Practice: Interactive planning: design the service you would choose now

Summary

Distinguish an idealised design from a forecast, then work back to feasible changes and learning. A small rehearsal of Ackoff's interactive planning and idealised design. It is not an invitation to ignore present feasibility, affected people or implementation.

Implications for practice

A concrete rehearsal with a fictional case, explicit outputs and a way to inspect the result.

Key distinctions

• Mechanical correctness is distinct from judgement in an open situation.
• Training-case application is distinct from competent organisational practice.

Historical development

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Ideas it depends on

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Further developments

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Connections to practice

• Formulate the mess rather than selecting one isolated symptom.
• Design an arrangement you would choose now if the old one no longer existed.
• Specify ends, means and resource implications.
• Work back to a feasible first move and its control process.

Common confusions

• A worked comparison is not the only acceptable answer to an open question.

Further checks

• A small rehearsal of Ackoff's interactive planning and idealised design. It is not an invitation to ignore present feasibility, affected people or implementation.
• Compare an independent attempt before revealing the worked answer.

Recorded connections

Check the wording, direction, scope, sources, and status of a connection before relying on it.

• Systemic systems methods practice for systems practice (alpha) includes practice resource Practice: Interactive planning: design the service you would choose now

  Status: candidate · Relation: includes practice resource

  Resource inventory only; completing a page is not accreditation.

  Locator: Named exercise and its scope statement

  • Systemic systems methods practice for systems practice (alpha) (original material and source boundary recorded)

• Practice: Interactive planning: design the service you would choose now provides a practice route for Interactive Planning

  Status: candidate · Relation: provides practice for

  A small rehearsal of Ackoff's interactive planning and idealised design. It is not an invitation to ignore present feasibility, affected people or implementation.

  Locator: Named exercise and its scope statement

  • Interactive planning: design the service you would choose now (original material and source boundary recorded)

• Practice: Interactive planning: design the service you would choose now provides a practice route for Russell L. Ackoff

  Status: candidate · Relation: provides practice for

  A small rehearsal of Ackoff's interactive planning and idealised design. It is not an invitation to ignore present feasibility, affected people or implementation.

  Locator: Named exercise and its scope statement

  • Interactive planning: design the service you would choose now (original material and source boundary recorded)

Sources and passage locators

• Interactive planning: design the service you would choose now (original material and source boundary recorded)
• Russell Ackoff: a brief guide to interactive planning and idealized design (specific access and content limit recorded)
• SCiO competency framework resource guide (PDF) (specific access and content limit recorded)
• Ackoff: Re-Creating the Corporation (specific access and content limit recorded)
• SCiO Professional Development (checked)
• Systemic systems methods practice for systems practice (alpha) (original material and source boundary recorded)

Cite this entry

Taylor, B. P. (2026). Practice: Interactive planning: design the service you would choose now. The Necessary Tangle, release 0.35. https://transduction.systems/entries/practice_lab_interactive_planning/

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