Beating the System: Using Creativity to Outsmart Bureaucracies [Paperback]

Russell Lincoln Ackoff (Author), Sheldon Rovin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2005

When was the last time anyone interacted with an organization, a business, a government agency, a school, or a hospital and got a direct and accurate answer to a question or received a desired service without having to weave through a maze of frustrating and infuriating hand-offs? How often do people attempt to speak to a human in these organizations, but the system wouldn't allow it? Beating the System is for anyone who has faced the bureaucratic blank wall. The authors explain how systems are designed, how they function (and, particularly, malfunction), where their weaknesses are, and the incentives that drive them - as well as how to be creative in beating a system. Entertaining and informative stories illustrate how each creative strategy is used, and the authors offer suggestions for how organizations themselves can avoid frustrating those they serve and employ.

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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (April 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576753301
• ISBN-13: 978-1576753309
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #632,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

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

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

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This review is from: Beating the System: Using Creativity to Outsmart Bureaucracies (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

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

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Johns Hopkins (Baltimore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beating the System: Using Creativity to Outsmart Bureaucracies (Paperback)

"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:

4.0 out of 5 stars Besting the Bureaucrats, January 23, 2006

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Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beating the System: Using Creativity to Outsmart Bureaucracies (Paperback)

This is an amusing, entertaining and relevant book. At some point, senseless rules, mindless bureaucracies, or poor service and communication frustrate everyone. Authors Russell L. Ackoff and Sheldon Rovin offer a series of straightforward suggestions for getting the respect you deserve and fighting back against maddening treatment. They illustrate their principles with brief, accessible stories and, in at least one instance, even recommend lying to get your way. You can read this book quickly and immediately pull out tips you can use. However, you might want to consider the ramifications before, for instance, refusing to leave an airline clerk's desk or flooding an organization's voice mail. There may be lines you don't want to cross. Everyone has frustrating moments when they might want to apply these techniques, so it would help if the authors did more to sort the moments of justifiable frustration from the unjustified, or to help readers figure out when a rule is bad or a system needs changing. They seem to assume that if you are frustrated, you should retaliate quickly. As a result, the book seems a touch adolescent at times, despite the authors' impressive credentials. Everyone could enjoy this book, but we recommend it primarily to readers with a sense of perspective who can tell when to use these tactics - and when to just move along.