John Pourdehnad

John is an educator/consultant in the field of strategic management and change, using systems thinking as a worldview and design thinking as a methodology to solve complex interactive problems.

For nearly three decades as an associate of the late Russell L. Ackoff, he worked as a consultant in a broad range of industries including aerospace, chemicals, computer equipment, data services and software, electronics, energy, food and beverages, healthcare, hospitality, industrial equipment, automotive, insurance, metals, mining, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, utilities, and transportation. Since 2000 he has been Associate Director of the Ackoff Center for Advancement of Systems Approaches (A-CASA) which is a part of the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

John is a member of the editorial board of the journal, Systems Research and Behavioral Science; a member of the Council on the International Competitiveness Development Program at the National Research Tomsk State University in the Russian Federation; Fellow of the Da Vinci Institute for Technology and Management in South Africa; and following his contributions in 2008 as a Fulbright Scholar, an honorary member of the Society for Organizational Excellence in Bulgaria.

John earned a B.S. in Mechanical and Production Engineering from Brunel University London, Uxbridge, West London, England, and a Ph.D. in Social Systems Sciences from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Publications

Pourdehnad has written and edited a book and several articles and papers.

• 1993. Internal markets : bringing the power of free enterprise inside your organization. With William E. Halal and Ali Geranmayeh. Foreword by Russell L. Ackoff. New York : Wiley, 1993.
• 2005. Social Influence And Climate Change: Entertainment And Advertising. Instruments For Exploring The Training And Aesthetic Dimensions Of Edutainment: Case of the Heart Sense Game. With Barry Silverman at al. Technical Report. 2005, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Selected Articles and papers

• 1995. "From Downsizing to Rightsizing to Selfsizing". With William Halal and Erwin Rausch. In: Total Quality Review, July/August 1995.
• 1997. "The Irresponsibility and Ineffectiveness of Downsizing". With Russell L. Ackoff. In: Systems Practice, Vol. 10, No.1 1997.
• 1999. "What Drives Organizational Learning at GM?" With Wendy Coles. In: Handbook of Business Strategy, Faulkner & Gray, 1999.
• 2000. "Building Corporate ‘Black Boxes’: A Different Perspective on Organizational Learning." In: Proceedings, International Conference on Systems Thinking in Management, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia, November 2000.
• 2000. "On Misdirected Systems". With Russell L. Ackoff. In: Systems Research and Behavioral Science. Vol 18, Issue 3, May/June 2001, Pp: 199-205.
• 2001. "Systems Approach to Knowledge Development for Creating New Products and Services". With Patrick Robinson. In: Systems Research and Behavioral Science Vol 18, 1, January/February 2001, pp 29-40.
• 2002. "Beyond Knowledge Management". With Vince Barabba and Russell Ackoff. In: The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge: A Collection of Readings, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002.
• 2002. "Redesigning the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA)". With Adele Hebb. In: Systems Research and Behavioral Science Vol 19, Issue 4.
• 2002. "Re-Creating the Capital Project: A Social Systemic Approach". With Mark Steele. In: Proceedings, the 2nd International Conference on Systems Thinking in Management, April, 2002, University of Salford, Salford, UK.
• 2002. "System Dynamics and Intelligent Agent-Based Simulation: Where is the Synergy?". With Kambiz Maani and Habib Sedehi. In: Proceedings for the Twentieth International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, July 28 – August 1, 2002, Palermo, Italy.
• 2004. "Systems Thinking and Its Implications in Organizational Transformation". With Gnana Bharathy. In: Proceedings for the 3rd International Conference on Systems Thinking in Management. May, 2004, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
• 2005. "User Interface Design -- An Experimental Study." With Barry Silverman et al. In: Proceedings for the American Society For Cybernetics (ASC) 2005 Conference. October 2005, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
• 2006. "Social Systems Simulation For Group Learning: Adding Realism To Modeling," With Gnana Bharathy et al.. In: Systems Thinking and Complexity Science: Insights for Action. A Volume in ISCE Publishing's Complex Systems Series. 2006 ISCE Publishing, Mansfield, MA.
• 2006. "Unlearning/Learning Organizations – The Role of Mindset". With Bruce Warren, Maureen Wright and John Mairano. In: Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences. Sonoma State University, Sonoma, CA.
• 2006. "Individual Consumer Differences and Design Implications for Web-Based Decision Support" (with Barry Silverman et al.), Ackoff Center for the Advancement of Systems Approaches (ACASA), University of Pennsylvania. Submitted for Publication to Erg Soc. J of Behavior and Info Tech.
• 2007. "Synthetic (Integrative) Project Management" Business Strategy Series,Volume 8, Issue 8, Page: 426 – 434, Emerald Publications, New York, NY.
• 2009. "A Useful Distinction Between Managers and Leaders" (with Russell L. Ackoff), Strategy and Leadership, 2009, Volume 37, Issue 3, Emerald Publications, New York, NY.
• 2011. "Systems & Design Thinking: A Conceptual Framework for Their Integration" (with Erica R. Wexler, and Dennis V. Wilson), Organizational Dynamics Working Papers, Working Paper #11-03 and Proceedings of the 55th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences
• 2012. "Sustainability, organizational learning, and lessons learned from aviation" (with Peter A.C. Smith), Learning Organization, The, Vol. 19 Iss: 1, pp. 77–86.
• 2012. "Translational Consulting," Ongoing Discussion "thought Piece," Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's InThinking Network, September 2012.
• 2014. "Rethinking Executive Education: A Program for Responding to Sudden Disruptions Caused by Dynamic Complexity,” (with Larry M. Starr), December 2014.