The Viable System Model (VSM) is not a new idea. Created by Stafford Beer over twenty years ago, it has been used extensively as a conceptual tool for understanding organizations, redesigning them (where appropriate) and supporting the management of change. Despite its successful application within numerous private and public sector organizations, however, the VSM is not yet widely known among the general management population. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the ideas behind the model are not intuitively easy to grasp; secondly, they run counter to the great legacy of thinking about organizations dating from the Industrial Revolution - a legacy that is only now starting to be questioned. To deal with the second point in more detail, organizations have been viewed traditionally as hierarchical institutions that operate according to a top-down command structure: strategic plans are formulated at the top and implemented by a cascade of instructions through the tiered ranks. It is now widely acknowledged that this modus operandi is too slow and inflexible to cope with the increasing rate of change and complexity surrounding most organizations.

The Viable System Model offers a way of gaining both functional decentralisation and cohesion of the whole. It is underpinned by fundamental cybernetic principles of communication and control in complex organizations. These principles offer a way of providing true autonomy and empowerment within an integrated framework, together with the necessary supporting links between the individual parts. In short, the VSM provides a framework for designing flexible, adaptable organizations that balance external and internal perspectives and long and short-term thinking.

The model is derived from the architecture of the brain and nervous system. Systems 3-2-1 are identified with the ancient brain or autonomic nervous system. System 4 embodies cognition and conversation. System 5, the higher brain functions, include introspection and decision making.

Question: Who did design "human brain" that way?

Last modified: Thursday, 31 October 2024, 9:41 AM