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Month: June 2024

TB871: The Viable System Model (VSM)

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

Note: this is a post reflecting on one of the modules of my MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice. You can see all of the related posts in this category. 

The Viable System Model (VSM) is an approach to systems thinking designed by Stafford Beer.

A viable system is any system organised in such a way as to meet the demands of surviving in the changing environment. One of the prime features of systems that survive is that they are adaptable. The VSM expresses a model for a viable system, which is an abstracted cybernetic (regulation theory) description that is claimed to be applicable to any organisation that is a viable system and capable of autonomy.

(Wikipedia, 2024)

The following diagram is a simplified version from the TB871 module materials:

Diagram of the Viable System Model with an 'Environment' section connected to various labeled subsystems within a circle, including 'Operations,' 'Coordination,' 'Delivery,' 'Development,' and 'Policy.'
A visual representation of the VSM developed by Stafford Beer (The Open University, 2020)

However, it’s more usual to see quite scary-looking and complicated versions which look like this:

A more complicated version of the VSM
An example of a VSM model (Lambertz, 2017)

The VSM can be used in two ways:

  • Diagnostic Tool: The VSM can be used to diagnose a problematic situation by selecting specific features and building an ideal model of the system’s organisational structure. This ideal model is then compared to the actual situation, identifying discrepancies that guide corrective actions to improve the situation.
  • Design Tool: The VSM can also be used as a design tool, where one acts directly to create and implement an ideal organisational model to achieve desired outcomes.

In terms of my area of practice, Activity 3.3 asks us to think about “a situation of interest within your chosen area of practice that you think might be suitable for diagnostic modelling in order to redesign.” In particular, we need to “identify and name one particular system of focus which… appears not to be responsive to changes in the environment.”

I’m focused on library services as a situation of interest, which one could say is not responsive to changes in its environment. This could be for several reasons:

  1. Budget Constraints: the system is experiencing significant budget cuts, limiting its ability to maintain and update educational resources, hire qualified staff, and run educational programmes.
  2. Technological Advancements: there is likely to be a lag in adopting new technologies and digital tools that could enhance learning and information access. This includes outdated computers, lack of e-books, and insufficient online learning platforms.
  3. Community Needs: the system is not effectively capturing and responding to the evolving needs of the community. This includes insufficient feedback mechanisms to understand what educational resources and programmes are most in demand.
  4. Coordination and Management: there are inefficiencies in how educational programmes and resources are coordinated. This could include poor scheduling, overlapping responsibilities, and ineffective communication among staff members.
  5. Strategic Alignment: the strategic goals of the library may not be fully aligned with the current needs and realities of the community it serves. There may be a lack of clear policies and strategic direction guiding the education and information services.

Wrapped around all of this are outdated notions of what a library is for, along with metrics which don’t adequately capture relevant data. It’s not going to be possible to create a library service from scratch, so my focus is likely to be on using the VSM as a diagnostic tool.

References

Weeknote 23/2024

Posted on by Doug Belshaw
A tight-knit circle of football players' arms reaching in, each with a red 'PLAYER' wristband, symbolizing team unity at a tournament.

I’ve left writing this to Sunday afternoon so that I could report on two things I hoped would happen around the same time… and I was correct! I’ve just hit submit on my latest MSc assignment, and my daughter’s football team, have met with success Barcelona Girls Cup. They finished third, which is an incredible achievement as most of them were playing a year up against teams coming from all over Europe. Their striker even won the golden boot! So proud of them.

I’ve been at home with my son. We could have gone with my wife and daughter, but at the time of booking we weren’t sure about his exam dates, so we’ve been involved in the excitement vicariously through photos and videos! We’ve had a remarkably chill time for the few days that they’ve been away and have had my parents over. In fact, weirdly, I think the experience has made the house we moved to a few weeks ago feel more like home.

Work-wise, I’ve been working on the DCC project, having some interesting conversations, and doing some business development. Things are so quiet that I’ve resorted to applying to jobs, and have an interview for a couple of interesting ones in the coming weeks. Neither would give me the freedom I’m used to, though. We’ll see.

I posted a bunch of things relating to my MSc studies, as well on Thought Shrapnel. Over on the WAO blog we published A Compendium of Credentialing, which is a curated list of posts we’ve written around Open Badges, Verifiable Credentials, and Open Recognition.

Next week, my wife and daughter will be back home, and I’ll be taking the latter to trials for Newcastle Emerging Talent Centre and East Northumberland. Given that she received the Outstanding Player of the Season award for the latter last season, I think she’s probably already in the squad 😉

Photo of my daughter’s team

TB871: Block 2 People stream references

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

Note: this is a post reflecting on one of the modules of my MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice. You can see all of the related posts in this category. 

Just a quick post to share the books, articles, and other material referenced in the Block 2 People stream that I might want to come explore at some point in the future (Open University, 2020)

Abram, D. (1996) The spell of the sensuous: perception and language in a more-than-human world. New York: Random House.

Bateson, G. (1972) Steps to an ecology of mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

BBC (2020) The listening project. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cqx3b (Accessed: 6 February 2020).

Fauconnier, G. and Turner, M. (2002) The way we think: conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. New York: Basic Books.

Friere, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York : Herder & Herder.

Habimana, K. (1994) on Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), translated by Nsengiyumva, F. (1995) in Kinyarwanda transcript of UNICTR RTLM Tape 2, recording from 16-17 May 1994 [English translation]. Available at: https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/7182/unictr_rtlm_0002_eng.pdf?sequence= 2 (Accessed: 4 March 2020).

Hauser, D.J. and Schwarz, N. (2019) ‘The war on prevention II: battle metaphors undermine cancer treatment and prevention and do not increase vigilance’, Health Communication . doi: 10.1080/10410236.2019.1663465.

Hofstadter, D.R. (2001) ‘Analogy as the core of cognition’, in Gentner, D., Holyoak, K. J. and Kokinov, B. N. (eds.) (2001) The analogical mind: perspectives from cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press/Bradford Book, pp. 499–538.

Ison, R. and Straw, E. (2020) The hidden power of systems thinking: governance in a climate emergency. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

The epic of Gilgamesh (1998). Translated from the original Akkadian and Old Babylonian by M. G. Kovacs. Electronic edition prepared by W. Carnahan. Available at: http://ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab8.htm (Accessed 7 February 2020).

Kövecses, Z. (2002) Metaphor: a practical introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kövecses, Z. (2010) Metaphor: a practical introduction. 2nd edn. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Lakoff, G. (1991) Metaphor and war: the metaphor system used to justify war in the Gulf. Part 1 and Part 2. Available at: http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Texts/Scholarly (Accessed: 10 November 2020).

Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980) Metaphors we live by. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Laloux, F. (2014) Reinventing organizations: a guide to creating organizations inspired by the next stage of human consciousness. Brussels: Nelson Parker.

Livingstone Smith, D. (2011) Less than human: why we demean, enslave, and exterminate others. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Merwin, W.S. (1968) Selected translations 1948–1968. New York: Athenaum.

Mintzberg, H. (1987) ‘Crafting strategy’, Harvard Business Review. 65(July–August), pp. 66-75.

Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B. and Lampel, J. (2008) Strategy safari: the complete guide through the wilds of strategic thinking. 2nd edn. Great Britain: Prentice Hall Financial Times.

Morgan, G. (1986) Images of organization. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.

OwlTail (2019) Best Podcasts 2019. Available at: https://www.owltail.com (Accessed: 6 February 2020).

Richards, I. A. (1965, first published 1936) The Philosophy of Rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press.

Rossetti, C. G. (1865) Goblin market and other poems. London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co.

Rutherford, J. and Vaselopulos, J. (2020) The Leadership Podcast. Available at: https://theleadershippodcast.com (Accessed: 6 February 2020).

Semino, E. Demje, Z. and Demmen, J. (2018) ‘An integrated approach to metaphor and framing in cognition, discourse, and practice, with an application to metaphors for cancer’, Applied Linguistics, 39(5), pp. 625–645.

Today (2019) BBC Radio 4, 2 September, 06:00.

Weick, K. (1993) ‘Organisational design as improvisation’, in Glick, W. and Huber, G. (eds.) Organizational change and redesign: ideas and insights for improving performance. New York: Oxford University Press USA.

References to references

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