by KEVIN MUNGER on SEPTEMBER 26, 2023
The Tragedy of Stafford Beer — Crooked Timber
Category Archives: Discussion
A view or perspective on the world
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED PRESS CIC is offering 4 FREE BOOKS (PDFS) to recognise World Book Day.
Systemic Inquiry: Innovations in Systemic Practitioner Research.
Gail Simon & Alex Chard (Eds.)
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Systemic Therapy as Transformative Practice.
Imelda McCarthy & Gail Simon (Eds.)
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Towards a New ‘Fluid’ Common-Sense Understanding of Relational Becomings.
John Shotter
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A Wild Impatience. Critical Systemic Practice and Research.
Gail Simon
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Everything is Connected Press CIC https://eicpress.com is a systemic writing, publishing and research not-for-profit which supports the independent open access journal, Murmurations: Journal of Transformative Systemic Practice https://murmurations.cloud
http://eicpress.com
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The VSM Guide and the VSM Test
[For some reason – I’m surprised and disappointed – the dedicated site no longer works. But the business end of this is here https://www.systemspractice.org/thevsmtest ]
Ready to face complexity
The VSM Test
The aim of the VSM test is to provide a quick and easy introduction to powerful complexity skills.
Train and Test your VSM Skills.
Your road to VSM
✓ Read the Guide
✓ Do the Test
✓ Share your Knowledge
Viable System Model
The Viable System Model (VSM) is based on management cybernetics theory developed by Stafford Beer. The model identifies essential functions within an organization, each responsible for specific tasks such as operations, coordination, and strategic planning, aiming to achieve viability and adaptability in complex environments.
The VSM provides a model for understanding the structure and functions of viable organizations.
Testimonials
Carola „I really like the “extended” version. There are some very challenging questions in it. 95 Percent 😉“
Martin „Great questionnaire. I had 90% and – as always – learned by my failures😉“
Ilia „Love this“
Matvei „That’s a cool test 😊 I have made 87,5%. Some questions are tricky – good to reflect and to learn 👍“
Wolfgang „I’m lovin it. I thank you very much for your commitment!“
Mihail „Thanks! Learning everyday. Today 90%. :)“
Benjamin „I like“
Alexander „Thanx. Made my day 😅“
Bülent „Cool quiz, thanks 🙌“
Florian “I love the vsm“
Rodrigo „Was unsure about some questions (like the checking all the boxes) but it was fun, thank you!“
Daniel „That‘s realy a cool test. unexpected 90%. 😁 thank you very much for the test.“
Daan „90%… got a few wrong there but still pleased.“
Andreas „I am delighted to share with you that SCiO has confirmed my knowledge of Stefford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) with a 100% 🕺 🍾 🎉 test score.“
Elias “Thank you very much for the test. A good challenge to (re)think about the VSM and a comprehensive start into the VSM world. Highly recommended to all!”
Markus „The VSM Guide is a handy and practical tool, similar in structure to the Scrum Guide but with much more content.“
Martin „😀 Now … this was fun! 🥇“
Jan „ For those familiar with the Viable System Model (VSM), here’s a playful opportunity to test your knowledge.“
Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialkybernetik e.V. (GWS – Society for Managerial and Social Cybernetics) – and journal – Collective Intelligence Letters
- Cybernetics for resilient and sustainable economy and societyOur members combine systemic perspectives from science and practice. Our discourses face the challenges of a sustainable, innovative and resilient living and working environment.About Managerial and Social Cybernetics (WiSo-Cybernetics)
The Leviathan of organization must not swallow the individual without sealing its own inevitable doom. (Ludwig v. Bertalanffy)
Join the dialogue
The GWS e.V. is committed to the exchange of new systemic perspectives in business, politics and society. Use the following options to interact with us or contact us directly.
What problems does WiSo cybernetics deal with?
Read here what WiSo cybernetics can do for you. Promoting interest in cybernetics, especially among young people, is a major task of the society.
What does GWS do?
GWS Society sees itself as a community that is committed to the further development and application of systems thinking in all its facets. Read more about the Society’s goals and activities.
How can I use WiSo cybernetics for myself?
GWS e.V. is committed to the training and continued education of managers in business, politics and administration with a view to solving complex problems. The members of the society combine expertise in many application areas.
How can I contribute?
Exchange of information and experience is the basis of our society. Participate in a project or initiative carried out in society.
How can I use the knowledge of GWS Society?
The GWS brings together works from the circle of members and peer groups of WiSo cybernetics in science and practice. The journal »Collective Intelligence Letters«, which is currently being founded, offers an insight into current research.
How do I get in touch with the members personally?
Bring your questions to a workshop or a conference of the GWS. You will meet the members of the GWS at various events in research and practice, which cover the entire range of current issues in business, politics and society. Our event calendar provides an overview.
Read the blog posts of the GWS members here (usually, posts are in German language)
This website enables GWS experts to report on their activities, projects and publications. Read more about practical applications of WiSo cybernetics and insights from research here.
Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialkybernetik e.V.GWS – Society for Managerial and Social Cybernetics
Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialkybernetik e.V. – GWS – Society for Managerial and Social Cybernetics
https://gws-kybernetik.org/en
Journal:
https://ci-letters.org/index.php/ojs-ci/about
SCiO UK Face-to-Face Open Meeting – 18 March 2024, London UK
SCiO UK Face-to-Face Open Meeting – March 2024
Are you a practicing systems thinker?
Would you like to meet up, network and learn at the same time?
The first 2024 face-to-face SCiO Open Day is happening very soon in London,
18th March,
9:30am-5:00pm
at the Conway Hall, London, WC1R 4RL
so why not come along!
About this Event
SCiO organises Open Meetings to provide opportunities for practitioners to learn and develop new practice, to build relationships, networks hear about skills, tools, practice and experiences. This all-day session will be held in central London at the Conway Hall.
09:30 – Introduction to Systemic Intervention (pre-event) – Simon MacCormac
10:00 – Welcome, SCiO notices and community exercise
10:45 – What’s Stopping Us Stopping Climate Change? – Ed Straw
11:45 – Break
12:15 – Viability of Alternative Food Systems – Lesley Rowan & Tony Korycki
13:15- Lunch Break
14:30 – How to transform organisations by Managing Tensions not People – Russ Lewis
15:30 – Break
16:00 – Modelling Business Ecosystems – Patrick Hoverstadt
17:00 – Later in the Bar social
Details
What’s Stopping Us Stopping Climate Change? – a Systems Thinking answer
The operations of the world are dominated by two artificial human creations: corporations and states. Corporations mostly operate according to the precepts of the global monetary system and neoliberal economics, where money is all and the environment an externality. States attempt regulation for the latter, but are neutered by the system of preferential lobbying.
Despite wetter and hotter warnings, these systems continue on a classic reinforcing loop. COPs are copouts with the artefacts of targets, pledges and PR, alongside the hope actions of EVs, renewables and recycling.
These systems have to be reinvented but within the context of the absolute of the biosphere. It is the ultimate boundary condition. This talk will propose the second order systems of governing changes to break out of the loop. Ed Straw
How to Transform Organisations by Managing Tensions, not People
Russ presents the findings from his doctoral research into managers as agents of change across large organisations. Essentially, the five behaviours that update the role of the manager from guardian of a resource (project, team, or department) to transformer of the system. How would their bosses measure that, you may ask. The answer is ‘ambidexterity’ – being good at both exploring new knowledge andrunning the business as usual (BAU). Historically separated (think R&D vs Production), these activities are more likely to coexist today since output is digital or knowledge-based and changes very quickly. By focusing on the tensions in their context, managers are achieving the seemingly impossible – adaptable efficiency and efficient adaptability.
The Viability of ‘Alternative’ Systems
Forming alternatives to established economic, technological or political systems, whatever their composition of organisations or institutions, can be difficult, and such alternatives can be susceptible or vulnerable to the ‘establishment’. This presentation explores how we can use the Viable System Model as a diagnostic, from data gathered about a number of outsider organisations through dialogue, insider research, or remote research, to evaluate the survivability of an alternative ‘system of interest’ in its direct or wider environment.
Lesley Rowan
Tony Korycki
Modelling Business Ecosystems
Patrick Hoverstadt will talk about modelling business ecosystems. There is a lot of talk about Business Ecosystems, but much of the theory and practice is actually just a reworking and renaming of old supply chain models. We’ll argue that business ecosystems are very like biological ecosystems with the full range of predators, prey, food chains, parasitic behaviour, keystone actors etc. The talk will cover some techniques we have used for modelling eco-systems, some of the uses these model have and walk through some cases from past projects.
SCiO UK Face-to-Face Open Meeting – March 2024 | SCiO
https://www.systemspractice.org/events/scio-uk-face-face-open-meeting-march-2024
‘The Handbook of Systems Thinking’ – Journal of Systems Thinking (Cabrera Research Lab)
[I’d say this is a bit of a curate’s egg. It’s extensive, and free, and brings in several highly rated systems authors to give approachable, light summaries of their methods and approaches. You can see the editorial team here: https://www.scienceopen.com/collection/91ba7261-ecaf-4e92-ab55-2e9cfce483d0 under ‘about the journal’, and under ‘open peer review’ can see their ‘unusual’ peer review process]
They say:
This Handbook details the theory and practice of Systems Thinking in the areas of social systems, management, and policy. The contributing chapters from numerous authors show the diversity of the field, and this first chapter seeks to identify patterns in that diversity to demonstrate an underlying unity among the plurality of methods, approaches and interventions throughout the field.
Publications – The Handbook of Systems Thinking – ScienceOpen
https://www.scienceopen.com/search#collection/4afbd5c3-ca08-405f-89cd-9f919db2c8e8
Do Humans Dream of Analogue Sheep?
February 26, 2024by MattLloyd
Do Humans Dream of Analogue Sheep?February 26, 2024by MattLloyd
Do Humans Dream of Analogue Sheep? – Systems Soundbites
The PreAccident Investigations Podcast – PAPod 486 – One More Discussion of Fatal Events – and this is just for us
[A relatively off-the-cuff podcast and although ostensibly for ‘safety professionals’, I think the discussion of ‘graceful extensibility’ and its balanced with ‘prevention’ and ‘control’ is valuable for everyone]
PAPod 486 – One More Discussion of Fatal Events – and this is just for us
PAPod 486 – One More Discussion of Fatal Events – and this is just for us. | PreAccident Investigation Podcast
https://preaccidentpodcast.podbean.com/e/papod-486-one-more-discussion-of-fatal-events-and-this-is-just-for-us
Gregory Bateson – From Versalles to Cybernetics (1966) – recording on YouTube
Gregory Bateson – From Versalles to Cybernetics (1966) – YouTube
On Facebook, Nora Bateson shared:
From Versailles to Cybernetics (in English with English subtitles)
On this Sunday, while it is not quite spring yet, if you have a little time to listen, check this lecture out.
You may remember it as a chapter from Steps To and Ecology of Mind. I found this version on youtube. This talk by my dad is one of the most important for the present times, when selling out everyone and everything is justified by the right of profit. The pain of loss of trustworthiness in communication has historical shadows that run long. As the honor of communication erodes, the logic of manipulation and zero sum games becomes normalized as “how life is.”
The aftermath of deception since the fateful Treaty of Versalles is an illustration of systemic ripples into the future of communication since then. Did you know….?
Communication is Sacred. It matters.
Software in the natural world: A computational approach to emergence in complex multi-level systems – Rosas et al (2024)
Fernando E. Rosas, Bernhard C. Geiger, Andrea I Luppi, Anil K. Seth, Daniel Polani, Michael Gastpar, Pedro A.M. Mediano
Introducing a New Saturday Series: The Prophets – Marshall McLuhan – Carlson (2024)
Meet the messengers from the past who saw the future and explain our world today. First up: Marshall McLuhan.
March 2, 2024
Introducing a New Saturday Series: The ProphetsMeet the messengers from the past who saw the future and explain our world today. First up: Marshall McLuhan.By Benjamin CarlsonMarch 2, 2024
Introducing a New Saturday Series: The Prophets | The Free Press
Social Systems Theory from a Cognitive and Physicalist Perspective – (Challoner, 2024)
Social Systems Theory from a Cognitive and Physicalist PerspectivePost authorBy John A ChallonerPost dateFebruary 28, 2024
Social Systems Theory from a Cognitive and Physicalist Perspective – Rational-Understanding.com
Niklas Luhmann: What is Autopoiesis? (Keenan, Jan 2022)
Niklas Luhmann: What is Autopoiesis?by Bernard Keenan | 10 Jan 2022
Niklas Luhmann: What is Autopoiesis?
Roberts & Kay – Differentiation and Integration: How to Use Weisbord & Janoff’s Good Work (internet archive)
ADVANCING DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES
IN WORKPLACES AND COMMUNITIES
Differentiation and Integration: How to Use Weisbord & Janoff’s Good Work
Go Deep to Benefit from Differences: Differentiation and Integration
https://web.archive.org/web/20220708113515/https://robertsandkay.com/differentiation-integration-weisbord-janoff
Cybernetics Within Us – Saparina (1966)
h/t to this mini-thread on twitter by Olivia Guest
on archive.org:
Can a rat tell the difference between a Raphael Madonna and a Picasso Girl in Blue? Would a Martian (if there is such a thing) recognize a live cat after having seen a photograph of one? Can a “seeing”electronic machine be made to tell a cat from a dog or an A from a B? How would it go about “computing” the image? And is “machine thinking”anything like human thinking?
These and other such problems are investigated in the branch of cybernetics that studies living systems: bionics, as this ultramodern science is now called. It developed when scientists began to compare the design and operation of electronic systems with living organisms. Our body, they found, is a complex cybernetic system controlled by countless self-regulating devices. In fact, every single cell of our body is an automatic control device in its own right. Millions upon millions of tiny cybernetic units are constantly at work within us. They maintain normal blood pressure, control the composition of the gastric juices, ensure the rhythmic contraction of the heart and lungs, and do a thousand other things that come under the heading of “vital functions”of the organism.
How they work and how our body functions is described in this popular exposition, which requires no previous knowledge of cybernetics, biology, electronics, or any other subject for that matter (except reading, of course).
The book was translated from the Russian by Vladimir Talmy and was published by Peace in 1966.
Cybernetics Within Usby Yelena SaparinaPublication date 1966Topics science, popular, mir publishers, peace publishers, machine, perception, learning, vision, language, information, logic, circuits, pleasure centre, brains, cognition, cybernetics, cognitive science, automata, molecules, interaction, systems, levels, neural architecture, neurons, mindCollection mir-titles; additional_collectionsLanguage EnglishCan a rat tell the difference between a Raphael Madonna and a Picasso Girl in Blue? Would a Martian (if there is such a thing) recognize a live cat after having seen a photograph of one? Can a “seeing”electronic machine be made to tell a cat from a dog or an A from a B? How would it go about “computing” the image? And is “machine thinking”anything like human thinking?These and other such problems are investigated in the branch of cybernetics that studies living systems: bionics, as this ultramodern science is now called. It developed when scientists began to compare the design and operation of electronic systems with living organisms. Our body, they found, is a complex cybernetic system controlled by countless self-regulating devices. In fact, every single cell of our body is an automatic control device in its own right. Millions upon millions of tiny cybernetic units are constantly at work within us. They maintain normal blood pressure, control the composition of the gastric juices, ensure the rhythmic contraction of the heart and lungs, and do a thousand other things that come under the heading of “vital functions”of the organism.How they work and how our body functions is described in this popular exposition, which requires no previous knowledge of cybernetics, biology, electronics, or any other subject for that matter (except reading, of course).The book was translated from the Russian by Vladimir Talmy and was published by Peace in 1966.
Cybernetics Within Us : Yelena Saparina : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/SaparinaCyberneticsWithinUsPeace1966
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