Two years ago I had the pleasure to have a conversation with Russ Ackoff, aka Russel L. Ackoff. I meet him during a course at Wharton where I together with aprox. 30 other Danes joined a course on Complexity, Leadership & Innovation.
The program was well arranged but I lacked enough time for reflection. I do in a stressed up working life. I don’t with you but sometimes the “the moment of truth”, the crucial learning point’s come to me quite a while after the actual conversation/learning situation.
I just came by his blog again and had the possibility to read up some of his work:
Transformations not only require recognition of the difference between what is practiced and what is preached - a transformation called for years ago by Donald Schon (1971) - it also requires a transformation in the way we think (…) I believe the pattern of thought that is required is systemic (…) Systemic thinking is holistic versus reductionist thinking, synthetic versus analytic. Reductionist and analytic thinking derive properties of wholes from the sum of their parts. Holistic and synthetic thinking derive properties of parts from properties of the whole that contains them (…) In general, those who make public policy and engage in public decision-making do not understand that improvement in the performance of parts of a system taken separately may not, and usually does not, improve the performance of the system as a whole. In fact, it may make system performance worse, or even destroy it.
This is key. Indeed, from my experience, I can testify that the obstacles to introducing knowledge sharing and collaboration have little to do with the lack of management support, lack of time, or lack of ROI metrics that knowledge managers tend to complain about. They also have little to do with so-called “mental models” of hierarchies vs. social networks and the like. In the end, what makes it difficult is exactly what Ackoff discusses in his paper: the inability of some key managers to move away from analytical thinking.
What do you think?
One comment so far
That’s an interesting thought!
- Things like ROI metrics and hierarchical organization pertain to reductionist/analytic thinking so as obstacles to collaborative leadership they probably aren’t excluded by what Ackoff writes but rather the application thereof. What does your experience show?
- Inability to move towards systemic thinking: The inability probably often more due to leaders sticking to the company/industry hegemony for fear of risking their career than due to a limited mental ability to adapt to systemic thinking.