41. How Did We Get Here, Dr. Ackoff?

What is the objective of a corporation? What is the objective of an educational institution?

Last week we saw the greater system for business is education, meaning a person's ability to master business is proven by how they approach education. We ended last week's article with: "Dr. Ackoff said that education needed to focus on a specific area in the future if it wanted to transform education and that turns out to be the next greater system for education!" Today's article will cover the last area Dr. Ackoff was publicly focused on before he died in 2009 at the ripe old age of 90! What were your answers to the above questions?

In 2004, Dr. Russell Ackoff was the keynote speaker at the International Conference On Science Technology And Management (ICSTM). He began his presentation covering the difference between transformation and restoration using the above examples.

He told the story of a person whose research showed every single decision made by a very large corporation violated at least one of their ten publicly presented objectives. There were only two possible explanations: either these aren't the objectives or the corporate management is stupid. Since the person knew the corporate management wasn't stupid, he looked for objectives that would correlate with their decisions and he found one that accounted for 92% of the decisions made by the corporation: maximize the wealth, security, and quality of life of the people making the decisions.

Dr. Ackoff said he had shared this result with thousands of corporate executives around the world and no one disagreed with the findings. He concluded: "Maximizing shareholder value or maximizing profit is nonsense. Profit is to a corporation what oxygen is to a person; necessary for its existence but not the reason for it. Profit is a requirement, not an objective. Maximizing shareholder value is clearly a myth, just look at the corporate jets, country club memberships, and the rest of it..."

He was even tougher on his educational institutional employer! The objective wasn't educating students, it was to "maintain the quality of work-life for the faculty. Teaching is a price the faculty has to pay for the quality of work-life it wants and like any price it tries to minimize it. Now, it's easy to demonstrate that. List the faculty by rank and then look at the amount of teaching they do. The more power a faculty member has, the less teaching he does. Education is a requirement, it is not an objective of the university. This is a general characteristic of all organizations. Their proclaimed objective is different from their true objectives and if we are going to transform anything we have to understand fundamentally what they're really pursuing rather than what they say they're pursuing."

Dr. Ackoff stated transformation requires a different way of thinking and then shared this quote by Einstein: "Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we have created with our current patterns of thought." Dr. Ackoff had never met a single leader who disagreed with this statement and he didn't meet anyone who could explain what it meant!

Dr. Ackoff said the specific area we needed to focus on in the future, if we wanted to transform education, was motivation. Behavior. At eighty-five years old, his initial remark in his keynote address was everyone realizes (in 2004) that the world is a mess and our future depends on whether we would pursue:

-Reformation: doing things right

OR

-Transformation: doing the right thing

Look around LinkedIN, how many posts are NOT trying to change behavior? EVERYTHING that bothers us is either our behavior or the behavior of others. Here's a quick quiz. When all is said and done, which of the following will have done the most long term damage?

-The coronavirus (COVID-19)?

-Peoples' responses to COVID-19?

-Peoples' responses to how they think other people will respond to COVID-19?

How did we get here?

Dr. Ackoff illustrated the fundamental issue with behavior originated from something we all learned in elementary school and have carried throughout our lives into business and the rest of the world: Errors of Commission vs. Errors of Omission.

-Error of Commission: A mistake made by doing something wrong

-Error of Omission: A mistake made by not taking an action

My research has shown third graders begin the school year intrinsically motivated to achieve a reward. However, by the end of the school year, the soon-to-be fourth graders are extrinsically motivated to avoid a punishment. The human ability to be creative is removed and the objective of becoming a robot is born.

The issue is, humans ONLY learn by making errors of commission, hence all the posts on LinkedIN exhorting you to keep making mistakes and see them as opportunities to learn more. Yet, EVERY performance appraisal punishes you for errors of commission!

The real issue is the cause of the downfall of EVERY organization is an error of omission!

Yes, there are quotes meant to help us realize errors of omission are evil, but does the following example from Einstein cause you to take action? "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." If we are logical robots, that quote would transform the world out of the mess we are in, however, we have had over fifty years of quotes and testimonials and things are getting worse. This leads me to a completely different conclusion about who the evil people are.

If errors of commission are how humans have to learn, then the evil people are those who intentionally ignore their errors of commission, through attacking, rationalizing, or justifying their error!

We've said this earlier: the definition of a "bad" person can't be behavior because all of us exhibit bad behavior. All of us make errors of commission. The definition of a "bad" person has to be dependent on how a person responds to being confronted by their error of commission!

There are only ten chapters left in this book and this is the first chapter where we begin bringing information presented in previous chapters together to make conclusions.

Truth exists and comes from outside humans; none of us created Truth. A person's response to Truth proves what kind of person they are; it proves their plan for happiness/fulfillment. For example, there exists a non-contradictory definition for every word we use that our unconscious brain knows. I didn't invent this. It is a Truth. It exists. Asking someone their definition for a word they use proves if the person is humble enough to share and possibly commit an error of commission or ignore, rationalize, and justify proving they are evil.

Dr. Ackoff would say there's a big difference between doing the wrong thing right and the right thing wrong.

Doing the wrong thing right is Continuous Improvement (Dr. Deming), Reformation, and Analysis, which we showed results in Racism and Sexism when applied to people. It is trying to be RIGHT.

Doing the right thing wrong is Discontinuous Improvement (Creativity), Transformation, and Synthesis, which we showed would lead to RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Evil people confuse being RIGHT with being RIGHTEOUS. They are so afraid that APPEARING to be wrong makes them unrighteous, their attacking/rationalizing/justifying response PROVES they are evil. They would rather prevent other people from growing than have to change their perspective. What would you call a person who does that?

Dr. Ackoff used an Einstein quote to show people they needed to embrace a new way of thinking. Everyone does everything through a thought process, which means the cause of ALL behavior could be explained with a model for the mind-brain! In fact, years ago, I contacted the Ackoff Center to share the only non-contradictory model for the mind-brain. In response, I was sent a 20+ page paper which not only took an Analytical approach to Systems, it recognized everything depended on a model for how people think! When I offered a non-contradictory model for the mind-brain, in place of their amalgamation of several contradictory models, the response I got would have upset Dr. Ackoff!

Your approach to changing behavior proves how you view people!

Animal: Reward or Punish the Effect

Robot: Logically state the Cause

For over fifty years, we have seen testimonials from former drug addicts warning us not to take drugs and my first thought is always: Too bad this former drug addict didn't see a video warning him/her not to take drugs. Oh, wait, THEY DID!!!

Last weekend was International Women's Day. It was a steady stream of messages making us Aware (Animal) or stating the Cause (Robot). Is there ANYONE who thinks women have been treated justly? Is there ANY MALE who would want to be treated the same way we have treated women? The answers to both questions is a resounding NO. Why do we think these messages appealing to Animals and Robots are going to change human behavior?

Dr. Ackoff would adamantly say the first step is to know what you want, not what you don't want. Every message was focused on an Effect or telling us to stop doing a bad Cause. What Cause do we want in order to transform this issue? Here was my message:

The only healthy thought process is Flow...which requires you to first get to one thought.

Men tend to only have one thought, which is why it is easier for them to Flow.

Women tend to be able to have five thoughts in a healthy fashion, and having more thoughts at one time puts them ahead of men in the short term...but it wears them out in the long term and makes leadership positions difficult because Flow is the essence of leadership...you have to be in Flow in order to lead a group...and the culture is the proof. However...

A WOMAN IN FLOW IS UNBEATABLE

The Ultimate leaders are women in Flow.

Why don't we help women Flow?

Do you think ANY Influencers contacted me in an attempt to truly transform this issue?

Do you think Influencers helped or hurt the issue with their Reformation approach?

The Truth will win out over time and prove who was RIGHTEOUS and who was EVIL.

There are no "zero events" to the brain. Everything we say, do, hear, and think either helps the brain or hurts it. Evil people rationalize their actions with a belief in the "zero event"! They essentially say, "Well, I have to do something...and making people aware or stating the cause can't hurt, so you're welcome!"

If you believe people are Human you will look to influence their behavior internally through their Uniqueness. We've seen the definition of "Leader" is "facilitating the purpose and progress of another". We also saw that even those who define "Leader" with "influence" are showing their lack of understanding! The word "influence" comes from Latin for "inward flow", which is why Flow is the essence of Leadership!

We saw last week, the Analytical approach to education realizes the more we get students to act like computers, the more our achievement measures increase to the detriment of the student's mental and emotional wellness because they are acting against their Uniqueness.

Now we see the Synthesis approach to education would be to help every student understand how they Uniquely learn, which includes how they Uniquely motivate themselves, and the effect would be increased achievement measures AND increased mental and emotional wellness!

What would Dr. Ackoff say is the true objective of education?

Since we are going to leave the world of Dr. Ackoff for the next several weeks, I wanted to provide a link so you can experience the legend himself. This link will take you to a video that is, in my opinion, correctly titled. This is what a "TED Talk" would look like from Dr. Ackoff when he was seventy-five years old: Dr. Russell Ackoff

Remember, this talk was given twenty-six years ago. In the last three years, Japan has been experiencing a crisis because people aren't getting married. Their Continuous Improvement, Analytical Robotic approach has removed their motivation to experience Synthesis...

...I think Dr. Ackoff would have had a lot to say about this.

In order to continue to explain Dr. Ackoff's predictions, we are going to need a very powerful tool that can instantly bring clarity to all of life's biggest issues. We are going to cover this tool next week so we can bring this book to its powerful conclusion.

Next Chapter: The Answer Key

Table of Contents

Are you one of the 1% of people who WANTS the Truth? These articles are forming a book on Generativity. If you are interested in going on this journey of Generativity, the first chapter is here:?Do You Really Want To Improve Mental Health?

The following is intended for people who either say they base their life on the Bible or know people who say they base their life on the Bible...

Here is Jesus talking to chief priests and the elders about who goes to heaven (Matthew 21):

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my?vineyard.’?He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went.?Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I?go,?sir,’ but he did not go.??Which of the two did the will of?his?father?”

They said to Him, “The first.”

Jesus said to them,?“Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.?For?John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him;?but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw?it,?you did not afterward?relent and believe him.

A hypocrite is a person who continues to rationalize and justify after being proven wrong. Where do hypocrites end up according to Jesus? (Matthew 24)

But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master?is delaying?his coming,’?and begins to beat?his?fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,?the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for?him?and at an hour that he is?not aware of,?and will cut him in two and appoint?him?his portion with the hypocrites.?There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.