Russ Ackoff's Idealised Planning and Aperture's 'Four Frames' Approach to Strategy Design...

More than twenty-five years ago, the great Russ Ackoff identified three main types of approach to organisational planning:

· ‘Reactive’ planning is ‘bottom-up’ and delves directly into the nuts and bolts of an organisation, focusing on individual components and processes in search of improvement in isolation.

· ‘Preactive’ planning is ‘top-down’ and attempts to predict and control future events and behaviours, setting out strategic ‘road-maps’ or pre-set courses of action.

· ‘Inactive’ planning attempts to muddle along, addressing day-to-day challenges as they come along and relying on the strengths of the organisation to prevail.

We see these approaches in many if not most organisations around us today. The problem is, they are not well equipped to deal with the world of today, with its increasingly complex interdependence and increasingly rapid change. Complex, adaptive, purposeful systems do not respond favourably to prediction, reductionism, and isolationism.

Ackoff offered ‘Interactive’ planning in an attempt to address his concerns about these mechanistic, pedestrian approaches. In his words, it ‘is directed at creating the future…by continuously closing the gap between where it is at any moment of time and where it would most like to be’ ('A Brief Guide to Interactive Planning and Idealised Design', May 2001).

Aperture Strategy’s ‘Four Frames’ approach to strategy design and implementation takes much of its inspiration from Ackoff’s interactive planning methodology, but also incorporates a wide range of other ideas, theory, and experience drawn from eminent thinkers about systems and strategy.

Get in touch to discuss how being an early adopter of our unique methodology could be game changing for your organisation.