Organizations are awash with complexity, yet decisions must be made in real time. This talk offers a practitioner-ready pathway from sensemaking to coordinated action by reframing the classic “Thought–Knowledge–Action” triad onto the Viable System Model (VSM).

This talk integrates Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) with Miller’s Living Systems Theory by casting System 5 as the organization’s Decider as the locus of identity, value commitments, and final arbitration between present operations and future possibilities.

A central theme is disciplined trial-and-error: using the bathometer/prototype metaphor, we treat small, safe-to-fail probes as instruments that “sound the depth” of uncertainty before committing resources.

The proposed approach explicitly counters the risks of non-action and delayed action—common failure modes where the cost of waiting exceeds the cost of learning—by embedding pre-agreed thresholds, kill-rules, and escalation guardrails. The result is reduced decision latency, tighter alignment between identity and operations, and a repeatable loop that links what the system is (S5), knows (S4), and does (S1–3) through rapid prototyping.

Speaker Bio

Gandolfo Dominici is a Professor of Business Management – Dip. SEAS – University of Palermo, Italy. He is a co-founder, Scientific Director and Vice-President BUSINESS SYSTEMS LABORATORY (BSLab); Executive Head and director of publications at The Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research; Editor in Chief of: Systems Research and Behavioural Science; the International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, and the International Journal of Markets and Business Systems.

He was a former Editor in Chief of Kybernetes. (01/10/2016 – 31/12/2024)- Now Emeritus Editor; Business Systems Review (2011-2014) ; and the International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism (2013-2015).

He is also co-Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics; Associate Editor of Business Process Management Journal; and the International Journal of Systems and Society (2013-2019).

He is an Editorial Board Member of: On the Horizon: The International Journal of Learning Futures (November 2024); Systems Research and Behavioural Science (honorary editor); Systems; Journal of Organizational Transformation & Social Change (2013-2018); the Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy; and the International Journal of Digital Accounting Research.

See more details at: http://gandolfodominici.it/