The Theory Behind The Movement

 

Dr. Russell Ackoff

Russell Ackoff Development is not as much a matter of how much one has as it is of how much one can do with whatever one has.  A developed person can produce a better quality of life with few resources than an undeveloped person can with many.   Of course, at any level of development a higher quality of life can be produced with more rather than less resources.

Knowledge of how to facilitate development of disadvantaged communities and nations is available.  Supported by corporations as well as government agencies, such knowledge has been used in disadvantaged neighborhoods in developed countries, in peasant villages in Mexico, and in many other places.  Six valuable lessons have been derived from participation in such community development programs.

First, organizations, institutions, or government agencies of any size can serve as facilitators of development.  They can engage in it directly by providing support to others without intermediaries.  Only by so doing can they learn how to facilitate the development of those who are less advantaged.  Furthermore, by so doing they acquire something to show for their efforts and can more easily justify continuation and expansion of their efforts.

Second, a pool of resources, — financial, human, and equipment — should be made available to those who are less developed.  This should only be used in development efforts, ways that contribute to an increase in the competence of the recipients. The recipients, not the donors, should decide how the resources can best be used.  The donors may expresses their opinions but should not impose them on the recipients of their efforts

Third, the less advantaged should be allowed to make non-self-destructive mistakes.  They can learn from mistakes--by identifying them, determining their source, and correcting them.  Furthermore, they will learn more from their own mistakes than from the successes of others.  

Fourth, decisions on how to use these resources should be made democratically: by those who will be directly affected by them or by representatives that they have selected, and by others who will be indirectly but significantly affected by these decisions.

Fifth, corruption should not be tolerated.  Its presence should be a sufficient reason for discontinuation of a development-support effort.  This should be made very clear at the beginning of an effort. Corruption consists of the appropriation of resources intended for use in the development of others.   Where it is rampant, it is a major obstruction to development.  It also produces a feeling of futility in many of the intended recipients and provides a fertile soil for autocracy and terrorism.  

Sixth, the effort should be monitored and evaluated objectively by a group whose members are acceptable to both the recipients and the donors of the aid.

As an example of what can be accomplished by a single corporation adopting a less-advantaged community, consider a plan developed by GlaxoSmithKline.  The idea behind the plan came from two sources. The first is a very successful community development effort carried out by a research center at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a so-called urban black ghetto in Philadelphia.  The story of that effort appears in print in several places.  It led to the adoption of the process used in sixty-two other cities in the United States.

The second example is an anti-littering campaign — Adopt a Highway — conducted in the United States in which non-governmental organizations accept responsibility for keeping a designated stretch of highway clear of litter.  They regularly police the designated stretch of road removing litter.  Signs are posted that identify the organization that has adopted the part of the highway affected.

Using lessons learned from these two projects it is proposed that enterprises engage in the following type of development effort.  Each organization selects a less-advantaged community in the metropolitan area of Philadelphia.   It adopts this community and becomes a facilitator of its development, using the steps described earlier.