The Viable System Model: Its Provenance, Development, Methodology and Pathology

Beer, Stafford

doi:10.2307/2581927

Cited by 230 publications

(329 citation statements)

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“…He noted that teams were often flustered when asked to define the components of the crucial fifth subsystem in their Organization, even though they had easily decided upon the components of sub-systems one to four. In his experience, everyone gave a different answer, when nominating what sub-system five was or should be made of (Beer, 1984). In other words they could not agree on what ought to have been the central question, or 'heart' of their Organization.…”

Section: Figure 10 the Sub-systems Of Stafford Beer's Viable Systemmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…We link our exploration of this structure with Stafford Beer's (1984Beer's ( , 1985 Viable System as well as drawing on the protocol of Beer's (1994) icosahedral 'Team Syntegrity' model. We suggest why a threedimensional version of a two-dimensional map might be useful for discussion of complex topics in teams who apparently oppose each other.…”

Section: Aims Of This Papermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most important point for this paper is that Beer (1984Beer ( , 1985 realized that a well-functioning and independent or 'viable' social system invariably included five distinct (necessary and sufficient) types of behaviours and sub-systems. In a trilogy of three books developing this idea, he proposed their integration in a 'Viable System Model' or VSM.…”

Section: The Viable System Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This means that while sub-systems one to four are 'open' (in the mathematical sense), the fifth sub-system of a complete system enables the whole to 'close in on itself' (Beer, 1984). This is mathematically relatively easy to say.…”

Section: Figure 10 the Sub-systems Of Stafford Beer's Viable Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lastly, we integrate and paraphrase the terminology of The Three Jewels, The Three Pillars, and the Mandala of the Five Buddha Families, as already shown in Figure 13 with the VSM of S. Beer (1984Beer ( , 1985, and arrows of Figure 14a, to produce the Diamond Model for DesignerUser interaction in Figure 14b. This figure describes the final Diamond Model for the Complete Informing System of Designer-User Interaction.…”

Section: A Five Element System Has Three Meta-qualitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Co-evolution and Contradiction: A Diamond Model of Designer-User Interaction

Pahl¹,

Newnes²

2007

InformingSciJ

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This paper explores how the Engineering Design process might balance conflicting constraints of technical product design and the social demands of users. Building on a generic 2D map for innovation in design from the author's previous work, a prototype 3D Diamond Model is presented to help structure conversations between Designers and Users -or indeed any other group with apparently opposing aims. In theory, the model draws on the structure of Buddhism (in particular the Mandala of the Five Buddha Families) and managerial cybernetics (in particular Beer's Viable System Model and his Team Syntegrity protocol), to establish how one's worldview might evolve and how a common worldview for two teams can be determined. In practise, a Facilitator or Researcher helps Designers and Users achieve their respective aims, and develop a common one. When a common worldview is achieved, conversations and activities can become mutually informing, coevolving and emotionally satisfactory at both the individual and team levels.

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Section: Figure 10 the Sub-systems Of Stafford Beer's Viable Systemmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Aims Of This Papermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Viable System Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figure 10 the Sub-systems Of Stafford Beer's Viable Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Five Element System Has Three Meta-qualitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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