What’s the best way to drive fundamental, transformative change? Envision your ideal solution: then work backward to where you are. It’s called idealized design, and-as executives in hundreds of organizations will testify – it’s one of the most powerful techniques you’ll ever use. Now there’s a definitive guide to this breakthrough methodology by its legendary creator, Russell L. Ackoff, and leading practitioner, Jason Magidson.

You’ll learn how to prepare for idealized design, organize it, and execute it from start to finish. The authors reveal the fundamental differences between idealized design and traditional process reengineering, show how idealized design eliminates obstacles to change, and explain how to “dissolve” problems by designing systems that prevent them from arising in the first place.

Along the way you’ll see idealized design at work in enterprises, non-profits, and government – and learn how to use it to improve processes, create new products, increase productivity, even save lives.

• Get beyond “It can’t be done”
  Clear your mind to identify the best possible outcome
• Practice, not theory: six steps to success
  From idealization to realization: plan for means, resources, implementations, and control
• “Dissolve problems, don’t just mitigate them
  Redesign systems to eliminate problems and prevent new ones
• Make it real: start to finish case studies
  From business process redesign to joint ventures to the war on terrorism

Russell L. Ackoff is Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He was a member and former Chairman of The Wharton School’s Social Systems Sciences Department, as well as the Busch Center, which specializes in systems planning, research, and design.

Dr. Ackoff is author and co-author of 22 books, including Redesigning the Future, The Art of Problem Solving, Creating the Corporate Future, Revitalizing Western Economies, Management in Small Doses, Ackoff’s Fables, The Democratic Corporation, and his most recent books Recreating the Corporation, Ackoff’s Best, Redesigning Society, and Beating the System, the latter two with Sheldon Rovin. His work in research, consulting, and education has involved more than 350 corporations and 75 government agencies in the United States and abroad.

Dr. Ackoff played a key role at the University of Pennsylvania, both in the early history of the Operations Research Group and in establishing the Social Systems Sciences Graduate Group. Since becoming Emeritus, he has been honored by the establishment of the Russell L. Ackoff Endowment in the Wharton School and the Ackoff Center for the Advancement of Systems Approaches in the Engineering School, through which his legacy at the University of Pennsylvania continues.

Jason Magidson is director of innovation processes at GlaxoSmithKline. He has 20 years’ experience helping organizations create an environment where great product and service ideas are generated. His clients have ranged from IKEA and DuPont to startups and non-profits. Magidson founded ProductWish.com a Web-based clearinghouse for innovative product improvement ideas. He has written for publications including Harvard Business Review.

Herbert J. Addison is a consulting editor and writer who has served as vice-president and executive editor in business and economics for the Oxford University Press, and director of its college textbook department.