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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.

Russell L. Ackoff

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Russell L. Ackoff
Age: 90 †
Born: 1919
Born: February 12
Died: 2009
Died: October 29
Economist
University Teacher
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Russel Ackoff
Russell Lincoln Ackoff
Situation
Mess
Interact
Call
Manage
Dynamic
Problem
Management
Situations
Changing
Managers
Solve
Systems
Extracted
Independent
Complexes
Messes
Problems
Analysis
Consist
Risk
Complex
Confronted

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Unless people can express themselves well in ordinary English, they don't know what they are talking about.
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Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal.
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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.
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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.
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For me there has never been an amount of money that makes it worth doing something that is not fun.
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The future is better dealt with using assumptions than forecasts.
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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.
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