Viable System Model

The Viable System Model (VSM), a concept developed by cybernetician Stafford Beer, is a structural diagram that can be applied to the organization of any sustainable system.

A system can be considered viable when it manages to survive autonomously in a constantly changing environment, thanks to its ability to adapt. It is this indispensable adaptability that characterizes all viable systems.

The VSM is therefore a kind of abstract description of how such a system works, and is applicable to any organization that can be characterized as viable.

The five pillars of VSM

This description is divided into five main pillars, which Stafford Beer describes as subsystems for overall organizational effectiveness:

• System 1: Implementation, operations
• System 2: Coordination of system 1 operations
• System 3: Operational governance - controlling and optimizing operational activities
• System 4: Strategic governance: interpreting the results of experience and developing expectations based on these results
• System 5: Normative governance: development of rules and behaviors within the organization
  

For Stafford Beer, these five systemic functions (implementation, coordination, optimization, intelligence and policy) are applicable at every level of the company: from the very top, to every team and every project.

A stable yet agile model

Finally, this architecture meets the dual challenge of providing a stable, efficient model of managerial organization, while preserving the agility and adaptive flexibility that characterize viable systems. While forms of governance and management vary infinitely between companies, Beer's bet is that their operation remains constant, and is represented in this VSM diagram.