Ackoff is Awesome
The late Dr Russell Ackoff had an incredible ability to see and say things that capture so much.

For instance, anyone who’s worked in the public sector should recognise this one:
“A bureaucrat is one who has the power to say “no” but none to say “yes.””
And anyone who’s been beaten over the head with pointless KPIs or OKRs will likely have seen this:
“Managers who don’t know how to measure what they want settle for wanting what they can measure.”
On the annual planning process, which has consumed so much corporate energy and delivered so little of value:
“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.”
Something for the “productivity” obsessed managers:
“If there isn’t joy in work, you won’t get productivity, and you won’t get quality.”
Ackoff on the stupidity of “efficiency” and the power of feedback loops, whether you’re efficient or not…
“The more efficient you are at doing the wrong thing, the wronger you become. It is much better to do the right thing wronger than the wrong thing righter. If you do the right thing wrong and correct it, you get better.”
For those who see the complex adaptive systems around us:
“No problem stays solved in a dynamic environment.”
I wrote a (very long-winded) version of this the other day – when someone was going on about Theory of Constraints and how only senior managers can solve the things that need to be solved. I should have just quoted Ackoff in response:
“The lower the rank of managers, the more they know about fewer things. The higher the rank of managers, the less they know about many things.”
And yes, the platitudes on walls, and the BS mission statements:
“Most corporate mission statements are worthless. They consist largely of pious platitudes such as: “We will hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism and ethical behavior.” They often formulate necessities as objectives; for example, “to achieve sufficient profit.” This is like a person saying his mission is to breathe sufficiently.”
And lastly, this little aphorism nicely highlights that waiting is the thing that takes the longest time, especially true in Product Development.
“Nothing consumes time like nothing.”
If only people had a better sense of the Cost of Delay, perhaps we’d have a bit more urgency about culling excess WIP and the ginormous batches, getting rid of queues and all the waiting.
Russ Ackoff was truly awesome. RIP.