The Art of Problem Solving

In The Art of Problem Solving, Russell Ackoff suggests problem solving is as much art as it is science. His art of problem solving involves 6 components:

1. creativity
2. constraints
3. Objectives
4. Controllable Variables
5. Uncontrollable Variables
6. Relations

The problem itself contains most of these components. The decision maker or problem solver who possesses the creativity, and sometimes the constraints. The controllable and uncontrollable variables associated with the problem. And the possible outcomes.

This book is divided into two parts. The first part explains The Art. Ackoff includes 35 stories in the first part which he refers to as "Ackoff's Fables." Each story is intended to illustrate the author is trying to make. Each comes with it's own accompanying "moral" of the story, just like the more familiar Aesop's Fables. Unlike Aesop's Fables, Ackoff's Fables are often true stories. Because after all, truth is stranger, or at least more illustrative than fiction.

These fables are similar to the story of the factory worker who went home each night pushing a wheelbarrow full of trash. Company guards became suspicious. They thoroughly inspected the trash several times, but could find nothing of value in it. Much later it was discovered the worker had been stealing wheelbarrows. Ackoff's fables are equally enlightening.

The book is worth the price just to get access to the stories. By showing the problem solver how creativity and the removal of constraints have been applied in other situations, Ackoff provides the reader with "lenses" for viewing the problems they encounter. Or at the very least, the reader is challenged to believe there are new and exciting ways to address the problems they are dealing with.

The second part of The Art of Problem Solving: Accompanied by Ackoff's Fables discusses Applications of the principles discussed in the first part. Here Ackoff presents six real-life problems he has been involved in helping to solve. They come complete with all the "messiness" of real life which is marginalized in the fables he presents in the first half of the book.

His stories come from across several industries, including: transportation, manufacturing, government, advertising, and food and beverage.

Ackoff concludes with a chapter on monitoring the problem solution to make sure:
(1) the problem stays solved, and
(2) any new problems created by the solution are being addressed.

It seems a forgone conclusion that the solution to any existing problem will create new and exciting problems and opportunities!