The last couple of posts have explored just some of what is happening technologically, structurally and demographically in the business environment. There is obviously masses to say but I am moving on to think about the next element of smart working – knowing how to adapt systems and processes to match the environment.

I agree with Kurt Lewin’s view that there is nothing so practical as a good theory*, which is why I was bowled over fourteen years ago when I realised the practical implications of Stafford Beer’s Viable Systems Model (VSM). The VSM has had very little exposure outside of a band of devotees, which I think is baffling and misses valuable insights that inform options for action under increasingly complex, inter-connected and uncertain operating conditions.

What Is A Viable System?

A system can be a person, group, business unit, enterprise or eco-system of enterprises

The system is viable if it can withstand shocks inflicted on it by its external environment

Subsystems co-existing within a larger system are self-sufficient viable systems, which must have the capacity to retain viability and comply with the core principles of the VSM.

Of the two core principle of the VSM, one is Ashby’s law of requisite variety**. The other, recursion, is an outcome of the need to handle variety.

What Is Variety?

Variety describes the occurrence of distinct elements from among a set of elements. For example, the set ‘c,b,c,a,c,c,a,b,c,b,b,a’ has twelve elements but only three that are distinct. The set is said to have a variety of three. In practice, variety is an heuristic indicator of complexity, based as it is on observer perception and judgement of events a system confronts and experiences.

Amplify And Attenuate

Requisite variety implies that a system’s responses to its external environment must match it in complexity.

It does this in two ways: by trying to attenuate and amplify its responses to it.

We already have a wealth of research and case study examples of enterprises using amplification to respond to environmental pressures. For example, in lean and agile manufacturing, amplified responses to pressures from competition and customers are through business process innovation and control techniques – recognising, eliciting, valuing and deploying the brain power of skilled shopfloor operators collaborating in problem-solving and continuous improvement.

I see this as a first wave of smart working. Social computing technologies now creates phenomenal opportunity for a second wave of smart working, building on what we know from first time around, only this time unleashing the collective intelligence and creativity of inter-connected networks of people that span organisational, cultural, professional and geographical boundaries.

I will write a bit more about attenuation as a response to complexity in my next post.

* Kurt Lewin (1951). Field Theory in Social Science; selected theoretical papers. D.Cartwright (Ed.) Harper Row, New York, p169.

** Ashby, W.R. (1956). An Introduction To Cybernetics. Chapman & Hall, London