Above: Prof. Russell Ackoff and Prof. Jamshid Gharajedaghi, founders of INTERACT, the Center for Interactive Systems Design

INTERACT, is the outgrowth of more than three quarters of a century of continuous work on systems theory & methodology, guided by a philosophy of experimental idealism. At the turn of the century, a civil engineer from the University of Pennsylvania became the assistant to the celebrated experimental psychologist and philosopher William James at Harvard. This engineer, Edgar Arthur Singer, Jr., took up a post in the Philosophy Department at Penn and instituted a broad program covering the main aspects of ancient and modern philosophy. His outlook was experimental, his motivation, a theory of action and his inspiration, an ideal of continuous progress. Singer's experimental idealism offered a synthesis of science, morality, and art, in an era that had become obsessively technological. What Singer saw was the shift from philosophy as thinking to philosophy as doing. No longer was philosophy to be conceived as the exclusive activity of thinkers telling the men of action what to do, but the activity of the doers telling the thinkers what to think about, and then to do what they had thought about.
American pragmatism, quite independently of European Marxism, tried to make philosophy the basis of action, rather than of thought, directed at transforming the economic and political functioning of societies. It laid the groundwork for the notion that philosophy arises out of action and work, out of the practice of human beings rather than armchair reflection upon that practice. It argued that a theory of practice and the practice of that theory were as inseparable as the two sides of a coin. What pragmatism lacked and Singer supplied, was the idea of continuous progress toward ideals, or, as we have called it, the ideal of development; and a deep understanding of the use of experimentation as a substitute for experience. The new mission of philosophy was taken up by several of Singer's students, notably Thomas A. Cowan, C. West Churchman, and Russell L. Ackoff. INTERACT traces its origins back to 1951 when the first American Academic program in Operations Research and an associated research group were formed by C. West Churchman and Russell L. Ackoff at the Case Institute of Technology. In 1964, Ackoff and a number of his colleagues and students moved to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where they established a graduate program in Operations Research and assumed responsibility for the Management Science Center (later renamed the Busch Center). In 1974, an innovative graduate program in social systems sciences (S3) was established to reflect the continually broadening interests of the faculty and students involved in the Busch Center. This became the largest doctoral program in The Wharton School. In 1979, Jamshid Gharajedaghi, a systems thinker from an ancient Eastern culture, joined Ackoff at Wharton School as the Director of the Busch Center. Here is what Ackoff had to say about this convergence: "His joining us was a major event in my life. An investigator into a serious and complex subject welcomes a convergence of a broad stream of ideas, experience and hard work of a distinctively different cultural origin. The tradition out of which Jamshid's work has come and that from which mine has arisen are very different, but these two traditions intersected a number of years ago and have merged to give his work a freshness and originality that I envy. An apparent miracle has happened. What was originally thought of as a fundamentally disparate source of alien views on the nature of systems organization, turned easily and naturally into a joint effort. The fundamental nature of systems organization was at once perceived to be a unity in diversity. It became evident quite early that the two streams of thought were not only basically compatible but also had the happy effect of enriching each other." In 1986, Ackoff, in partnership with Gharajedaghi, created INTERACT, a freestanding organization. INTERACT, in its various manifestations, has worked under contract for numerous corporations and government agencies throughout the world. In this context, interactive design methodology has enabled individuals and organizations to gain control over their future. It has created participative, responsible, learning organizational cultures, focused on creating a desired future. The design methodology has been used to achieve an order of magnitude improvement in the performance of throughput systems.  Because most of INTERACT's project work involves complex sets of interacting problems and opportunities, associations with sponsoring organizations often take place over extended periods, with few lasting less than a year and most lasting longer. Sponsors retain the right to terminate at any time. The majority of clients fall into the following categories: Successful businesses and organizations with a desire to maintain their leadership position; organizations and businesses faced with turnaround situations and revitalization challenges; start-up businesses formed around new technologies.

Clients Include: ALCOA (Aluminum Company of America); ANGLOVAAL Ltd (Mining, South Africa); Armco (Latin American Division); Anheuser-Busch Companies; AT&T; Butterworth Health System; Carnegie Mellon University (Software Engineering Institute SEI); Carrier Corporation; Central Life Assurance Company; Charles Schwab; Chrysler Corporation; Clark Equipment Company; Commonwealth Energy Systems; Commonwealth Enterprises Company; Comm. Home Health Services of Philadelphia; Department of Justice (USA); Digital Equipment Corporation; Dupont; Eastman Kodak; The Edgars Group (Retail, South Africa); Ford Motor Company; General Health, Inc. (Baton Rouge); Government of Mexico; Health Care Forum; Hershey Medical Center; IBM; IECSA (Argentina); Institute for Futures Research, University of Stellenbosch, (South Africa); Imperial Oil Ltd. (Canada); Internal Revenue Service (IRS); Lockheed Martin; Marriott Corporation; Martin-Marietta Corporation; Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; National Institute of Mental Health; National Science Foundation (USA); NYNEX Science & Technology Inc.; ONEIDA Indian Nation, Wisconsin; Simera (Denel, Aerospace, South Africa); Super Fresh Food Markets; Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Center; Texas Rehabilitation Commission; VOLVO (Sweden); United Food & Commercial Worker's Union.

International Projects
United Nations: Goals for Mankind
Club of Rome: The New Economic Order

Examples of INTERACT projects

Mantua, Philadelphia

Redesigning Oneida Nation (governance and development)

Alcoa’s Tennessee Operations (dissolving conflict through redesign)

Ford Motor Company -Woodhaven Stamping Plant

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