"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."
By:
Ackoff,
Sheldon Rovin
Imprint: Berrett Koehler
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 85mm,
Width: 55mm,
Spine: 6mm
ISBN: 9781576753309
ISBN 10: 1576753301
Pages: 180
Publication Date: 01 January 2018
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
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
Russell Ackoff (Bryn Mawr, PA) is the Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science, the Wharton School, and Distinguished Affiliated Faculty, Center for Organizational Dynamics, both at the University of Pennsylvania. Sheldon Rovin (Wynnewood, PA) is Emeritus Professor of Healthcare Systems at the Wharton School of Business and past Director of Healthcare Executive Management Programs at Wharton Executive Education and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.
Reviews for Beating The System - Using Creativity To Outsmart Bureaucracies
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
