In 1994, at an event hosted by Clare Crawford-Mason and Lloyd Dobyns to capture the Learning and Legacy of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Russell Ackoff (who knew Deming) speaks about why most continuous improvement initiatives fail, the need for vision and "discontinuous improvement," and the fundamental importance of systems thinking.

Key points:

Quality: The definition of quality is meeting or exceeding the expecations of customers. By that standard, so many quality and continuous improvement initiatives fail. The reason is that they have not been imbedded in systems thinking.

System: A system is a whole, which consists of parts which can affect its behavior or properties; and these parts are interdependent, i.e., each is dependent for its effect on other parts. No part of a system has an independent effect on the whole system.

The essential or defining properties of a system (e.g., organizational performance) are properties of the whole system, which none of its parts have. A hand severed from a body cannot write. No function within an organization alone can deliver products to customers. A system is not the sum of the behaviors of its parts; it's a product of their interactions.

Principle 1: If you improve the parts taken separately, you can be absolutely sure that the performance of the whole will not be improved. For example, considering automobiles, if you combine the best engine (say, for example, BMW) with the best transmission (Mercedes) and the best suspension (Jaguar), the car won't run because the parts don't fit together.

An architect is a good example of a systems thinking. They design the house; then they design the rooms within the house. They may modify the house to improve the quality of the rooms; but they never do so unless it simultaneously improves the quality of the house. That's a fundamental principle of systems improvement.

Principle 2: When you get rid of something you don't want, you don't necessarily get something you do want. Finding and improving deficiencies (e.g., defects) is not a way to improve the performance of the system. An improvement program must be directed at what you want, not what you don't want. Redesigning a system starts by asking yourself, what would you do if there were no constraints (a clean sheet of paper, a vision). If you don't know that, how can you design a system with constraints!?

Principle 3: Continuous improvement isn't nearly as important as discontinuous improvement. Creativity is a discontinuity; it breaks with the chain that came before it. One never becomes a leader by continuously improving; that's imitation of a leader. You only become a leader by leapfrogging those who came before you.

Principle 4: It's far more important to do the right things (even if poorly) than to do the wrong things well. Quality ought to contain the notion of value -- of effectiveness, not just efficiency. The difference between efficiency and effectiveness is the difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Until managers take into account the systemic nature of organizations, most of their efforts to improve performance are doomed to failure.

An organization is comprised of five organizational systems which define the ecosystem in which we work.

These interdependent systems should be designed around a coherent vision of the end-state organizational operating model -- ideally, the business-within-a-business paradigm.

An organizational strategy (transformation strategy) is the result of a process that creatively envisions the future state, and then maps the systemic changes needed to get there.

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