution Russ made to his work - and the world of management in general - in the following letter, which was delivered to Russ by former General Motors VP Vince Barabba on the occasion of the 3rd International Conference on Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM) held at the University of Pennsylvania, May 19-24, 2004:德魯克先生承認的早期，拉斯作出重要貢獻他的工作-和世界普遍的管理-在下面這封信被送到拉斯前通用汽車公司副總裁文斯巴拉巴了會見第三屆國際會議系統在管理的思考（ICSTM）舉行的賓夕法尼亞大學，五月19日至24日，2004：
“I was then, as you may recall, one of the early ones who applied Operations Research and the new methods of Quantitative Analysis to specific BUSINESS PROBLEMS -- rather than, as they had been originally developed for, to military or scientific problems. “我當時，你可能還記得，一個早期的誰運籌學與應用的新方法定量分析的具體業務問題-而不是，因為他們原先制定，軍事和科學問題。I had led teams applying the new methodology in two of the world's largest companies -- GE and AT&T.我領導的小組採用新的方法在世界上兩個最大的公司-通用電氣公司和AT＆TWe had successfully solved several major production and technical problems for these companies -- and my clients were highly satisfied.我們已成功地解決了幾個主要的生產和技術問題為這些公司-和我的客戶都非常滿意。But I was not--we had solved TECHNICAL problems but our work had no impact on the organizations and on their mindsets.但我並沒有-我們解決了技術問題，但我們的工作沒有任何影響的組織和他們的心態。On the contrary: we had all but convinced the managements of these two big companies that QUANTITATIVE MANIPULATION was a substitute for THINKING.相反：我們所有的管理人員，但相信這兩個大企業，定量操控代替思考。And then your work and your example showed us--or at least, it showed me--that the QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS comes AFTER the THINKING -- it validates the thinking; it shows up intellectual sloppiness and uncritical reliance on precedent, on untested assumptions and on the seemingly “obvious.” But it does not substitute for hard, rigorous, intellectually challenging THINKING.然後你的工作和你的例子表明，我們-或者至少，這表明我-說來定量分析後，思考-它證明了思想，它顯示了知識產權草率和不加批判的依賴先例，對未經檢驗的假設和這種似乎“很明顯。”但這並不能取代硬，嚴謹，智力挑戰的想法。It demands it, though -- but does not replace it.它要求的，雖然-但不會取代它。This is, of course, what YOU mean BY system.這是當然，你所指的制度。And your work in those far-away days thus saved me -- as it saved countless others -- from either descending into mindless “model building” -- the disease that all but destroyed so many of the Business Schools in the last decades -- or from sloppiness parading as 'insight.'”和您的工作在這些遙遠的日子，從而救了我-因為它挽救了無數人-從任一降入愚蠢“的模式建設” -所有的疾病，但摧毀了那麼多的商學院在過去幾十年裡-遊行或草率的'了解'。“
1947, Measurement of Consumer Interest , with CW Churchman and M. Wax (ed.). 1947年， 測量與消費者有關的 ，與連續丘奇曼和M.蠟（編）。
1950, Methods of Inquiry: an introduction to philosophy and scientific method , with CW Churchman. 1950年， 調查方法：1介紹哲學和科學方法 ，用化學武器丘奇曼。Educational Publishers: St. Louis.教育出版商：聖路易斯。
1953, The Design of Social Research . 1953年， 在社會研究設計 。
1957, Introduction to Operations Research , with CW Churchman and EL Arnoff. 1957年， 介紹運籌學與連續丘奇曼和EL Arnoff。John Wiley & Sons: New York.威利父子：紐約。
1961, Progress in Operations Research , I. Wiley: New York. 1961年， 運籌學進展 ，一威利：紐約。
1962, Scientific Method: optimizing applied research decisions , Wiley: New York. 1962年， 科學方法：優化應用研究決定 ，威利：紐約。
1963, A Manager's Guide to Operations Research , with P. Rivett. 1963年，管理者的行動指南的研究 ，與體育裡韋特。Wiley: New York.威利：紐約。
1968, Fundamentals of Operations Research , with M. Sasieni. 1968年， 運籌學的基本原理 ，與M. Sasieni。John Wiley & Sons: New York.威利父子：紐約。
1970, A Concept of Corporate Planning . 1970年，這一概念的企業策劃 。Wiley-Interscience: New York.威利-跨學科：紐約。
1972, On Purposeful Systems: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Individual and Social Behavior as a System of Purposeful Events , with Frederick Edmund Emery , Aldine-Atherton: Chicago. 1972年， 有目的的系統：一個跨學科的分析個人和社會行為作為一個系統有目的的活動 ，與馮埃德蒙金剛砂 ，奧爾代恩，阿瑟頓：芝加哥。
1974, Redesigning the Future: A Systems Approach to Societal Problems . 1974年， 重新設計的未來：系統方法的社會問題 。John Wiley & Sons: New York.威利父子：紐約。
1974, Systems and Management Annual , (ed.). 1974年， 系統和管理年 ，（編）。
1976, The SCATT Report , with TA Cowan, Peter Davis (Ed.). 1976年， 斯卡特報告 ，與TA科文， 彼得戴維斯 （主編）。
1976, Some Observations and Reflections on Mexican Development . 1976年， 一些看法和思考墨西哥發展 。
1978, The Art of Problem Solving: accompanied by Ackoff's Fables . 1978年， 藝術問題解決：伴隨著阿可夫的寓言 。John Wiley & Sons: New York.威利父子：紐約。Illustrations by Karen B. Ackoff.插圖由Karen乙可夫。
1981, Creating the Corporate Future: plan or be planned for . 1981年， 創建企業的未來：規劃或計劃 。John Wiley & Sons: New York.威利父子：紐約。
1984, A Guide to Controlling Your Corporation's Future , with EV Finnel and J. Gharajedaghi. 1984年， 一本指南對於控制你的企業的未來 ，腸病毒士芬聶爾和J. Gharajedaghi。
1984, Revitalizing Western Economies , with P. Broholm and R. Snow. 1984年， 西方經濟振興與體育Broholm和河雪。
1991, Ackoff's Fables: Irreverent Reflections on Business and Bureaucracy . 1991年， 阿可夫的寓言：叛逆的思考商業和官僚主義 。John Wiley & Sons: New York.威利父子：紐約。
1994, The Democratic Corporation: a radical prescription for recreating corporate America and rediscovering success . 1994年， 民主黨公司：一個激進的處方重現美國企業和重新發現的成功 。Oxford Univ.牛津大學。Press: New York.新聞：紐約。
2003, Redesigning Society , with Sheldon Rovin. 2003年， 重新設計協會 ，與謝爾登Rovin。Stanford Univ.斯坦福大學。Press: Stanford, Calif.新聞：斯坦福大學，加州
2006, Idealized Design: How to Dissolve Tomorrow's Crisis Today , with Jason Magidson and Herbert J. Addison. 2006年， 理想化的設計：如何化解明天的危機今日 ，賈森馬吉德松和赫伯特J.艾迪。Wharton School Publishing.沃頓商學院出版社。Upper Saddle River, NJ. Upper Saddle River的新澤西州。
1968, "General Systems Theory and Systems Research Contrasting Conceptions of Systems Science." 1968年，“一般系統理論與系統研究對比系統科學概念。”in: Views on a General Systems Theory: Proceedings from the Second System Symposium, Mihajlo D. Mesarovic (Ed.).在：觀看關於一般系統論：從二訴訟制度研討會，米哈伊洛D.梅薩羅維奇（主編）。
1975, "Advertising Research at Anheuser-Busch, Inc. (1963-68)", with James R. Emshoff, Sloan Management Review , 16 (2), pp. 1-15. 1975年，“廣告研究的安海斯公司（63年至1968年）”，與詹姆斯河Emshoff， 斯隆管理評論，16（2），頁。1-15。
1975, "A Reply to the Comments of Yvan Allaire", with James R. Emshoff, Sloan Management Review , 16 (3), pp. 95-98. 1975年，“答复的評論伊凡阿萊爾”，與詹姆斯河Emshoff， 斯隆管理評論，16（3），頁。95-98。
2003, Terrorism: A Systemic View , with Johan P. Strumpfer, in: Systems Research and Behavioral Science 20, pp. 287-294. 2003年， 恐怖主義：系統性的觀點 ，與約翰體育Strumpfer在： 系統研究與行為科學 20，頁。287-294。
^ ab RL Ackoff et al. ^ 1b RL可夫等。(2006) On purposeful systems: an interdisciplinary analysis of individual and ... （2006年） 有目的的系統：一個跨學科的分析個人和...p.241.p.241。
^ This is really a video; part of _The Deming Library_ series, produced by Clare Crawford Mason) Real publication date is 1993.^這的確是一個視頻;部分兩隊的戴明Library_系列，生產的克萊爾克勞福德梅森）實時出版日期是1993年。
ACASA Ackoff Collaboratory for Advancement of the Systems Approach, center for the vanguard of systems approaches, since July 2000.ACASA可夫合作實驗室的地位問題的系統方法，中心系統的先鋒隊的辦法，自2000年7月。
"Google Offers Peek at Operating System, a Potential Challenge to Windows " ****
(87) Getting rid of what one does not want is not the same as getting what one wants. --- Ackoff *****
Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath studies innovation, corporate venturing, and entrepreneurship. She is well known for developing practical tools and frameworks to make the innovation process less risky and difficult, and to bring a dose of reality to growth programs. She works extensively with leadership teams in Global 1,000 companies.
...I was the last Ph.D. student ever to graduate from Ackoff's Social Systems Sciences program (founded in 1980) at The Wharton School. His program was a bit of an anomaly, even at the time. Wildly popular with Wharton's MBA students, it had an uneasy relationship with the more conventional academic activities of the school. In the Center's heyday, "Triple S" students did action research with companies, while their peers did statistical analysis of large data sets. His students were interested in ideas that cut across intellectual boundaries. They were pragmatic; some observers thought this left them without sufficient academic rigor. Eventually, because of this uneasy fit, Russ decided to leave the university. He retired in 1986 to found INTERACT, a consulting company. Ironically, his program in the 1980s was pursuing the kind of management training and problem solving that advocates are nowurgently calling on business schools to provide.
Ackoff's ideas had a profound impact on business schools and on several generations of managers. At a time when business schools were becoming increasingly discipline-based and quantitative, he was an ardent advocate for viewing problems systematically, across intellectual boundaries, and with qualitative insight. In the program he designed, we learned to think the way architects do — to construct a whole solution out of constituent parts that work together, rather than to optimize any given piece of the solution. He was involved in businesses as diverse as selling beer, developing the first touch-tone phone, and sorting out incentive problems with public bus drivers. He had learned that all kinds of complex problems could be tackled by first understanding what kind of problem one was facing, then by working to "dissolve" the problem.
Russ never took himself, or the problems people were facing, too seriously. Iconoclastic and humorous in person, his books Management in Small Doses and Ackoff's Fables encouraged readers to find the humor in business situations. His wonderful writing was accessible to people who wouldn't exactly have been enthralled to read On Purposeful Systems: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Individual and Social Behavior as a System of Purposeful Events.
What Russ spent his life developing — a systems view of complex problems — has now been so widely adopted that we have forgotten that he was one of a relatively small band of scholars and teachers who pioneered this way of thinking.
Eventually Ackoff resumed his affiliation with Penn. In September 2000, he was honored by the establishment of the Ackoff Center for Advancement of Systems Approaches in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. In 2003, at age 87, he returned to Penn as Distinguished Affiliated Faculty to teach a graduate course in "Systems Thinking Applied to Management" and to advise graduate students.
If you have ever solved a problem not by breaking it down into constituent parts, but by looking at the whole thing systemically, or by re-framing the problem to begin with, you have probably been influenced by Russ Ackoff. He will be missed, but his ideas live on.
crafts・man 職人; 技芸家; 熟練工.
Very relevant titles entries 24-27
