Some More Responses by Attendees of the Ackoff 100 Centennial at Thomas Jefferson University
One positive of the ACKOFF 100 was the quality of the attendants/ participants and their willingness to speak candidly and share their experiences. Most of all was their commitment to continue to collaborate to make the ACKOFF CENTER a reality. People follow those who show they can think correctly as your guests proved. The Idealized Design brainstorming or collective intelligence was a very interesting and productive experience. The creation of several groups insured that there would be lots of material to consider for setting up the Center. You guys have a big job in front of you and got a big push forward. I have created a collective intelligence method for planning organizations. Perhaps you would like to inspect the questions and the format that allows the answers to be read easier? I call it Aggregate Mind Protocol. Thanks again for your hospitality.
Javier Livas, Attorney, Cybernetician, CEO, Cybernetic Management Systems, San Pedro, NL, Mexico
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The history that surrounds Russell Ackoff is fascinating, intriguing, and, unfortunately, dormant except in academic circles. As a Strategic Leadership Doctoral Candidate, I know Ackoff through books and working with professors who knew and worked with him. Were it not for the S-Cubers (Wharton's Social Systems Sciences program) attending the Ackoff 100 event and recanting stories of Ackoff, Churchman, and Jamshid Gharajedaghi, we would have lost an opportunity to fill in our Ackoff knowledge gaps. As Larry and the members of our doctoral programs move forward to establish an Ackoff Institute to inform, educate, and ground students, leaders, and practitioners in the art of systems thinking, I am proud to be a part of the community to see this ground breaking work that will carry Ackoff's name and new systems thinkers into future.
Teresa Wolfgang, COL (Retired) US Army; Senior Organizational Change Manager; Doctoral Candidate in Strategic Leadership, Thomas Jefferson University