Russell L. Ackoff Quotes

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English does not contain a suitable word for 'system of problems.' Therefore, I have had to coin one. I choose to call such a system a mess

Russell L. Ackoff
A bureaucrat is one who has the power to say no but none to say yes. Bureaucrats can find an infinite number of reasons for rejecting any proposed change, but can find none for accepting it.

Russell L. Ackoff
Managers cannot learn from doing things right, only from doing them wrong

Russell L. Ackoff
A system is more than the sum of its parts; it is an indivisible whole. It loses its essential properties when it is taken apart. The elements of a system may themselves be systems, and every system may be part of a larger system.

Russell L. Ackoff
[The environment of a system is] a set of elements and their relevant properties, which elements are not part of the system, but a change in any of which can cause or produce a change in the state of the system.

Russell L. Ackoff
When a business is bought, it is bought for its potential—for its future, not its past.

Russell L. Ackoff
An organization's mission statement:
(1) should contain its reasons for existence and its most general aspirations, its ideals.
(2) It should identify in very general terms the way(s) by which the organization will pursue its ideals, that is, the business it wants to be in.
(3) It should formulate the ways by which it will attempt to serve each of its stakeholder groups.
(4) It should meet the preceding requirements in a way that is exciting and challenging to all its stakeholders. Finally,
(5) it should establish the uniqueness of the organization.

Russell L. Ackoff
A system is a set of two or more elements that satisfies the following three conditions. (1) The behavior of each element has an effect on the behavior of the whole. (2) The behavior of the elements and their effects on the whole are interdependent. the way each element behaves and the way it affects the whole depends on how at least one other element behaves. (3) However subgroups of the elements are formed, each has an effect on the behavior of the whole and none has an independent effect on it.

Russell L. Ackoff
Because a cause was taken to be sufficient for its effect, nothing was required to explain the effect other than the cause. Consequently, the quest for causes was environment-free. It employed what we now call 'closed-system' thinking. Laws. —like that of freely falling bodies—-were formulated so as to exclude environmental effects.

Russell L. Ackoff