Systems Thinking: Analysis, Explained By Russell Ackoff

How Can We Learn New Ways of Thinking?

"Explain it to my like I was a 6 year old, okay?" might work for Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks.

But not for Einstein who (according to Ackoff) in this video segment is quoted as saying, "You can't solve the problems created by our current pattern of thought by our current pattern of thought."

Ackoff goes on to describe how what we call the scientific method began during "The Renaissance" (which I've just confirmed) took place a long time ago. The idea being that our current pattern of thought has been around a really long time and is underpinned by "analytical thinking."

3 steps of analytical thinking:

1. take "it" apart
2. understand what the parts do
3. assemble the understanding of the parts into an understanding of the whole

Relying on these 3 steps (as many of us have learned to do) will not help us answer many of the important questions about systems. So it's time to learn to think differently.