Metaphorum

Exploring a critical organisational praxis – invoking cybernetic thinking, indigenous knowledge and decolonisation
2025-03-05 16:00 - 17:30 (Europe/London) | Metaphorum Webinar
Sujay Dinnalli & Ushma Desai
As India is poised to become the third largest economy, there is a pressing need to look at the state of organisations and people within them. That this constitutes a critical enquiry is evidenced from the low percentage of organised sector workers in the country’s workforce, the dearth of industrial innovation, and other alarming socio-economic indicators. Social research in organisations has looked at the cultural intricacies within organisations, and the challenges hence produced.
more details: webinar page

VSM Coach Course Feb 2025 - English
2025-02-24 09:00 - 2025-02-26 17:00 (Europe/Berlin)
A three day training course leading to the VSM Coach certification.

How do you make decisions, how do you design the communication channels in your company? How adaptive, how controllable your company is depends on this. In many companies, this dimension is undervalued.

As the “state of the art” in organizational diagnosis, the VSM focuses on the nervous system of the organization, the decision-making and communication processes, and thus goes beyond the “normal” views of organizational charts and processes.

This third dimension of organizing offers groundbreaking new insights for a diagnosis and design of the enterprise. Properly designed, it turns dealing with complexity into a company’s strength.

The course will enable you to diagnose dysfunctions and improvement opportunities for your organization.

Trainer

Martin Pfiffner (1965) lives in Switzerland. After studying economics at the University of St. Gallen HSG, he earned his doctorate in systems-oriented management with Prof. Dr. Fredmund Malik (management) and Prof. Dr. Peter Gross (sociology). Later he complemented his education by studying management cybernetics with Prof. Dr. Stafford Beer. He is a Fellow of the Cybernetic Society, FCybS.
From 1990 to 2012, Martin worked as a management consultant for Management Zentrum St. Gallen. He was responsible for the development of managerial cybernetics with a focus on the application development of the Viable System Model, the dissemination of Syntegration in Europe, the establishment of the International Bionics Center IBZ in Munich and the Cwarel-Isaf Institute and its conferences – a predecessor of Metaphorum.
Between 2013 and 2016 he owned a SKEMA martial arts school and was president of the SKEMA association Switzerland. In 2017 together with friends Martin established the Fondation Oroborus in Switzerland with the purpose of disseminating applied management cybernetics.
Today he works as an independent top management consultant, speaker, publisher and researcher. He still practices martial arts and plays the guitar in an alternative-rock band.

Cybernetics and education: architecture for freedom
2025-02-05 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/London) | Metaphorum Webinar
Webinar with Prof. José dos Santos Cabral Filho.
see: webinar info for more details.
Cybernetics and education: architecture for freedom

VSM Coach Online Course in English
2024-11-15 13:00 - 2024-12-15 17:00 (Europe/London)
An Online VSM Coach Course with Angela Espinosa

English: Friday 15th November – Friday 13th December 2024
COMPLETE THE APPLICATION FORM

Aims: This VSM training package aims to:

Introduce the Viable System Model (VSM), and in particular, the ‘viability and sustainability’ approach, which emphasizes the need for organisational sustainability as well as viability.
Introduce the ‘Self-Transformation Methodology’ to guide implementation of the VSM.
Facilitate practicing the VSM and the STM in organisations chosen by students
Introduce theory and tools for Performance Management and Self Governance
Offer a critical review of VSM theory and applications

Approach:

The module will apply an action learning approach – learning by doing’:

It will introduce the basic cybernetic concepts underlying VSM theory

Through real life examples, students will learn to apply these concepts in their personal and organisational lives

The VSM theory will be applied by the students in an organisation of their choice. They will be ‘role playing’ as internal consultants and as employees or customers from the organisation, to learn how to:

model the organisation as a viable system

analyse current shortcomings of the organisation, by following VSM criteria of effectiveness

design a more effective organisation, following VSM criteria

understand VSM criteria for self-governance and review current performance management systems and decision-making spaces.

The module will be delivered online, and will include interactive workshops with presentations, using collaborative online technology (e.g., Miro), to share exercises and exchange of experiences.

Assessment:

Students learning and contributions will be peer-reviewed, through team works, and final presentations of their findings
Students are invited to summarise their learning in a brief critical essay about the VSM and the strengths and limitations of applying the VSM

Agenda for VSM Coach Course in English

Day One: Introduction to the VSM a. Managing organisational complexity b. The Viable System Model c. Viability and Sustainability (v & s) d. Applications of the VSM
Day Two: The Self Transformation Methodology a. Organisational Identity b. Recursive Analysis c. Preliminary VSM diagnosis
Day Three: Full VSM diagnosis a. S1/Environment b. S1/S2/S3 c. S3/S4/S5 d. Organisational Pathologies
Day Four: VSM Design a. Aligning Strategy, Structure and Technology i. VSM of the desired organisation ii. Developing roles and mechanisms for strategy implementation iii. Required ICT developments b. Self-Transformation Projects
Day Five: Self-governance a. Performance Management i. Reviewing KPIs ii. Reviewing Performance Management Systems b. Analysing Decision-Making mechanisms c. Sustainable Self-Governance

Course duration 24 hours- Dates: 5 days each from 13:00 to 18:00 UK
English Course Dates:

November the 15th, 13:00 to 18:00
November the 22nd , 13:00 to 18:00
November the 29th 13:00 to 18:00
December the 6th 13:00 to 18:00
December the 13th 13:00 to 17:00

Note: once completed the registrations, the Trainer and the students can adjust this timetable in the most convenient way for all.
Language

Course: English
Training material: English
Pricing: Course fees: £1000.00

PLEASE PAY USING THIS LINK TO TICKET TAILOR
Trainer

Dr Angela Espinosa (Colombia, 1958) has been an international leader in developing the Viable System Model. She worked closely with S Beer and co-founded and led the Metaphorum to develop his legacy when he passed away.

Angela has three decades experience in teaching, coaching, and consulting in the VSM in Europe and Latin-America. She has published extensively on applications and developments of the Viable System Model.

She is an Emeritus Fellow from the Centre for Systems Studies at the University of Hull, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Exeter University; a Fellow of the British Cybernetics Society; and an Associated Professor in Transylvania Executive Education.

Beyond Theory: Exploring the Practical Synergy of VSM and AI
2024-11-12 16:00 - 17:30 UTC | Metaphorum Webinar
Beyond Theory: Exploring the Practical Synergy of VSM and AI”
Panos Panagiotakopoulos, PhD
Tuesday November the 12th, 4:00- 5:30 pm (UK wintertime)
This hands-on webinar will introduce the Viable System Model (VSM) as a framework to understand and harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) within organizations.
We’ll examine practical use cases across VSM’s five systems through interactive demos and discussions.
Rather than theory, this session will focus on real-world applications, showing how VSM can enhance the effective integration of AI in an organization and significantly improve its viability. ,Additionally, we’ll explore how AI can support VSM training and deepen understanding, making it easier for participants to apply VSM concepts in business contexts.

Organizing success critical tasks in a production plant with the Viable System Model
2024-10-08 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/London)
A Practice Application of VSM
Judith Hennemann
The talk will give insights in process and results of a 2-day-workshop in one of our production plants.
In my presentation, I will focus on the methodology of the workshop in the first place, especially with regards to alternating VSM teaching and application phases during the workshop.
I will also explain how we met challenges that occurred during the analysis.
The request to the facilitator was – based on the strategic relevance and a variety of difficult conditions for the plant – to define crucial roles that ensure a resilient setup of this production plant.
The concept needed to be scalable to similar plants in our global setting. A cross functional project had already been launched in order to support the performance of the plant.
The plant in focus is embedded in a complex matrix of regional, technical and functional structures and requirements.
You will see how the nesting of the organization made it difficult to identify the boundaries of the System in Focus, and how flexible usage of recursion levels helped us to avoid paralysis by analysis.
I will walk you through three major steps of our workshop:

First, the check of organizational setup and manageability of the operations.
Second, the collection of challenges that the operations and their management are facing, including environmental influences and dependencies between operations.
Third, the definition of corresponding roles, competencies and practices to ensure a stable and resilient operation of the plant.

You will take away my recommendation for templates from the VSM Coach training and on visualization and communication of the results to the senior management, and general lessons learned.
Please understand that I “blurred” all the specific results. This is about the process, not the results.
I am looking forward to our discussion.

VSM & Ethics
2024-10-02 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/London) | Metaphorum Webinar
Stephen Harwood
Technology is Janus-faced with it having both a good and a dark side, this highlighting the ethics domain. This has implications for the implementation of technology in general. Extending the notion of technology implementation as one form of managed change, these implications extend to how we handle change, especially change in complex situations. More

Berlin 2024 Conference – Creativity and Viability
2024-09-16 - 2024-09-17 | The Change Hub, Germany
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The Metaphorum 2024 Conference is set to take place in Berlin, Germany. This will be a two-day event from Monday September 16th to Tuesday September 17th.

This year’s conference theme centres around the role of creativity in sustaining viability. The primary conference activities are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, to be held at The Change Hub, an innovative space dedicated to creating sustainable transformation and social impact.

In keeping with the theme of the conference, this will be an innovative experience, unlike any other Metaphorum conference you have attended.

Learn more

The Topologies of Prediction: Management, Cybernetics, and Artificial Intelligence
2024-09-04 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/London) | Metaphorum Webinar
Mark Johnson

AI’s recent advances mean that it is now a fundamental constituent of the environment for all of us, and the challenge for organisations is to adapt to it. This entails a deeper understanding of what the technology is, and this in turn invites a reinspection of cybernetic theory.

Participate through this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82647039399?pwd=[REDACTED]

Practitioners Webinar: From systems to entrepreneurial ecosystemic organizations. Exploring Haier’s RenDanHeYi.
2024-06-26 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/London) | Metaphorum Webinar
Emanuele Quintarelli will introduce RenDanHeYi, a truly decentralized organization concept.
After that, he and Krishan Mathis will explore in an interactive way how these concepts relate to the Viable System Model, and look for parallels and differences.
Abstract:
How can a global manufacturer with tens of thousands of employees not just survive but thrive in turbulent times? Guided by its CEO philosopher, the Chinese white goods appliance leader went through four decades of strategy, business, and organizational reinvention, rewriting everything we knew about management.

Webinar: The heart of the 4th industrial revolution in the brain of Viable System Model.
2024-06-05 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/London) | Metaphorum Webinar
Content

Sketches from Stafford Beer’s legacy
Stafford Beer stands out for his role as the first developer of models for the diagnosis and intervention of human organizations within industry and the public sector. However his work was greater than that. The goal of the present webinar is to develop the hypothesis that the legacy of Stafford Beer raises the first intuitions related to the foundations of what today is called the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, the fundamentals of our contemporary world.
To achieve this, let us first define precisely an industrial revolution. What are its elements and layers? How its evolution is characterized? Then, we will take Stafford Beer’s experience in the Cybersyn project, as a first attempt to promote a popular national cyberculture, in particular focusing on Cyberfolk.
Many of Beer and his team’s reflections on the effective incorporation of people into the project considered prototypes for measuring audiences in real time. They took into consideration content moderation in mass media and cultural products for the promotion of a new relationship with technology. These were articulated in the “5 principles for good government”, a guide designed by Beer that consisted of the description of five elementary situations in which technology served to enable agile social articulation based on the common good.
This view of the common good is especially critical in the main political and sociocultural dilemmas that form part of todays debates regarding the future of ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the concept of cyberculture remains anchored in a view based on a narrow accelerationist notion of the contemporary social order. This view conceive technological development as a fixed line in the speed of change and not as its direction. This has led us to think that it is more likely that machines will become conscious and dominate us than that we can develop a concept and technological practice of social control based on collaboration.

Speaker
Rodrigo Fernández Albornoz

Rodrigo Fernández Albornoz is a Senior Data Scientist at Globant – Data & AI Studio, Academic Coordinator and Professor of the Data Science Diploma at University of Santiago, Faculty of Management and Economics, and collaborator of Management Analytics & Data Science Research Center (MAD-Sc) at Technic University Federico Santa María, Department of Economics. Specialist in management and team development for data intensive projects, statistical modelling and natural language processing in the industry, public sector and academic research.
Independent researcher and professor in Philosophy and History of Technology, in particular the industrial revolution processes, information theory and technologies, and experimental movements and vanguards in the field of poetic and esthetics of music. Since 2021 is funding of “Banca de Helechos” (@bancadehelechos), a Chilean publishing project of contemporary poetry and collaborates with the Foundation for the Interdisciplinary Development of Science, Technology and the Arts (DICTA), a NGO dedicated with a special focus on interdisciplinary, with the purpose of generating cultural media from projects related to science, technology and arts (www.dicta.cl)
