Quotes from Russell Ackoff

A good deal of the corporate planning I have observed is like a ritual rain dance; it has no effect on the weather that follows, but those who engage in it think it does. Moreover, it seems to me that much of the advice and instruction related to corporate planning is directed at improving the dancing, not the weather.

The only problems that have simple solutions are simple problems. The only managers that have simple problems have simple minds. […] Complex problems do not have simple solutions.

Man seeks objectives that enable him to convert the attainment of every goal into a means for the attainment of a new and more desirable goal. The ultimate objective in such a sequence cannot be obtainable; otherwise its attainment would put an end to the process. An end that satisfies these conditions is an ideal… Thus the formulation and pursuit of ideals is a means by which to put meaning and significance into his life and into the history of which he is part.

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.

Nothing consumes time like nothing.

What appears to be black on white to whites may appear to be all white to black.

The less we understand a phenomenon, the more variables we require to explain it.

Nothing consumes time like nothing.