Errors of omission, lost opportunities, are generally more critical than errors of commission. Organizations fail or decline more frequently because of what they did not do than because of what they did.
Russell L. AckoffTraditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning by those who are taught. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without its being taught to us. A child learns such fundamental things as how to walk, talk, eat, dress, and so on without being taught these things. Adults learn most of what they use at work or at leisure while at work or leisure. Most of what is taught in classroom settings is forgotten, and much or what is remembered is irrelevant.
Russell L. AckoffFor me there has never been an amount of money that makes it worth doing something that is not fun.
Russell L. AckoffNothing is harder to topple than a fact that supports a deeply held prejudice denied by its holder.
Russell L. AckoffArt inspires, produces an unwillingness to settle for what we have and a desire for something better. It is the product and producer of creative activity, change; it is essential for continuous development.
Russell L. AckoffSuccessful 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. AckoffMost corporate mission statements are worthless. They consist largely of pious platitudes such as: "We will hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism and ethical behavior." They often formulate necessities as objectives; for example, "to achieve sufficient profit." This is like a person saying his mission is to breathe sufficiently.
Russell L. AckoffIn systems thinking, increases in understanding are believed to be obtainable by expanding the systems to be understood, not by reducing them to their elements. Understanding proceeds from the whole to its parts, not from the parts to the whole as knowledge does.
Russell L. AckoffManagers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes. Problems are extracted from messes by analysis. Managers do not solve problems, they manage messes.
Russell L. AckoffEvery problem interacts with other problems and is therefore part of a set of interrelated problems, a system of problems. I choose to call such a system a mess.
Russell L. AckoffCommon sense … has the very curious property of being more correct retrospectively than prospectively. It seems to me that one of the principal criteria to be applied to successful science is that its results are almost always obvious retrospectively; unfortunately, they seldom are prospectively. Common sense provides a kind of ultimate validation after science has completed its work; it seldom anticipates what science is going to discover.
Russell L. AckoffTo manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.
Russell L. AckoffManagers who don't know how to measure what they want settle for wanting what they can measure.
Russell L. AckoffUnless people can express themselves well in ordinary English, they don't know what they are talking about.
Russell L. AckoffSo much time is currently spent in worrying about the future that the present is allowed to go to hell.
Russell L. AckoffCreativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal.
Russell L. Ackoff