Customer Reviews

Beating the System: Using Creativity to Outsmart Bureaucracies

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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.

"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.

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.

This is a very good short book that lays out various examples of how one can "beat the system". Beating the system is a strategy to get around bureaucratic nonsense. All of us have experienced frustration when we are confronted by rule-bound bureaucrats, be they government or private sector employees. These individuals operate under assumptions that need to be questioned, assumptions about themselves as well as about the customer. This questioning of assumptions is the key to beating the system: Do all those forms have to be filled out? Must I sign that contract under those circumstances? There are other bits of advice provided, like going up several levels to issue your complaint, or threatening bad publicity, for example. The bottom line message, however, is don't take "no" for an answer and don't assume that the current circumstances, demands and conditions can't be changed with a little creative challenging of assumptions. For those of us who were reared to accept authority without questioning, this is a difficult challenge, but one that must be overcome to get what you need or deserve. One especially key teaching in this book for managers is to set up systems so that their users don't have to find a way to beat them. This is done by making systems, policies and procedures flexible, allowing for exceptions, and giving frontline staff the power to exercise reasonable discretion. Every process manager should read this book.

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.

The hardest part of living in modern society is dealing with bureaucracies. This east-to read, efficient little book gives many tips and fun examples of counter-moves against unhelpful organizational rules. It's a great read for young people depressed by the complexities of life. People of all ages can learn how to respond to bureaucracies so as to get their complaints acknowledged and addressed.

Ackoff is a celebrated leader in the field of systems thinking, having other much more serious books on business and systems in general. In this funny little book, he turns his attention to consumer frustration against large corporations.

The book is divided into three sections --
1) Understanding systems - how they work, what made them their way and the kind of creativity that it takes to beat them
2) Stories - there is a large number of stories on systems available.
3) Takeaways - in the alst section, the authors focus on compiling brief lessons on systems beating and what you should do if you are designing systems to make them less unreasonable and less beatable.

This is a book to be read in one sitting -- two hours max. If you like the lessons and the type of thinking involved in the book, Ackoff has a large number of other books, of which I highly recommend "Ackoff's Best" as a compending of some of his more creative solutions to world problems.