Russell L.

Ackoff (1919-2009)

Designing a Systems Approach to

Quality
Gregory H. Watson

In Remembrance of Russ Ackoff

After World War II, the US War Production States sought to preserve the scientific
knowledge gained during the war support efforts. Major advances expanded
theoretical knowledge (e.g., development of the discipline of operations research
and mathematical modeling) and practical advances of knowledge came from the
intense manufacturing efforts (e.g., application of statistical methods in a practice
of control for production methods). But somehow theory and practice diverged –
and today we are worse off because of it. That is the lifetime message of Russ
Ackoff, a man who had one foot firmly planted in mathematical-analytical disciplines
and the other in humanistic-participatory teamwork. His life story is instructive for
quality professionals as it trace the development of systems thinking in its
migration over 60 years.

Russell L. Ackoff (1919-2009)

The Two Paths Diverged – Why did they do that?

The quality movement has missed incorporating some important ideas from great
thinkers who in an indirect way have influenced our movement. This happens
because we don’t clearly view these people as “quality professionals” and don’t
consider their concepts part of the quality body of knowledge. In doing this we limit

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our perspective. This was why, in 2001, ASQ interviewed Peter F. Drucker (1909-
2005) on the subject of quality. Peter Drucker’s management thinking influenced
both W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993) and Joseph M. Juran (1904-2008) as all three
worked together at the New York University Graduate School of Business in the
early 1950s. Other individuals have also had a more quantitative influence on the
quality movement.

In the post-war period many great minds were focused on the mathematical
modeling of real world problems and this was tightly coupled with the emerging
quality movement. For instance, on the West Coast of the United States George B.
Danzig (1919-2005), the man who invented linear programming, was a colleague in
the Stanford University Industrial Engineering department with Eugene L. Grant
(1900-1998). Today Danzig’s methods for linear programming and queuing theory
are gaining attention for possible inclusion in the Six Sigma body of knowledge and
Grant’s control chart lessons from the eight day World War II courses are the
foundation of all training in statistical process control.

The East Coast also observed a significant advancement of knowledge that occurred
in the New York-Philadelphia corridor during the mid-1950s. This was the ‘Silicon
Valley’ of the emerging ‘analytical’ age that was precursor to the information age:
George D. Edwards (1890-1974), Walter A. Shewhart (1891-1967), Harold F. Dodge
(1893-1977) and Harry G. Romig (1900-1985) were all at Western Electric; Albert
Einstein (1879-1955) and John W. Tukey (1915-2000) were at Princeton; Mason E.
Wescott (1902-1998) and Ellis R. Ott (1906-1981) were at Rutgers; Peter F. Drucker
(1909-2005), Joseph M. Juran (1904-2008) and W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993) all
taught at the New York University Graduate School of Business. And in the middle
of all these great minds we observe that Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was at
Princeton.

The first book on operations research was written by Philip M. Morse (1903-1985)
and George E. Kimball (1906-1967), based on work of the Antisubmarine Warfare
Operations Research Group (ASWORG) in the United States. 1 Morse returned to MIT
after the war to begin the Operations Research Center and apply these methods to
society’s problems. Kimball returned to New York City and taught operations
research and chemistry at Colombia University.

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The Career of Russell Lincoln Ackoff
Born: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 12 February 1919

Educated:
PhD, Philosophy of Science, University of Pennsylvania (1947)

Occupation:
Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus, Management Science, Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania

Service:
• President, Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) (1956–1957)
• President, Society for General Systems Research (1987)

Awards:
• Silver Medal from the British Operations Research Society (1971)
• George E. Kimball Medal, Operations Research Society of America (1975)
• Outstanding Achievement Award, United Kingdom Systems Society (1999)
• Fellow, American Statistical Association (ASA)
• Fellow, International Academy of Management (AOM)
• Fellow, Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS)
• International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS) Hall of Fame
(2005).

Honorary Doctorates:
• University of Lancaster (1967)
• Washington University (1993)
• University of New Haven (1997)
• Pontifica Universidad Catholica del Peru (1999)
• University of Lincolnshire and Humberside (1999)

Publications:
Ackoff authored 22 books and over 250 articles. Among his most important books
were:
• R. L. Ackoff, C. W. Churchman and E. L. Arnoff, Introduction to Operations
Research (New York: John Wiley & Sons: New York (1957).
• R. L. Ackoff and Frederick Edmund Emery, On Purposeful Systems: An
Interdisciplinary Analysis of Individual and Social Behavior as a System of
Purposeful Events (Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, 1972).
• R. L. Ackoff, The Art of Problem Solving: accompanied by Ackoff's Fables (New
York: John Wiley & Sons, 1978).
• R. L. Ackoff, Creating the Corporate Future: plan or be planned for (New York:
John Wiley & Sons, 1981).
• R. L. Ackoff, Ackoff's Fables: Irreverent Reflections on Business and Bureaucracy
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991).
• R. L. Ackoff, The Democratic Corporation: a radical prescription for recreating
corporate America and rediscovering success (New York: Oxford Press, 1994).

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• R. L. Ackoff, Herbert J. Addison and Sally Bibb, Management f-Laws (Devon:
Triarchy Press, 2007).

Russ Ackoff: Bridge Between Analytical and Systems Thinkers

In the Mid-west an influential center of analytical thinking was created at Case
Institute of Technology (now named Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland
where Ackoff founded one of the first academic departments of operations research
in 1951. Ackoff is often called the “father of operations research” as he wrote one
of the first and most authoritative textbooks on the subject in the 1950s. He wrote
an article for Industrial Quality Control (the previous name of Quality Progress)
to introduce this subject in 1952.2 This illustrates the high degree of cross-over that
occurred among these disciplines at the time of their infancy.

While Ackoff began his academic career in operations reseach, he gradually

transitioned to focus upon developing a purposeful approach to systems. Ackoff’s
Introduction to Operations Research observed that problems arise if
management responsibility is highly segmented. If operations research is used to
identify “best decisions relative to as large a portion of total organizations as
possible” then it can help resolve this problem. Of course this is a core idea in
systems thinking. Over the years Ackoff gradually more became disenchanted with
intense analytical models that were applied on ever reduced practical problems.
Ackoff moved his group enmass to the University of Pennsylvania in 1963 and by
the early 1970s he had became one of the chief critics of what he called a
“techniques-dominated” approach to operations research while becoming a leading
advocate for a more participative systems approach.

Ackoff straddled quantitative and qualitative disciplines. His legacy endures as a

pioneer of operations research and systems thinking. He transitioned in careers
during the early 1970s when he realized that: “Numbers are not enough to describe
reality. Measures are part of a management system and they should support how
managers make decisions.” This echoes Deming. Deming and Ackoff agreed on
many points. Deming also advocated a systems approach to problems (along with
Drucker and Juran). Deming (echoing Ackoff) observed that “you can’t run a
company based on visible figures alone – it is important to know what is behind the
figures.”3 Ackoff greatly influenced Peter Drucker and they were long-term friends.
Ackoff was familiar with Deming’s work, having met him in the early 1950s over
Deming’s interest in operations research. Ackoff lectured about systems in The
Deming Library videos produced by Clare Crawford Mason in 1993 and his
systems thinking had a strong influence on Deming.4

Ackoff identified himself more with systems thinking as he claimed operations

research had become too "narrow and inward-looking," and was limited by an
increased emphasis on mathematics.5 In order to understand Ackoff, we must learn
about thinking flaws, problem solving, and analysis of purposeful systems.

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Systems Thinking Confronts Problematic Messes
In 1972, Ackoff wrote On Purposeful Systems. He observed that, "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.” For Ackoff, a
purposeful system is formed by linking work, people and things and examining their
total social, cultural and psychological implications. In a purposeful system,
participants are dedicated individuals who intentionally and collectively formulate
objectives that are part of the greater purpose in a larger system which seeks to
achieve a specific ideal or objective. This behavior distinguishes man from those
things that mankind makes.

This helps to understand why Ackoff rejected operations research. The analytic way
to solve problems is addresses the complex system and divides it into parts to
evaluate each part separately. The theory in this approach is that when all
individual parts behave well, then the total system will behave well. This does not
work, because it is not possible to improve the performance of each part of a
system separately as this destroys the integration of the system as a whole. This is
like having just one organization function operate at a World Class level as the rest
of the organization struggles to keep up. The weakest part of a system will
ultimately destroy the whole. Ackoff observed flaws in behavior of managers which
he humorously characterized as “F-Laws!” Ackoff described flawed (F-laws)
practices and beliefs of managers.

• 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.
• Managers who don’t know how to measure what they want settle for
wanting what they can measure.
• There is nothing that a manger wants done that educated subordinates
cannot undo.
• The less sure managers are of their opinions, the more vigorously they
defend them.
• The more time managers spend trying to get rid of what they don’t
want, the less likely they are to get what they do want.
• A bureaucrat is one who has the power to say ‘no’ but none to say
‘yes.’
• The legibility of a male manager’s handwriting is in inverse proportion
to his seniority.
• The less important an issue is, the more time managers spend
discussing it.

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 • The more important the problem a manager asks consultants for help
on, the less useful and more costly their solutions are likely to be.
• Managers cannot learn from doing things right, only from doing them
wrong.
• The amount of irrationality that executives attribute to others is
directly proportional to their own.
• There is no point in asking consumers, who do not know what they
want, to say what they want.
• Overheads, slides and power point projects are not visual aids to
managers. They transform managers into auditory aids to the visuals.

Flawed thinking creates problems over time and Ackoff calls this “The Mess.” This
occurs when organizations concentrate on growth (volume of productivity or
revenue) over the development of its people and processes. Growth stimulated by
mergers and acquisitions may make a company bigger, but this does not
necessarily improve development by increasing capacity of processes or ability to
serve customers. Consider human growth: our bodies eventually stop physical
growth, but mentally we can continue development. Thus, we should focus on
system development not a single dimension of growth which is limited. This
objection is raised against using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to indicate the
national economic vitality. GDP measures productivity and emphasizes growth, but
it does not measure development which is a product of social dimensions such as
education, healthcare and quality of life – which require a more socially responsive
metric. But this is difficult! Ackoff commented that: “The only problems that have
simple solutions are simple problems. The only managers that have simple
problems have simple minds. Problems that arise in organizations are almost
always the products of interactions of parts (of a system), never the action of a
single part. Complex problems do not have simple solutions.” Ackoff enjoyed
Einstein's admonition to “make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.” It
describes a systems way to approach problem analysis.

Problems, according to Ackoff, generally arise from disconnects in systems. His

approach to systemic problem-solving is to “dissolve” complex societal or
organizational problems by engaging stakeholders in designing permanent
solutions. He often quoted Einstein’s warning “we can’t solve problems by using
the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” To manage a system
effectively, you must focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their
behavior taken separately – systems thinking as opposed to analytical reductionism.

Problem solving requires a system. This system must not only solve problems by
developing corrective actions, but it must also maintain control over solutions and
prevent new problems from occurring. These elements interact with each other. If
the interactions are well designed and organized, problem solving will be effective.

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If problems are not dissolved (solved permanently so they do not return), then the
act of problem-solving will create “The Mess” – future problems to be experienced
that we create today! We must beware of creating a legacy “Mess” today as we
approach the financial crisis!

However, our modern culture is built upon the analytical lessons of the war years.
The assumption is that if we understand how the parts of something work then by
assembling all the parts you are competent to build the whole. We run our
businesses this way. Operating organizations are divided into different functions,
products, geographies, etc. and then aggregated to assemble an entire
organization. This is a great way to construct “The Mess.”

Our society supports a culture of specialists who apply analytic-reductionist logic in

all core disciplines. For example, accounting systems record mistakes of
commission – when an activity does not proceed according to plan. However,
accounting does not record mistakes of omission – things that have not been done
that should have been, nor does it identify opportunity costs, or correct analytical
problems from the over-reliance upon poor statistical models. To gain profound
knowledge of systems requires that we blend both analytical and systemic
perspectives in order to discover those invisible connections between things that
don't have obvious connections. If our society is to move beyond the mess that we
have today, we must integrate analytical thinking with systems thinking.

Take the Road Less Traveled – It makes all the Difference!

So, was a system thinking approach used in the economic crisis? Just ask: Why did
we get into this mess? Did we apply restricted analytical thinking to parts of the
financial system or did we think broadly about the entire system? A systems
thinking approach requires discipline to think differently. Of course, we used the
approach that worked effectively sixty years ago: the analytical-reductionist
viewpoint. We developed financial instruments independent of their potential
impact on global economic systems. ‘The Mess’ was created by the fact we simply
failed to understand interactions of the elements in our global economic system.
Ackoff could have been an intellectual leader to move us toward this objective.
However, we have made little progress in applying systems thinking to social
systems. There are some successes: a system thinking approach is embedded in
the performance model of The UN Global Compact and it has also been adapted by
the corporate social responsibility community; however, it needs to become a
dominant way of thinking, not just a cultural artifact.

Ackoff preferred that we learn for ourselves. He rejected the label of “guru” even
though it was often used to describe him in the press. Ackoff once said: “I am not a
guru ... gurus encourage followers who do things their way. I am an educator ... I
encourage others to go out and adapt these ideas ... to do whatever is going to be
the most effective solution for them.”6 While gurus develop doctrinaire thinking

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and seek disciples who blindly advocate their theory without deviation, Ackoff liked
to encourage people to think differently and he inspired progressive learning
through systems thinking. We must accept that this is a fundamental cornerstone
for quality methods in the 21st century. If we think differently, using a systems
approach, then maybe we can act more decisively and work to remove ourselves
from the mess that we find ourselves in today because we have used only
yesterday’s thinking to try to solve today’s problems.

About the Author:

Gregory H. Watson is a Past-President and Fellow of ASQ, President of the

International Academy for Quality and Chairman of Business Excellence Solutions,
Ltd. He resides in Espoo, Finland.

References:

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1
Philip M. Morse and George E. Kimball, Methods of Operations Research (Cambridge: MIT Press,
1945)
2
Russell L. Ackoff, “Operations Research in Business and Industry,” Industrial Quality Control, Vol.
8, No. 6, May 1952, pp. 41-50.
3
W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986), pp. 121-126.
4
In Volume 21 of The Deming Library, videotape series, Ackoff describes his ideas about systems
thinking and their application to organizations (http://managementwisdom.com/abdrrusac.html).
5
Kirby and Rosenhead, "IFORS’ Operational Research Hall of Fame—Russell L. Ackoff,"]
6
Ackoff Center for Advancement of Systems Approaches, "Russell L. Ackoff, Management
Consultant and Systems Thinker, 1919-2009," Oct. 30, 2009,
http://ackoffcenter.blogs.com/ackoff_center_weblog/2009/10/index.html.