Successful problem solving requires finding the right solution to the right problem. We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.

Omnicompetence,' the ability to obtain whatever one wants or needs, is an unattainable but continuously approachable ideal for all mankind - past, present, and future.

Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes. Problems are extracted from messes by analysis. Managers do not solve problems, they manage messes.

For me there has never been an amount of money that makes it worth doing something that is not fun.

We can only learn from mistakes, by identifying them, determining their source, and correcting them... people learn more from their own mistakes than from the successes of others.

To manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.

Errors of omission, lost opportunities, are generally more critical than errors of commission. Organizations fail or decline more frequently because of what they did not do than because of what they did.

Art inspires, produces an unwillingness to settle for what we have and a desire for something better. It is the product and producer of creative activity, change it is essential for continuous development.

A bureaucrat is one who has the power to say no but none to say yes.

Unless people can express themselves well in ordinary English, they don't know what they are talking about.

Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal.

So much time is currently spent in worrying about the future that the present is allowed to go to hell.

The future is better dealt with using assumptions than forecasts.

Managers who don't know how to measure what they want settle for wanting what they can measure.

A problem never exists in isolation it is surrounded by other problems in space and time. The more of the context of a problem that a scientist can comprehend, the greater are his chances of finding a truly adequate solution.