The Art of Problem Solving: Accompanied by Ackoff's Fables PDF
Preview The Art of Problem Solving: Accompanied by Ackoff's Fables
by Accompanied Ackoff's Fables ~c Russell L. Ackoff a::..M!L~~ ~,_ THE ART OF PROBLEM SOLVING ACCOMPANIED BY ACKOFF'S FABLES RUSSELL L. ACKOFF Illustrations by KAREN B. ACKOFF JOHN WILEY & SONS New York· Chichester· Brisbane· Toronto· Singapore Copyright © 1978 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada. Reproduction or translation of any part of this work loa beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without the permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data: Ackoff, Russell lincoln, 1919- The art of problem solving. Bibliography: p. I ncl udes index. 1. Problem solving. I. Title. HD30.29.A25 658.4'03 78-5627 ISBN 0-471-04289-7 ISBN 0-471-85808-0 (paper) Printed in the United States of America 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 To Daniel H. Silberberg with gratitude and affection Between truth and lie are images and ideas we imagine and think are real, that paralyze our imagination and our thinking in our efforts to conserve them, We must continually learn to unlcarn much that we have learned, and learn to learn that we have not been taught. Only thus do we and our subject grow. R. D. Laing, The Politics of the Family and Other Essays Vintage Books, New York, 1972 Preface Over the years, I have been presented to audiences as an architect, philosopher, statistician, city planner, or operations researcher, or as a behavioral, communication, information, management, organizational, and systems scientist. But none of these tells me what I really am as well as did a characterization given to me by a student. He said I was a problem solver. Problem solving is what I have been trying to do all my adult life, using whatever type of knowledge appeared accessible and relevant to me. In my "early period" I came to problem solving primarily from a philosophical point of view. In my "middle period" I came at it scien tifically, keeping philosophy at my side. And now, in my "late period" I find myself preoccupied with the art of problem solving, keeping both philosophy and science ever at my side. The more philosophy and science I tried to bring to bear on prob lem solving, the more I came to realize that even together they can as sure us no more than adequate solutions to problems. They cannot provide exciting solutions, ones that we call "beautiful." Only the kind of problem solving that involves art can do this. And art implies creativity. This is a book about creative problem solving. It is addressed to those who either make their living at, or derive their fun from solving problems-or both. For me, the term "problem" does not refer to the kind of prefabri cated exercises or puzzles with which educators continually confront students. It means real problems, the effective handling of which can make a significant difference to those who have them, even if they are philosophers and scientists. x Preface This is neither a textbook, nor a handbook, nor a learned treatise. It it what is left from sifting thiOugh thirty years of experience, my own and others, in search of clues on how to make problem solving more creative and more fun. Solving even the most. serious problems can be fun to the extent that we act creatively, and having fun in a creative way is also very likely to increase the quality of the solution it yields. It will be apparent to even the casual reader that I had a lot of fun writing this book, much of it derived from the fact that my daughter Karen did its illustrations. Having her do them turned out to be the only way I have found to get her to read anything I have written. I was assisted greatly in preparing the final version of this book by suggestions made by Paul A. Strassmann. ·Whenever I doubted whether writing this sort of thing was my "ball of wax," my good friend Stafford Beer encouraged me to keep at it. I hope he will not be sorry. RUSSELL L. ACKOFF Philadelphia, Pennsylvania January 1978 Contents PART ONE: THE ART 1 Creativity and Constraints 3 2 Objectives 19 J Controllable Variables 50 4 Uncontrolled Variables 79 5 Relations 100 PART TWO: APPLICATIO NS 6 The National Scientific Communication and Technology Transfer System: An Idealized Design 121 7 Transportation without a Future: A Reference Projection 128 8 A Multidimensional Organizational Structure 141 9 Participation within Organizations 157 10 The Effect of Advertising on Sales: A Study of Relations 162 11 Why People Drink: Toward Understanding Objectives 174 12 On Keeping Problems Solved 189 Suggested Readings 205 References 207 Index 209 THE ART OF PROBLEM SOLVING PART ONE-the art
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