A presentation explaining the Viable Systems model and how it has been applied to produce successful collaborations.

1. The Viable Systems Model What is it ? What are its origins? How does it work? How do you use it? Jon Walker Laurel Bank Associates .

2. VSM: What is it ? It’s a theory about the way viable organisations work. It’s focus is organisational structure. It’s a tool kit which enables you to diagnose problems and to come up with solutions. It’s a diagram which encapsulates • the parts of a viable systems • the relationships between the parts • the relationships with the environment It’s a language for discussing organisational issues

3. VSM: Origins VSM comes from systems thinking • Whole, self-organising systems • Patterns of relationships Developed by Stafford Beer during the 1950’s while he was a manager in the UK steel industry.

5. VSM Origins - Complexification Small viable systems come together to form a new, larger, viable whole. Evolution has been driven by a never ending need to create larger organisms out of smaller organisms. And human development follows the same pattern: “ The increasing integration of smaller units into units of greater size and complexity has been the engine of history” (Schmookler and Elias)

6. VSM Origins - Organism in its environment. Beer was looking with cybernetic eyes - at the way any viable system adapts to survive and attain its goals in the context of a changeable environment. So the connection to, and interaction with, the environment must be at the heart of any model of viability. Viable system Environment

7. VSM - The Platform How to attain your goals in a changing environment. How to control those who work for you. Inspired by the way the brain and nervous systems control the muscles and organs. Inspired by hierarchy - literally sacred or priest power . Systems co-evolving with their environment. Links with the environment secondary. Small systems come together to form a new, larger whole. Control from the top down Pyramidal structures Viable operational units, working together for their mutual advantage. Command and control. Authority and obedience Beer’s Approach Traditional Approach

8. The Viable Systems Model How it works: 1 The Three Elements

11. Horizontal and Vertical Interactions Operational units need to do their job on the horizontal axis, dealing with a complex, rapidly changing environment. They must have as much autonomy as possible to respond effectively The Meta-system understands the need for this autonomy, but has to do its job of ensuring the whole think works coherently. It can intervene, but only for system coherence. The Golden Rule is: maximised autonomy, limited only by systems cohesion.

13. The Viable Systems Model How it works: 2 The Five Systems

14. The Five Systems - Overview and Physiological Inspiration . Beer’s diagram of the body and brain . . developed into . .

16. The Viable Systems Model How it works: 3 How the parts create the whole.

19. A Dynamic Whole System The autonomous Systems 1 responding to a changing Environment System 5 monitoring and ensuring everything is within policy guidelines System 4 checking both the outside world and System 3 to design strategies to respond to threats and opportunities. Systems 2 and 3 overseeing the entire interacting cluster of Systems 1, dealing with conflicts of interest, and looking for synergies. All parts of the system are in a continuous, dynamic interaction with all other parts. The VSM functions as a coherent whole system.

20. Overview Clusters of self-organising viable systems (from bacteria to people) find it makes sense to work together and create a greater whole. 4 Meta-systemic systems are needed to ensure the parts come together in a coherent, harmonised, optimised way. Both the Meta-system and the Operation are in a continuous, dynamic, co-evolving dance with each other and with their environment. The way that the whole is organised is exactly the same as the organisation of the Operational parts. Viable systems contain and are contained within other viable systems. The model is recursive. The Operational units have as much autonomy as possible - the Meta-system can only intervene in order to maintain the cohesiveness of the whole. The same laws apply to all viable systems - large and small

21. So what ? All very interesting. . . BUT Is it useful ? Can it help to deal with organisational problems ?

23. The Viable Systems Model How to use it.

25. VSM Application 1: Chile Each recursion is a whole, viable system. Each recursion is nested inside the next, like a series of Russian dolls. Here are the 12 recursions for the Chilean social economy as mapped by Beer in 1971.

27. VSM Application 3 : the Village Involvement in an Irish eco-community

28. The VSM Approach All applications involve partnership: • you know the details, culture, problems • we can help to re-think problems in VSM terms. Solutions emerge from the inter-play .