Russell L. Ackoff, Sheldon Rovin

Beating the System: Using Creativity to Outsmart Bureaucracies

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

When was the last time you dealt with a bureaucracy the phone company, an airline, a hospital, school, or government agency and got what you wanted without weaving through a maze of infuriating hand-offs? Have you found these systems to be utterly indifferent to the inconvenience or hardship they cause?

Russell Ackoff and Sheldon Rovin say, "Enough is enough!" They have extensively studied organizational systems how they function and malfunction, what drives them, and where their weaknesses are. Here they share both perversely entertaining anecdotes about the abuse of individuals by various bureaucracies and detail the creative and deeply satisfying approaches these people used to get even. Best of all, they offer successful strategies and tactics you can use to pinpoint the weakness of any system and exploit it to your advantage.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Berrett-Koehler Publishers / McGraw-Hill Professional
• Seitenzahl: 192
• Erscheinungstermin: Mai 2005
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 215mm x 143mm x 13mm
• Gewicht: 236g
• ISBN-13: 9781576753309
• ISBN-10: 1576753301
• Artikelnr.: 13980372

Autorenporträt

Russell L. Ackoff and Sheldon Rovin

Inhaltsangabe

Preface
Introduction
Part I. What You Need to Know to Beat Systems
1 Why Systems Need to Be Beaten
Necessity mothers inversion
2 Understanding Systems
Knowledge without understanding is a misguided missile
3 The Nature of Creativity
Those in boxes can't think out of them

Part II. System Beaters: Their Stories
4 Denying Assumptions
Say it isn't so
5 Turnabout Is Fair Play
Do unto the system as it would do unto you
6 Divide and Conquer
When the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing
7 Threaten the System
Squeeze, but sometimes please
8 Sidestep Constraints
Dazzle them with your footwork
9 When All Else Fails, Revolt
You have nothing lose but your frustration

Part III. System Beating in a Nutshell and
Systems Unbeatable
10 Rules of Thumb for System Beaters
The gist of it
11 Making Systems Unbeatable
An ounce of prevention

Stories by System Category
Sources
Index
Acknowledgments
An Invitation to System Beaters
About the Authors

Rezensionen

I loved the book and read every blessed word of it, savored it, and recommended it to virtually every sentient person I know who works in an organized setting.
Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Management at USC and author of On Becoming a Leader and Geeks and Geezers

"No one has contributed more to systems thinking in management than Russell Ackoff and Sheldon Rovin. Who better to offer a lifetime of insight into how systems work and how to keep them from preventing creative work?"
Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline and Founding Chair, Society for Organizational Learning

Two of the most thoughtful people on Systems Thinking have taken the courageous step of pointing out what you can do when the entity or activity in which you are seeking a product or service is not operating at the level of systemic interaction the authors have spent much of their lives attempting to create.
Vincent P. Barabba, former General Manager, Corporate Strategy and Knowledge Development, General Motors