Mark Lambertz’s restaurant simulation for learning Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model, published on Intelligent Organisations on 17 October 2026.

Participants organise a fictional hospitality business, work through an eventful week, and examine their decisions using a VSM diagram laid out on the floor. The exercise explores operational autonomy, coordination, recursion, and the relationship between current operations and future possibilities.

Lambertz credits Allenna Leonard with the original storyline.

Read ‘Pasta Lasta’ and the facilitator guidance · Download the facilitator handout (PDF).

Related: VSM7 walkthrough, Lambertz’s developing software project based on an adaptation of Martin Pfiffner’s seven-step VSM design method. Previously shared on SysCoI on 17 August 2026. The source-code repository describes the software as a mockup under active development.