An Ounce of Information Is Worth a Pound of Data

1

An ounce of information is worth a pound of data.

An ounce of knowledge is worth a pound of information.

An ounce of understanding is worth a pound of knowledge.

Despite this, most of the time spent in school is devoted to the transmission of information and ways of obtaining it. Less time is devoted to the transmission of knowledge and ways of obtaining it (analytical thinking). Virtually no time is spent in transmitting understanding or ways of obtaining it (synthetic thinking). Further more, the distinctions between data, information, and so on up to wisdom are seldom made in the educational process, leaving students unaware of their ignorance. They not only don’t know, they don’t know what they don’t know.

The reason so little understanding is transmitted by teachers is that they...are more likely to know what is right than why it is right. Most “why” questions do not have unique and simple answers, and therefore are difficult to use in examinations or to grade when they are used.

Russell Ackoff, 1999

2

CHARACTERISTICS OF SYSTEMS

A system is a whole that consists of parts

but cannot be divided into independent parts.

 Every part of the system can affect the behavior of the whole

 The parts are interdependent

 Any subgroup of the parts has the same properties as the parts

FIVE IMPLICATIONS FOR SYSTEMS THINKING

1. When you take a system apart, it loses its essential properties [H2O ≠ H+H+O]

2. When a part is separated from the system, it too loses its essential properties

3. The understanding of systems never lies inside the system; it lies outside it

4. A system is a consequence of the way its parts interact, not the way they act

5. The management of interactions is a very different kind of management than the management of actions

Russell Ackoff

3

The characteristic way of management that we have taught...is to take a complex system, divide it into parts, and then try to manage each part as well as possible. And if that's done, the system as a whole will behave well, and that's absolutely false because it's possible to improve the performance of each part taken separately and destroy the system at the same time.

ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS

(knowledge: how) (understanding: when, where, why)

1) Take what you want to1) Take what you want to under-

understand apart. stand as part of a larger whole.

2) Explain the behavior of each2) Explain the behavior of the

part taken separately. containing whole.

3) Aggregate your explanations 3) Disaggregate your under-

of the parts into an under- standing of the containing

standing of the whole. whole into the role or function

of the parts.

Systems thinking is the fusion of analysis and synthesis.

Russsell Ackoff

4

Recognizing that success changes the game, think about what the phenomenal success of information technology means. Success marks the beginning of the end of the Information Era. Competitive advantage is increasingly shifting away from having access to information toward generating knowledge and, finally, toward gaining understanding.

Russell Ackoff

Where is the knowledge

we have lost in information?

Where is the wisdom

we have lost in knowledge?

T.S. Eliot

Wisdom

Understanding

Knowledge

Information

Data

5

Problems Are Abstractions. Perhaps the most damaging problem-related misconception promulgated by the educational process is that problems are objects of direct experience. Problems are not experienced: they are abstractions extracted from experience by analysis.

What we experience are dynamic situations...messes.

Therefore, when a mess, which is a system of problems, is taken apart, it loses its essential properties and so does each of its parts.

The behavior of a mess depends more on how the treatments of its parts interact than on how they act independently of each other.

Russell Ackoff, 178:2000

6

Even in business schools, students do not learn that effective management of organized behavior is management of interactions, not actions. They are not even made aware of the differences between these types of management. What they are taught is that if they improve the performance of each part of a corporation taken separately, the performance of the corporation as a whole will be improved. This is absolutely false. Fortunately, improving the performance of each part taken separately does not necessarily make the whole perform as badly as possible. If it did, few corporations would survive as long as they do.

Russell Ackoff, 2000

7

Types of Planning

TypesMeansGoalsObjectivesIdeals

OperationalChooseGivenGivenGiven

TacticalChooseChooseGivenGiven

StrategicChooseChooseChooseGiven

NormativeChooseChooseChooseChoose

Goals = those ends that we can expect to attain within the period covered by planning

Objectives = those ends that we do not expect to attain within the period planned for but which we hope to attain later, and toward which we believe progress is possible within the period planned for

Ideals = those ends that are believed to be unattainable but towards which we believe progress is possible during and after the period planned for

Normative = ??

8

Levels of Systems

Purposeful systems have all the capabilities of goal-seeking and state-maintaining systems. Meanwhile, goal-seeking systems have the capabilities of state-maintaining systems, though the converse is not true.

Purposeful



 Goal-seeking



Self-maintaining

A purposeful system is one that can produce not only the same outcomes in different ways in the same environment but different outcomes in both the same and different environments. It can change its ends under constant conditions.

This ability to change ends under constant conditions is what exemplifies free will. Such systems not only learn and adapt; they can also create. Human beings are examples of such systems.

9

Seek First to Understand versus “Problem Solving”

Perhaps the most damaging problem-related misconception promulgated by the educational process is that problems are objects of direct experience. Problems are not experienced: they are abstractions. Problems are extracted from experience by analysis. Learning to determine what point(s) of view will produce the best treatment of a problem should be, but seldom is, an essential part of education.

Russell Ackoff

10

There is a classic case in which the tenants of a large office building complained about the increasingly poor elevator service. A consulting firm specializing in elevator-related problems was employed to deal with the situation. It first established that average waiting time for elevators was too long. It then evaluated the possibilities of adding elevators, replacing existing elevators with faster ones, and introducing computer controls to improve utilization of elevators. For various reasons, none of these turned out to be satisfactory. The engineers declared the problem to be unsolvable.

When exposed to the problem, a young psychologist employed in the building's personnel department made a simple suggestion that dissolved the problem. Unlike the engineers who saw the service as too slow, he saw the problem as one deriving from the boredom of those waiting for an elevator. So he decided they should be given something to do. He suggested putting mirrors in the elevator lobbies to occupy those waiting by enabling them to look at themselves and others without appearing to do so. The mirrors were put up and complaints stopped. In fact, some of the previously complaining tenants congratulated management on improvement of the elevator service.

Ackoff, R. L., 1999

Re-creating the Corporation

Oxford Univ. Press, NY p15-16

11

STRUCTURE: Inputs

Elements, components, parts

Actors, stakeholders, departments

Facilities, equipment, know-how

Resources to be employed

Nouns, substances

PROCESS: Actions

How something is done, techniques

Sequence of activities

Generation of outputs

Transformation of inputs to outputs

Verbs, practices

FUNCTION: Outputs

What is produced for whom

Specifiable products

Immediate & long term results

Achievements, effects, goals, objectives

Proxies for purposes

12