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Beating the System

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Beating the System

Using Creativity to Outsmart Bureaucracies

Berrett-Koehler,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Fed up with all the hoops the bureaucrats make you jump through? Well, stop jumping. Turn the tables instead.

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable
  • Engaging

Recommendation

This is an amusing, entertaining and relevant book. At some point, senseless rules, mindless bureaucracies, or poor service and communication frustrate everyone. Authors Russell L. Ackoff and Sheldon Rovin offer a series of straightforward suggestions for getting the respect you deserve and fighting back against maddening treatment. They illustrate their principles with brief, accessible stories and, in at least one instance, even recommend lying to get your way. You can read this book quickly and immediately pull out tips you can use. However, you might want to consider the ramifications before, for instance, refusing to leave an airline clerk’s desk or flooding an organization’s voice mail. There may be lines you don’t want to cross. Everyone has frustrating moments when they might want to apply these techniques, so it would help if the authors did more to sort the moments of justifiable frustration from the unjustified, or to help readers figure out when a rule is bad or a system needs changing. They seem to assume that if you are frustrated, you should retaliate quickly. As a result, the book seems a touch adolescent at times, despite the authors’ impressive credentials. Everyone could enjoy this book, but getAbstract.com recommends it primarily to readers with a sense of perspective who can tell when to use these tactics - and when to just move along.

Summary

System-Beating Tools

You’re human. That means you’ve been frustrated by systems, a lot. They’ve beaten you. Take heart, though. It is possible to beat the systems that have abused you, and you don’t have to be an expert to do so. Aside from the personal satisfaction of besting an overbearing system, you have other reasons to fight oppressive bureaucracies. If a system is capable of learning from being beaten, you’re actually helping it improve and, therefore, helping others.

Think of Rosa Parks, who would not give up her seat in the front of an Alabama bus just because she was black. She refused to go along with an abusive system, and everyone in America benefited from the changes she launched. For another classic example, think of the Bible story of David and Goliath. Goliath physically overmatched David, just as you’ll seem to be overmatched by the systems you’ll fight. However, just as David triumphed by hitting Goliath where he was vulnerable, you can beat the systems that frustrate you by hitting them where they aren’t armored.

First, admit how seldom you have gotten a straight answer from any sort of bureaucracy. Second, recognize that you can and must...

About the Authors

Russell L. Ackoff is chairman of The Institute for Interactive Management, and has published more than a dozen books. He is a professor emeritus of management sciences at the Wharton School, where Sheldon Rovin is emeritus professor of healthcare systems. Previously the two co-authored Redesigning Society (2003).

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