Beating the System: Using Creativity to Outsmart Bureaucracies (Paperback)

~ (Author), Sheldon Rovin (Author) "System beaters come in all sizes, shapes, and walks of life..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Herman Wrice, United Kingdom (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

If writing a book "for anyone who wants to take action and turn the tables on the many systems that abuse and frustrate them" seems a little vague, the authors, both emeritus professors at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, include a description of what a system is and detailed definitions of creativity. Woven throughout the book are anecdotes of various bureaucracies being subverted by savvy individuals, ranging from a traveler who falsely claimed to know the president of an airline in order to get on an overbooked flight to a group of friends in a restaurant who offered to buy wine for the people at a neighboring table in order to get them to stop smoking. Although aimed at those in the business world, the stories are compelling enough to interest anyone who's ever felt inconvenienced or frustrated by over-bureaucratized situations.
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Review

Beating the system is a profession of necessity for most professionals. Best to learn the tips from a master. -- Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline and Founding Chair, Society for Organizational Learning

I loved the book 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

The stories are real and captivating, the analysis is excellent, and the solutions are powerful and actionable. -- Chris Argyris, James Bryant Conant Professor of Education and Organizational Behavior, Harvard Business School

…for those of us who sometimes let ourselves get pushed around by systems, this book helps us stop being wimps! -- Michael Maccoby, author of The Productive Narcissist: the Promise and Peril of Visionary Leadership

…gives insights and valuable advice on how to stay in control of your life despite complex and often broken systems. -- Ray Stata, Chairman of the Board, Analog Devices

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Product Details

• Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (April 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576753301
• ISBN-13: 978-1576753309
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,126 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Always the best in systems., July 27, 2005

By	Prof. Dr. Moacyr E. A. da Graça "Escola Polit... (São Paulo, BRAZIL) - See all my reviews

Russel L. Acckoff is "the brain" in systems approach.
Systems Approach is not only a discipline to be understanded, but a way of think that need to be exercised. It is a hard job to incorporate Systems Thinking as a way to see the world and guide your decisions. It is easy to understand the new but let the old behind is a quest. The authors of this book show how you can "beat systems" introducing a very simple method that can be used by any person. You will understand systems, learn how to find its weak spots and act, in spite of your size compared to the size of the big systems.David and Goliath inspired the authors. If you don't understand why some obvious things happens in certain organizational systems, like queues for all, idiot process, repetitive services, excess of papers and the bureaucracy that is in all places, this book was written for you.The authors present the subject in a very nice way and they use a lot of personal examples to show how creativity can be a powerful weapon against these strong systems and you can believe that this is true. I had many opportunities in my life to check and test heavy systems and I discover the same thing that the authors. This book puts order on the subject, explores the examples giving practical advices and life lessons. It is not an academic book in systems theory but the result of experience of lifes dedicated to disseminate, develop and use Systems Thinking as a way of changing the world. Read this book and something will change in your life and in your behavior and you will see the world with another eyes. UPGRADE YOUR MIND.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource for the creative mind, March 29, 2006

By	Johns Hopkins (Baltimore) - See all my reviews

"Look what the educational system does to creativity. Every child learns at a very early stage that when they're asked a question in school they must first ask themselves a question: What answer does the asker expect? That's the way you get through school, by providing people with the answers they expect. Now, one thing about an answer that somebody else expects is it can't be creative because it's already known. What we ought to be trying to do with children is get them to give us answers that we don't expect-to stimulate creativity. We kill it in school."

-Ackoff, The Deming Library, Vol. 21

Russell Ackoff, an expert in the field of operations research and systems thinking whose famous quote about the educational system is shown above, and Sheldon Rovin, a leading figure in healthcare management, here share their thoughts on the importance of defeating bureaucracies in today's society. They present their case by listing off examples of common bureaucratic inefficiencies being either side-stepped or called to attention by "system beaters." These system beaters, whom Ackoff and Rovin claim are ordinary, frustrated members of society, all display fundamental creative behaviors: the ability to deny an underlying assumption, to explore that denial, to defer judgment in that exploration, etc. This book will doubtfully transform the reader into an everyday system beater; it certainly did not do so for me. It does, however, provide the reader with a deep set of examples on creative behavior and may set them on the right path when it comes to thinking outside the box and generating more meaningful solutions when dealing with their own problems.
The structure of the book (a brief introduction on the authors' system-beating theory, presentation of the cases, summary of the behaviors displayed in these cases, possible applications of these theories derived from these summaries) makes it an extremely easy read. Often, though, the cases are over-simplified by the addition of the authors' own unnecessary and ambiguous morals. The authors' conclusions are also extremely broad which detracts from the specific methods of creative behavior described earlier in the text. Despite these short-comings, however, the book provides an excellent resource for those attempting to be more creative in their everyday lives.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Of limited usefulness, January 24, 2006

By	Diego Banducci (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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I purchased this book because I was interested in how a consultant should go about reforming a bureaucratic organization (i.e., from the inside). What the book discusses, however, is dealing with bureacratic organizations from the outside (e.g., as a frustrated consumer). So if you want to know how to deal with rude airline personnel or college administrators, you'll find the book useful. On the other hand, if you're trying to reform a bureaucratic organization from the inside, it will be of little use.

As is pointed out in another review, many of the examples are either limited on their facts or sophomoric. You will save yourself some trouble by reading Chapter 10 (which summarizes the authors' findings) first and than scanning the examples.