Published: 2012 
List Price: £25.00
Format: Hardback ~ 156 pages
Size: 14.5 x 22.7 cm
ISBN: 978-1-908009-53-1
​Tags: Systems Thinking, Design Thinking, Russell Ackoff, f-laws, management, organization design
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Ackoff's F/laws: The Cake
Russell L. Ackoff with Herbert J. Addison  

Hierarchy: A cartoon by Russ Ackoff
The complete collection of Russ Ackoff’s F/laws

Russ Ackoff’s witty and subversive "F/laws of Management" have become well known around the world and are regularly recommended as an introduction to his thinking. They cover areas like leadership, teams, hierarchy, creativity and innovation, motivation and management.

(Critics regularly point out that most of the thinking behind his F/laws is developed in more detail in his earlier books. They're right. In publishing the F/laws, Russ Ackoff was unashamedly trying to reach a wider audience - 'regular managers' in 'regular businesses' who would never otherwise read about Systems Thinking.)

Each of the 122 F/laws challenges a received wisdom about management and will get you thinking about the realities of work and organisations: what really motivates managers, why companies are run the way they are, what  PR is really trying to do ...

Each F/law comes with a page (or so) of Russ Ackoff’s own explanation  – often wandering into delightfully unexpected areas.

This is the only full collection of all Ackoff’s F/laws – which were first published in two separate books (Management f-Laws and Systems Thinking for Curious Managers.) This hardback collection reverts to Ackoff’s original typescript without any commentary or other introduction and features his original cartoons.

As Ackoff himself says:
"Over time I have become aware of some very important truths about the practice of management. These truths, which I call the ‘F/laws of Management,’ contradict assumptions that are commonly held by managers.

"These simple management truths are much more important than the fundamental, but complex, truths revealed by scientists, economists, politicians, or philosophers. The truths these wise thinkers reveal are at most frosting on the cake. The truths presented here are the cake."

Hence the title!
​

Russell Ackoff, who died in 2009, was one of the world's leading business thinkers and one of the founding fathers of Systems Thinking. 
Read more about his life here

Read more:

About the author
Reviews
Sample f-Law
Ackoff's other books:
A Little Book of F/Laws

Differences that Make a Difference

Management F/Laws

Memories

Systems Thinking for Curious Managers​

Or see: All  'Leadership, Innovation and Organisation Management ' titles 

Readership:

Managers, students of business and management… anyone who works in an organisation, anywhere.