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Russell Lincoln Ackoff
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Idealized Design: How to Dissolve Tomorrow's Crisis...Today 1st Edition

by Russell Ackoff (Author), Jason Magidson (Author), Herbert Addison (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 34 ratings
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What's the best way to drive fundamental, transformative change within your organization? Envision your ideal solution: then, work backwards to where you are. It's called idealized design, and -- as executives in hundreds of organizations will testify -- it's one of the most powerful techniques you'll ever use. Authored by its legendary creator, Wharton Professor Emeritus Russell Ackoff, and leading practitioner Jason Magidson, Idealized Design covers every facet of this breakthrough methodology. You'll learn the fundamental differences between idealized design and traditional process re-engineering, and understand how idealized design eliminates many conventional obstacles to change. Start-to-finish techniques and examples drawn from hundreds of companies, non-profits, and government organizations will show you how to use idealized design to solve your own crisis of tomorrow...today.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0137071116
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0137071111
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publication date
    April 20, 2006
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    5.9 x 0.8 x 8.9 inches
  7. Print length
    336 pages
  8. See all details
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4.4 out of 5 stars
34 global ratings

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Customers find the book's approach intuitive and clear. They appreciate the simple process for product and service design and problem-solving. The book offers a good value for money and is worth reading.

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4 customers mention "Approach"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's approach intuitive and clear. They appreciate its simple, clear process for product and service design and problem solving. The book offers an excellent approach to organizational focus and change, not just theory.

"...This is not just some theory. How the technique is applied in complex organizational settings is discussed...." Read more

"A simple and clear process to product and service design / problem solving that is challenging to execute in our complex organizations...." Read more

"I am super fan of idealized design, systems thinking and design thinking. Great book. Along with reading this book...." Read more

"This book offers a tremendously intuitive approach to focusing an organization on what needs to be changed...." Read more

3 customers mention "Value for money"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's value for money.

"...However, this one is the best one, and it has had more influence on my professional career and personal life than anything else I have read. Read it!" Read more

"...Great book. Along with reading this book. I am reading " Leader of One" by Dr. Gerald Suarez which I also recommend reading." Read more

"...Well worth the read and trying to implement." Read more

Book in Tatters on first reading
1 out of 5 stars
Book in Tatters on first reading
This book was bought as a gift and the receiver notified me that the book was falling apart on the first reading! Very disappointed about this.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • T R Doughty
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
    Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    Ackoff does it again. This is a book about how to get out of a "mess": create a picture of the "ideal" , and develop a practical path to reach it. This is not just some theory. How the technique is applied in complex organizational settings is discussed. Real applications in communications, education, health care, and more are reviewed. For managers, executives and well, really anybody confronted by a messy situation in whatever walk of life.
    One person found this helpful
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  • FromPhilly
    5.0 out of 5 stars Learn this process if you want to truly innovate
    Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    A simple and clear process to product and service design / problem solving that is challenging to execute in our complex organizations. Yet if you are able to execute and implement this with your teams, your solutions will inherently be long-term focused. Ackoff is for product and system design what Michael Porter is for strategy.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Nick Pudar
    5.0 out of 5 stars Must read
    Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Having had the privilege of working with Russ for a decade towards the end of his life, I have been a voracious reader of all his books. However, this one is the best one, and it has had more influence on my professional career and personal life than anything else I have read. Read it!
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Beatriz M.
    5.0 out of 5 stars I am super fan of idealized design
    Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    I am super fan of idealized design, systems thinking and design thinking. Great book.
    Along with reading this book. I am reading " Leader of One" by Dr. Gerald Suarez which I also recommend reading.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Craig Matteson
    4.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting and likely helpful process for moving your organization into tomorrow
    Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2006
    This is one of those books that I loved the first 2/3 of, but the last 1/3 is better off ignored. This book talks about a process that can get an organization into better competitive shape for the future by imagining the present as destroyed and we have to begin again with what we now know but with none of the inertia or baggage from the past. What would you then design?

    I think the process put forward here can be quite powerful. The concept of formulating the mess and then planning the ends without regards to the past is terrific. Then you plan how to get there and while what you end up with will probably not be what you "idealized", it will almost certainly be innovative and far ahead of where you would have been with incremental change. The authors' concept of dissolving the problem by looking at the containing factors and making the problem disappear by changing the container is also especially good.

    However, it is in part III where the authors discuss the "urban car" and a health system for all Americans that things fall completely apart. They let the "container" of left-wing politics enter their notions without letting the reality of the marketplace discipline their final recommendations. The car is embarrassingly idiotic and the health care system is nothing more than a single payer system with all the fantasies of its supporters put forward as facts. Maybe the containing problem for urban congestion isn't the car but the way we subsidize life in cities. Maybe the containing problem in health care is the way we call pre-paid health care insurance and we need to rethink what needs to be insured and what needs to come out of pocket, like almost everything else in life.

    Anyway, I think the process is quite good and is very much worth examining. There is much to be said for the very effective notions about Positive Change I heard at the University of Michigan Business School which now has a Center for Positive Change. Idealized Design and Positive Change are not equivalent, but they both share the notion that fixing problems and incremental change are more traps than cures. The organization you are a part of and the products you sell or the services you offer all arose to meet past needs. It may be that they have outlived their usefulness and tweaking them just won't get you where you need to go. Visualizing them as gone can be a great beginning of thinking about where you need to be tomorrow. The book (at least most of it) can be quite helpful in getting a process into place to help create and implement such constructive and complete change.
    16 people found this helpful
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  • M. J. Coury
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Approach to Organizational Focus and Change
    Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2008
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    This book offers a tremendously intuitive approach to focusing an organization on what needs to be changed. Its step-by-step guidance could be a little more detailed but in general it offers a great "blueprint" for improving an organization.

    Well worth the read and trying to implement.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • K. Johnson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Useful Approach
    Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2006
    "Idealized Design" by Russel Ackoff (primarily), Jason Magidson, and Herbert Addison emphasizes identifying the best solutions for the common business and non-business obstacles and ailments we face in management, work, life, and society as a collective whole.

    In "Idealized Design" there are several case studies examined in the private, non-profit, and governmental public sector. Therefore, this book may be useful for readers in many different organizations.

    The authors' concepts were reinforced in several case studies. Some of the case studies such as the the study on the General Motors OnStar system seem realistic, while the United Nations organizational proposal appears a bit lofty. One example, is the two seat mini-urban car suggested. a very small mini-car car with two seats: one in front, and one in back. The likes of a giant go- kart. Is this ideal? Why not just design, construct, and use public transportation systems? Less fuel needed and expended (reduced emissions), less parking space allocated, reduced insurance costs, wasted time, and less stress.

    Perhaps the suggestion of the mini-car is due to the fixation on car ownership and use for commuting in the high-density populated cities, burbs, and edge cities of America. This fact alone is a major obstacle in designing and implementing the most efficient "idealized design" to rectify this dilemma. However, an obstacle to a potential solution (of more public transportation)is the fact that getting Americans out of their cars is extremely difficult. Hence, the notion of the narrow mini car with two seats becomes more plausible because it is a car. But is it the answer or partial answer to the fundamental problem related to car-reliance? No. It's a temporary band-aid. Perhaps this is a bit too "idealized" in it's design. Anything can be idealistically designed. But what percentage of these designs are implemented?

    Los Angeles and Orange County, and numerous other metro regions continue to attempt to lessen congestion by....building more highways. Yes, the new highways are needed. But they are soon filled up again based on statistical studies. And, the population of almost all metro/suburban regions in the U.S. will rise dramatically in the coming decades.

    As for the process of solving problems, there are six steps or phases, applied to these new designs and concepts in this book:

    1) Formulate the Problem 2) Ends planning 3) Means Planning 4) Resource Planning 5) Design of Implementation 6) Design of Controls

    Insights and potential solutions into the Health-Care system and government are also examined. A real issue that affects almost all of us, or people we know. However, political forces and interest groups can cloud six-step process of providing solutions to problem, in issues such as this.

    One point in "Idealized Design" commonly touted today is the necessity to constantly think of ways to adapt technology and innovation to improve our lives. More commonly, the impetus is to improve an organization's profit margin and competitiveness.

    One concept advocated is 'flattening hierarchies' in organizations in our ever-changing business world because of technological innovations in communication, and the escalation of global competition.

    Designing for an idealistic end-result is quite noble. It needs to be done. Sometimes these results are achieved, oft-times they are not.

    Yet the planning and designing needs to be done. We, as a society, or as a small or large private or public organization, must always look for the most optimal ways to solve problems, overcome challenges, achieve goals, and make the conditions we live in the best we can.

    A good book.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    1.0 out of 5 stars Book in Tatters on first reading
    Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    This book was bought as a gift and the receiver notified me that the book was falling apart on the first reading! Very disappointed about this.
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    Amazon Customer
    1.0 out of 5 stars Book in Tatters on first reading
    Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2019
    This book was bought as a gift and the receiver notified me that the book was falling apart on the first reading! Very disappointed about this.
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Angus Jenkinson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Time to get rid of the mess!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Russell L. Ackoff and colleagues offer an important and fresh systemic approach to improving enterprise. ID is a form of design thinking that has been proven over many decades and yet has not been widely adopted. It offers a fresh coherent approach to enterprise strategy and development. For example it is similar to the way venture capitalists think (see Saraswathi’s description of how venture entrepreneurs manage risk: effectuation), and it also allows an organization to replicate some of the advantages of the start up.

    Idealized Design: How to Dissolve Tomorrow's Crisis Today is a highly readable account of why and how to do Idealized Design.

    It is based on Ackoff's systems principles, including: a) assuming the current system is no more, dead b) managing the interrelationship of the whole and not by optimising subparts c) working back from intended future state, the ‘desired present’, and d) designing methods of dissolving problems rather than trying to come up with root causes and fixes (or just hoping they will go away).

    The "desired present" is an idealised version future state (of organisation, process, customer outcomes or offerings): how the ideal system would look if you were starting with a clean slate, with none of the current ‘mess' (it is not the same as re-engineering, which was often a mess). It must be immediately implementable with what is possible today subject to current technologies, laws, market realities and so forth.

    There is a methodology for how you move the organisation, function, project, customer journey, offering or other focus area to this desired present by “dissolving the mess”. The ‘mess’ here means the present complex system of Band Aids that has grown over time and is never what you would set out to implement if you had a fresh start (like start ups do).

    ID aims to produce fresh solutions that are resilient over the long term (for example avoiding the disruptive necessity of reorganizations). Thus it is based on the desired present, what you want to implement in the here and now with the given legal rules, marketplace, technology capability and current practical assumptions.

    The systems principles included in ID also cover how to enable the organization to be more self-managed, increasing local autonomy and improving communication flow. It provides for moving from a top down power structure to a more democratic organization without losing up-down decision-making while improving lateral communication.

    The book includes many examples; the fact they spread over more than fifty years shows the time that has matured these methods, but also the failure to take them up in large measure. its detailed examples cover many different industries and government with multiple applications from whole company to a unit or project.
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  • Amazon カスタマー
    5.0 out of 5 stars 究極の発想転換
    Reviewed in Japan on June 12, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    エイコフは、知られざる、あるいは忘れ去られた知の巨人といったら大袈裟だろうか。エイコフの視点の確かさ鋭さは現代にこそ活かせる。理想設計は、今再読すべき一番のシステム本。
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  • ABS
    3.0 out of 5 stars disappointing rehash
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 11, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Having read Ackoff's recreating the corporation where the concept of idealized design was introduced I was looking forward to discovering more insights and depth in this specifically titled book. How wrong was I!

    There is the exact amount of information as I had read previously padded out with chapter after chapter of supporting case studies all saying the same thing! How they managed a drag a chapter out into a book is beyond me.

    Save yourself money buy the original and fantastic recreating the corporation, you will learn as much as you will from this book and much more
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