The Myth of Best Practice
The Yearning for Best Practice “We need you to tell us what the ‘best practice’ is here,” is a request very familiar to many business and management consultants, or “we chose this consulting firm because they have worked with many similar companies and they will bring in ‘best practices’ in the industry.” The term “Best […]
From Management to Leadership – Redefining The Agile Organization
Moving fast and efficient requires awareness and agility. It’s just not possible for a large ship to change course as fast as a speedboat. Often, highly bureaucratic and hierarchical organizations, with all the good intention of making things better, embark on massive organizational changes and don’t see warning signs until it’s often too late and […]
The Viable System Model – Part 4
Too close a view may interfere with one’s grasp of an overall problem or concept. Stafford Beer System 4 – Forward Planning, The External Eye With Systems 2 and 3, the organization will have stabilized and optimized operations (System 1). However, the environment is changing all the time, and each wave of change brings multitude […]
The Viable System Model – Part 3
If cybernetics is the science of control, management is the profession of control. Stafford Beer The design of a Viable System is not hierarchical and is not authoritative. Senior manager’s role is defined as a ‘Service Provider’ rather than a point of authority; and there is a very good reason for that: Laws of Variety. It […]
The Viable System Model – Part 2
Science has sought the ultimate source of energy in the physics of the sun itself . . . the hydrogen-helium fusion. Science now seeks the ultimate source of control, in the cybernetics of natural processes . . . the brain itself. Cybernetics and Management, Stafford Beer, 1959 Multiple Processes As an organization grows in complexity […]
The Viable System Model – Part 1
The Foundation of the Model To design a Viable Organization why re-inventing the wheel when we have access to the most viable system of all: Human Beings? Humans have successfully evolved and adapted to their ever changing environments and have presented a considerable degree of viability. We can learn a great deal by studying this system to see […]
From a Reductionist Approach to a Holistic One
Reductionist Approach In classical logic, Aristotle’s principle of non-contradiction states that you cannot be “A” and “Not A” at the same time. Consequently, we can divide anything between “A” and “Not A”; and furthermore, “A” into “B” and “Not B”; and so on and so forth. The deeper we go down each branch, the further we get […]
Stafford Beer
A “world leader in the development of operational research, who combined management systems with cybernetics” (The Guardian), Professor Stafford Beer is well known for his considerable contributions to the fields of Operational Research and Management Cybernetics. He was the first who applied principles and concepts of cybernetics to the field of management and organizational design, creating […]