Russell L. Ackoff Short Quotes

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Nature is not organized in the same way that universities are.

Russell L. Ackoff
The future is better dealt with using assumptions than forecasts.

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

Russell L. Ackoff
It is far better to do the right thing wrong than to do the wrong thing right.

Russell L. Ackoff
Over time, every way of thinking generates important problems that it cannot solve.

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

Russell L. Ackoff
Nothing is harder to topple than a fact that supports a deeply held prejudice denied by its holder.

Russell L. Ackoff
Unless people can express themselves well in ordinary English, they don't know what they are talking about.

Russell L. Ackoff
A mission statement should define the business that the organization wants to be in, not necessarily what it is in.

Russell L. Ackoff
The higher standard of living, the more consideration we give to the fun we derive from what we do and its meaningfulness.

Russell L. Ackoff
A subject may be said to be in such a state if he (it) wants something and has unequally efficient alternative ways of trying to get it.

Russell L. Ackoff
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
The lower the rank of managers, the more they know about fewer things. The higher the rank of managers, the less they know about many things.

Russell L. Ackoff
Another common deficiency is the failure of some panaceas to take into account a social system's developmental responsibilities to its stakeholders.

Russell L. Ackoff
Unless the information overload to which managers are subjected is reduced, any additional information made available by an MIS cannot be expected to be used effectively.

Russell L. Ackoff
We can only learn from mistakes, by identifying them, determining their source, and correcting them... people learn more from their own mistakes than from the successes of others.

Russell L. Ackoff
It is the satisfaction we derive from 'going there' in contrast to the satisfaction derived from 'getting there.' Recreation provides 'the pause that refreshes.' It recreates creators.

Russell L. Ackoff
The effort to get rid of what we do not want is reactive, retrospectively oriented problem solving. The effort to obtain what we want is proactive, prospectively oriented problem solving.

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
A corporation that fails to see itself as an instrument of all its stakeholders will probably fail to use them, and be used by them, effectively enough to survive in the emerging environment.

Russell L. Ackoff
The basic managerial idea introduced by systems thinking, is that to manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.

Russell L. Ackoff
Problem solving has traditionally been taken to be an essential function of management. Through systems thinking, however, we have come to doubt the existence of problems and solutions to them.

Russell L. Ackoff
Successful problem solving requires finding the right solution to the right problem. We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.

Russell L. Ackoff