In their book, Idealized Design: How to Solve Tomorrow's Crisis...Today (Wharton School Publishing), authors Russell L. Ackoff, Jason Magidson and Herbert J. Addison build upon a simple notion. They argue that, "the way to get to the best outcome is to imagine what the ideal solution would be and then work backward to where you are today." This excerpt, based on Ackoff's experience, shows how the process worked at Bell Labs in the 1950s.

I had the pleasure of hearing this story first-hand from Russ Ackoff during the kickoff of our MBA program.  I'm not sure that reading the story or even listening to the audio would have quite the same effect, but the story is still compelling -- basically it is the origin of many of the telecommunications technologies that we take for granted.  But when there was no concept of a dial-pad, or even a calculator keypad, these ideas were radically creative. (Article and audio available here - Knowledge@Wharton).

But this isn't just about telecom or high-tech -- Ackoff was persistent that we must apply Systems Thinking to all aspects of business and life.