ALL associates Group

Dr. Russell Ackoff’s Five Assumptions
commentary from ALL associates Group
on the synergies between his

 work and our EDAM® Services

Acknowledgements to Dr. Russell Ackoff and Dr. W. Edwards Deming for their thoughts and words on understanding the importance of “Systems Thinking”

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 possible. And if that’s done, the system as a whole will behave well. That’s absolutely false, because it’s possible to improve the performance of each part taken separately and destroy the system at the same time. (The Deming Library, Vol. 21)

Dr. Ackoff is Chairman of the Board of INTERACT, The Institute for Interactive Management. Since 1986 he has been the Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is also the Anheuser-Busch Visiting Professor of Marketing, Olin School of Business, Washington University, St. Louis.

W

The Past

(knowledge & engineering)

Data

Information

(description)

Knowledge

(instruct how to)

Understanding

(explanation why)

Wisdom

 (evaluated understanding)

 

The Future

 (vision & design)

Doing things right

Doing the right things

t = theory

e = experience

 

Source: Russell Ackoff’s Theory of Wisdom

The critical deficiency under which most managers operate is lack of relevant information.
  • ALL associates’ role is to illuminate fragmented data and change it into relevant information, knowledge and understanding.
  • Wisdom can only be preceded by understanding.

The manager needs the information he wants.

·     ALL associates’ role is to broaden the manager’s view on what he/she needs information on.

·     If it’s out of sight – it’s out of mind.

If a manager has the information he needs his decision making will improve.

·     ALL associates’ role is to dramatically reduce the time to arrive at improved decision making.

·     Time is the ultimate limited resource.

Better communication between managers improves organizational performance.
  • ALL associates’ role is to collaboratively share knowledge on business processes that extend over organizational silos.
  • Sharing the vision means joining-the-dots.

A manager does not need to understand how his information system works, only how to use it.
  • ALL associates’ role is only focused on “how”. We already know “where” to look; “what” to look for; “why” we should be looking – and the “when” is now!

·     Vision without action is a daydream: action without vision is a nightmare.

 

 

 

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Future Wisdom — doing the right things