Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity

15 Interactive Planning

I must Create a System, or be enslaved by another Man's;

I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create

(William Blake 1815)

15.1 Prologue

Perhaps the defining moment in Russ Ackoff's development of “interactive planning” (IP) was his involvement in a Bell Telephone Laboratories project in 1951. This account draws on Ackoff et al. 2006, and on Ackoff's “Bell Lab. Lecture” (2018). The project saw Bell Labs imagining and creating the telephone system of the future.

Ackoff became involved almost by accident. On a consulting trip to New York, he called in to see his friend Peter Meyers, who worked at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Meyers was in a bit of a state as he and other section heads had been called into an emergency meeting that morning by the VP of Bell Labs. Probably not knowing what to do with Ackoff, and convinced that another participant would not be noticed, he asked him if he wanted to come along. Arriving at the meeting, Meyers and Ackoff found themselves in a classroom with about 40 other people. When the VP eventually arrived he seemed in a state of shock. He was visibly upset, looking down at the floor. Finally, he declared:

Gentlemen, the telephone system of the United States was destroyed last night.

Despite protestations from those who had used their phones that morning, he persisted with his claim. The audience started to conclude that he was “off his rocker.” But just before they called for help, and ...