A METHODOLOGY FOR USING BEER'S VIABLE SYSTEM MODEL

Abstract

The paper first briefly describes interactive planning, which consists of five interacting phases, which can be performed in any order: mess formulation, ends planning, means planning, resource planning, and implementation. The paper shows how interactive planning and the viable system model (VSM) can be combined to give a powerful methodology for studying and redesigning organizations. The essential skills to use the approach are listed. Finally, a guide for using the VSM is presented. The guide describes how to define levels of recursion, and how to identify and describe various systems.