**Pattern Name:** VSM Model
**Introduction:** The first cybernetic model of human organizations, created by Stafford Beer.
**Illustration:**
**CONTEXT:**
Stafford Beer was the first person to be hired to do Operational Research in a corporation--British Steel. He developed the VSM (Viable System Model) from his understanding of cybernetics and the new knowledge about how the human nervous system works.
In his hands and in the hands of his students, the VSM has proven to be a very powerful model for diagnosing organizational problems and redesigning organizations.
Much essential understanding is not explicitly in the model and therefore skilled consultants are necessary for its successful use.
**PROBLEM:**
**Reliance on partial organizational models harms the long term viability of organizations.**
**Forces:**
**THEREFORE (SOLUTION):**
**Those holding responsibility for the health and survival (viability) of organizations must use models that allow them to:** **1) understand the relation of their organization to the larger **environment**, 2) understand leadership's relations the **divisions** of their own organization, and 3) understand the functioning of the **support systems** for the entire organization.**
**Actions:**
Use a single model, the VSM, to assess an organization's environment, divisions, and support functions.
Print VSM PDF 
and use colored markers to make your assessments of your whole organization. Add divisions (Opi-1n) as needed. Add lines as needed to the new divisions.
**Consequences:**
Enhanced ability to identify what really matters.
**Known Uses:**
Businesses Government departments Countries
**RELATED PATTERNS:**