The Art of Problem Solving by Russell L. Ackoff

Book Review

The attentive reader has noted that I am about to review a book written more than twenty years ago. Using my own experience as an indicator, I will venture that many of our members have not encountered Russell Ackoff. I discovered him earlier this year as I and a group of colleagues made our way through the Deming Video Library. Dr. Ackoff appeared in several of these videos and now resides in my personal pantheon of systems thinkers along with Peter Scholtes, Brian Joiner, Joyce Orsini, Jamshid Gharajedaghi, Myron Tribus, and, of course, Dr. Deming.

A lot of this book has to do with creativity. Dr. Ackoff believes that creativity is the greatest of the essential properties of good management. Creativity is necessary if you wish to do an outstanding job rather than just a good job. You cannot lead an organization without creativity, you can only preside over it. Without creativity, you settle for doing well enough. Having thus established his position based on years of experience, Dr. Ackoff describes many ways our society, we, fail to encourage and develop creativity in our children. Schools and other institutions value conformance rather than creativity, and impose constraints that hinder our ability to solve problems. The examples he provides may be, in this context, painfully familiar.

There is philosophy in this book. Plato and Aristotle are invoked as Ackoff explains how problem solving is an art. I particularly enjoyed his discussion of the aesthetic function – is art creative or recreative? Through the device of "Ackoff’s Fables," brief and amusing case studies, we receive instruction about solving problems as Ackoff discusses objectives, controllable variables, uncontrolled variables, and relations. When he is done describing the art, he leaves the fables and takes us through a realistic view of what is actually involved in creative problem solving, including some interesting work he did for the Anheuser-Busch Company.

The title of the last chapter is "Keeping Problems Solved." Few problems, once solved, stay that way. Conditions change, the very act of solving a problem changes conditions and may create new problems. And here is the meat of the book. Problem solving requires a system. Such a system has to do more for you than solve problems, more than come up with corrective actions. Such a system must also maintain or control solutions that have been implemented, as well as identify problems when or before they arise. These three elements are interdependent and interact with each other. If the interactions are well designed and organized, problem solving will be effective.

Ackoff cautions that creative solutions are often not accepted. Not all of his fables have happy endings. Widespread resistance to change, to something new and unconventional, requires that the successful problem solver embody the other essential properties of good management: competence, the ability to communicate, concern, and courage.

I am happy to say that many of Ackoff’s books are still in print and easily found. In 1998 Dr. Ackoff, still extant, published a collection of his writings on management, easily bridging the 20 years since Problem Solving. The only aspect about The Art of Problem Solving that suffers from age is the list of references. But that little defect is easily overcome these days with our vast powers of search and connectivity. Start with Ackoff; no telling where you will end up.

Review Courtesy of Steven M. Byers

To Learn More and or to Purchase The Art of Problem Solving

John Wiley & Sons, ISBN: 0471858080