For me Russell Ackoff (1919-2009) is one of the greatest thinkers regarding decision making, and on how to make organisations run more effectively.

Ackoff may be considered one of the founders of Systems Thinking and here are some quotes that will give you a flavour of his thinking.

“We have also come to realise that no problem ever exists in complete isolation. Every problem interacts with every other problem and is therefore part of a set of interrelated problems, a system of problems. Furthermore, solutions to most problems produce other problems; for example, buying a car may solve a transportation problem but it may also create a need for a garage, a financial problem, a maintenance problem, and conflict among family members for its use.”

“The basic managerial idea introduced by systems thinking, is that to manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behaviour taken separately.”

“Successful problem solving requires finding the right solution to the right problem. We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.”

“The more efficient you are at doing the wrong thing, the wronger you become. It is much better to do the right thing wronger than the wrong thing righter. If you do the right thing wrong and correct it, you get better.”

This book that was published just after his death in an excellent introduction and guide to Systems Thinking