[p2p-research] Fwd: Systems Thinking for Curious Managers

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Triarchy Press ~ Andrew Carey <andrew at triarchypress.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 9:42 PM
Subject: Systems Thinking for Curious Managers
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com


Dear Michel,

As Jamshid Gharajedaghi rightly says: "Talking about Russ Ackoff is not an
easy proposition." But, in the week of his long-awaited Memorial Service and
celebrations, it seems fitting to try. The many tributes written about and
to him in recent months have included:

“…a Renaissance Man, architect, city planner, philosopher, behavioral
scientist, trailblazer in the field of organizational operations, the
pre-eminent authority on organizational systems theory.”

“a very great man… the only person I can compare him to is Einstein. And
that's because [Russ Ackoff] transformed the world of problem solving just
as Albert Einstein transformed he world of science.”

“one of the most influential management gurus of the 20th century.” - “a
brilliant thinker… a clever and humane voice.”

“an extraordinary storyteller. His lectures were breathtakingly witty and
studded with anecdotes. Russ made us feel as smart as he was. He made us
grow."

Others have reminded us of his intellectual rigour. “No sloppiness allowed.
No weakness of logic.” Still others have observed that he could be tormentor
as well as mentor.

This week I read Peter Fischli and David Weiss’s delightful "Will Happiness
Find Me?" In it they ask, amongst other things: “Is my brain a poorly
furnished apartment?” and “Will children sing songs about me in a hundred
years?”. It’s fun to imagine what songs children might sing about Russ. And
it’s certain that his brain was not poorly furnished. It also seems unlikely
that even the best-known management gurus of our time will be remembered
with more genuine respect, affection and admiration than Russ Ackoff.

Given all that, it's a delight, an honour and an enormous sadness to be
posthumously publishing a final collection of his work this week. Called
"Systems Thinking for Curious Managers", this little book has a moving
Foreword by Jamshid Gharajedaghi and includes the last 40 of Russ's
(previously unpublished) f-Laws. [Like the first set of 80, published in
2007 as "Management f-Laws", these are also co-authored with Herb Addison.]

This new book takes its title from the Introduction - an extended essay that
I wrote to summarise the principles of Systems Thinking and link them to the
f-Laws. Russ had generously approved my Introduction a few weeks before he
went into hospital - insisting only that I remove some references which
might have (wrongly) suggested that he found one of the main US political
parties even slightly palatable! So we'd agreed everything about the book
before his death, but I never had the chance to ask whether he would be
happier with 'Furious Managers' or 'Spurious Managers' in the title. I
rather think he might have liked the latter.

I hope he wouldn’t mind my saying that the details of the book are here:
www.f-laws.com/content/Systems_Thinking_for_Curious_Managers.php

If you can't follow that link, you can simply search for "SYSTEMS THINKING
FOR CURIOUS MANAGERS" online.

With very best wishes,

Andrew Carey ~ Triarchy Press

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