Dr. Russell Ackoff on Systems Thinking - Pt 2

Dr. Russell Ackoff on Systems Thinking

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Ackoff
• Systems Thinking
• Systems
• Solutions
• Management

[chrisofnottingham]

Notice how he chooses the questions so that they are unanswerable without recourse to historical information? If you want to know why a car needs dampers (shock absorbers) just take them off and see what happens but a historical understanding of transport will never tell you why. Different questions need different approaches.

[SteveBrant55]

@chrisofnottingham It all depends on what you are trying to learn. Do you want to improve the whole system of where you work, play, or learn (all of which are part of the system called "life")... or do you want to see if something still works when you remove one of its parts. It's all about the question you are trying to answer.

[chrisofnottingham]

@SteveBrant55 Yes, that is indeed the point I made. Personally, I'm more interested in how to dissipate the power of an oscillating mass than knowing why we drive on a particular side of the road. 

[SteveBrant55]

@chrisofnottingham I"m not sure what "the power of an oscillating mass" refers too (what "mass"?), but I wish you all the best in what you're doing.

[chrisofnottingham]

@SteveBrant55 I was referring to the dampers on cars in my example - they are there to dissipate the energy of a car bouncing when it goes over a bump. I like finding out about the details inside things :-)

[SteveBrant55]

@chrisofnottingham I understand now.  Thanks for explaining. :-)

[sstoy10]

Very interesting, thanks for uploading.

[Jim87541]

But dampers are not an essential part of the system, a car will work quite well for its intended purpose, i.e. moving a person from point a to point b, without shock absorbers. shock absorbers improve the system, i.e add to the comfort and safety of the traveller, but they are neither necessary nor sufficient for the purpose of the system as a whole. Listen to it again with that perspective.

[Nextbigdeal]

That is because by doing that you are looking at a systems approach everything is in a system every cause has a minimum of two affects.

[fergy11111]

@chrisofnottingham Someone sent me a quote years ago which I framed "the people that focus on how work for the people that know why"

There are plenty of German engineers who knew how during WW2 .. well you can guess the rest ....

Without a bigger picture you end up with things like great cars just too many for the planet to cope with. Focusing on the detail leads to deforestation on a scale the planet can't cope with. It means there are now no fish for the fishermen to catch in the North Sea