I didn’t realize there were videos of Russell Ackoff on youtube. I watched this one yesterday—it’s just over an hour but worth your time.
A nice complement to your informational diet for business or life. The way he talked about teaching really resonated with me—I’ve always found that I really learn material when I teach it to others. Also, the idea that when humans must teach themselves, that’s when really learning can take place.
In the video he talks about the four different ways people can treat problems. Absolution is the way we treat most problems; ignore it and hope it will go away. Problem Resolution is when we search the past to find a resolution which is “good enough”. Problem Solving is the classic school-taught method. We look for the “optimal solution”—the best thing to do in each context. This approach is research-based and analytical. However, nothing ever stays solved in a dynamic environment and every solution creates new problems. Finally, Dissolving a Problem is the best way to foster lasting change. We can only dissolve a problem through design. More specifically, "by redesigning the system that has it, so that the problem no longer exists.”
This are some selected excerpts in “From Data to Wisdom,” which is just packed with goodness:
An ounce of information is worth a pound of data.
An ounce of knowledge is worth a pound of information.
An ounce of understanding is worth a pound of knowledge.
Most of the time spent in school is devoted to the transmission of information and ways of obtaining it. Less time is devoted to the transmission of knowledge and ways of obtaining it (analytic thinking). Virtually no time is spent in transmitting understanding or ways of obtaining it (synthetic thinking). Furthermore, the distinction between data, information, and so on up to wisdom are seldom made in the educational process, leaving students unaware of their ignorance. They not only don’t know, but they also don’t know what they don’t know.
Data are symbols that represent the properties of objects and events. Information consists of processed data, the processing directed at increasing its usefulness. For example, census takers collect data. The Bureau of the Census processes that data, converting it into information that is presented in the numerous tables published in the Statistical Abstracts. Like data, information also represents the properties of objects and events, but it does so more compactly and usefully than data. The difference between data and information is functional, not structural.
Information is contained in descriptions, answers to questions that begin with such words as who, what, when, where, and how many.
Knowledge is conveyed by instructions, answers to how-to questions. Understanding is conveyed by explanations, answers to why questions. Information, knowledge, and understanding enable us to increase efficiency, not effectiveness. The efficiency of behavior or an act is measured relative to an objective by determining either the number of resources required to obtain that objective with a specified probability, or the probability of obtaining that objective with a specified amount of resources. The value of the objective(s) pursued is not relevant in determining efficiency, but it is relevant in determining effectiveness. Effectiveness is evaluated efficiency. It is efficiency multiplied by value, efficiency for a valued outcome. Intelligence is the ability to increase efficiency; wisdom is the ability to increase effectiveness. The difference between efficiency and effectiveness—that which differentiates wisdom from understanding, knowledge, information, and data—is reflected in the difference between development and growth. Growth does not require an increase in value; development does.
Therefore, development requires an increase in wisdom as well as understanding, knowledge, and information. Wisdom deals with values. It involves the exercise of judgment. Evaluations of efficiency are all based on a logic that, in principle, can be programmed into a computer and automated. These evaluative principles are impersonal. We can speak of the efficiency of an act independently of the actor. Not so for effectiveness. A judgment of the value of an act is never independent of the judge, and seldom is the same for two judges.
From all this I infer that although we can develop computerized information-, knowledge-, and understanding-generating systems, we will never be able to generate wisdom by such systems. It may well be that wisdom—which is essential for the pursuit of ideals or ultimately valued ends—is the characteristic that differentiates man from machines. For this reason, if no other, the educational process should allocate as much time to the development and exercise of wisdom as it does to the development and exercise of intelligence. Not only does schooling do little or nothing about the generation of understanding and the development of wisdom, but it does also little about even the collection of data and the generation of information. There are great subtleties involved in the collection of data and its conversion into information. Most of these subtleties are not revealed in the education process. Most of us must learn them the hard way.
Ackoff, R. L. (1999) Ackoff’s Best. New York: John Wiley & Sons, pp 170 – 172.
For further elaboration on these levels, check out this.