International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

R.L. ACKOFF, in a very realistic way, developed the following views about practice.

"By a social system, I mean a system in which people play the most critical role. This does not include telephone and water-supply systems, but it does include telephone companies and water-supply agencies.

"By practice I mean work for clients who have the authority to change the system worked on in ways specified by that application. I do not mean work on problems, however real they may be, without the direct involvement of those who are responsible for doing something about them and those who are directly affected by them – the stakeholders in the problem's solutions.

"By a theory of practice I mean a set of definitions and propositions from which testabled hypotheses about the effectiveness of practice can be deduced. By effective practice I mean improvement in the performance of client organizations from the point of view of at least some of the organizations' stakeholders, and the absence of deterioration of that performance from the point of view of any.

"By a practitioner of the social systems science I do not mean one who, confronted by an organization's mess, collects symptoms, diagnoses, and prescribes as a doctor does with a patient. I mean one who, through encouragement and facilitation, enables others to deal with their messes more effectively than they can without his help…

"For me, practice is first and foremost an educational process, not only for those with whom we work, but for practitioners as well. If they don't learn through their work with others, they are not practicing, but consulting, sharing what they already know. Put in another way: the objective of practice is to increase the development of the client system, its stakeholders, and the practitioners engaged in that effort" (1988, p.241).

These views could deeply transform the ways of the three different "classical" types of practitioners described by ACKOFF:

"1) Input-oriented practitioners, ones who define themselves by the tools, techniques and methods they employ in solving problems – for ex., applied mathematicians, computer programmers, accountants and radiologists;

"2) Output-oriented practitioners, ones who define themselves by their product, the kind of problems they solve – for ex. those who develop incentive, compensation or management information systems, "head hunters" and cardiologists;

"3) User-oriented practitioners, who define themselves by the class of users they try to serve – for ex. general contractors and practioners of general medicine" (p.246).