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The 6 Likeminds of Viable System Model

5 min readFeb 3, 2023

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Game board | 6 Likeminds of VSM | Image credit: Author

Context

We all know the most effective way to solve complex problems is to solve them collectively. Of course, sitting in an ivory tower and working on solutions to problems is possible, but it has several disadvantages. Not only because we are social beings and depend on the exchange with each other but also because the only way of knowing what we think is to hear what we say.

Only dialogue with others enables us to describe, understand, and evaluate a problem from various perspectives and to collect, test, reject, and finally implement possible solutions.

Once a solution has been developed, its most consistent implementation follows. And again, the interaction of several people is more effective than the personified “wooly lizard” — the heroine who can do everything.

What Is Needed

If you put people in a room and give them a problem to solve, the pleasure and frustration of working together are left to the dynamics of the group. Complete chaos can arise, and no idea for a solution emerges, or one person dominates the events and shapes or limits creativity and the variety of solutions.

If the group consists of, for example, five mechanical engineers, the technical focus can influence the variety of ideas for a solution. If the group is interdisciplinary and diverse, multiple combinations and syntheses of perspectives and approaches are more likely.

To support the easiest and most productive cooperation among participants, structuring concepts such as methods, rituals, and communication rules are useful.

Design Thinking, Six Thinking Hats, or the Walt Disney method are only three selected representatives of this essence of a successful dialog to promote a creative way of problem solving.

But what is the essence that is crucial for thinking the subsequent realization through — for planning, executing, and controlling it? Let us close this gap!

Dialogue of Complex Systems

Something is missing from the creative solution finding mentioned above: The seamlessly connected essence for realizing developed solution ideas. Once the solution is on the table, the definition of a project is usually taken up instantly. Whether agile or sequential, work packages are defined, budgets are requested, and teams of experts are assembled. Unfortunately, this is all too often the beginning of the end because every solution, whether understood as a product, service, or business process, requires five specific aspects for its implementation.

  1. Supporting conditions: Resources, expertise, or infrastructure needed for the implementation
  2. Measurement criteria: Indicators, characteristics, or feedback that make it factually understandable what impact the solution is having
  3. Forms and ways of cooperation and communication content needed by affected and involved parties to collectively understand the solution, plan its implementation, implement it, and adapt to it
  4. Root causes: Triggers, causes, needs, or risks that underlie the source of the necessary problem solution
  5. Purpose and rules: Substantial guidance to avoid self-purpose, waste, legal or social, and ethical conflicts based on a validated intention.

The cyberneticist among the readers already suspects it. Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) is the godfather of this structure. With the VSM, Beer has developed a form to represent complex systems' functional and communication capabilities. It allows us to think through, describe, and communicate the relevant elements for implementing a system performance and to reflect on and continuously adjust progress from feedback loops.

From Homo sapiens to Homō Lūdēns — When Brains Play With Each Other

Anyone familiar with the VSM system knows that, on first contact, it appears decidedly abstract, theoretical, strange, and complicated. Understanding the design, structure, and function of the VSM system is quickly perceived as exhausting and time-consuming. And yes, it is. In times of much quoted “goldfish attention span,” almost unthinkable. So, it’s better to have the courage to fill in the gaps and get on with the project hustle and bustle. Isn’t it?

Alternatively, it is possible to profit from the VSM without knowing or understanding it. To do this, we transform it into an essence that we build as a parlor game for 2[1] to 12 simultaneously cooperating and like-minded brains without an age limit. We call them Likeminds.

The game board (cover picture) consists of six differently colored fields. The center is the “green brain.” It holds the solution idea, the task, the order, or the accomplishment or product to be developed.

Start of the game: The first player who wants to implement a solution idea puts the description in keywords on the green field and explains it to the other players. The Green Mind, called Operation, is the focus for all Likeminds. All brains aim to support the Green Mind as best as possible in implementing their solution idea as successfully as possible. The remaining players choose one of the remaining brain colors from the following list.

6 Likeminds of VSM | Mind perpesctives | Image credit: Author

Round 1. All Likeminds take turns asking the Green Mind — Operation questions of comprehension. No discussions are allowed in this round.

Round 2. Within 90 seconds, all Likeminds write on their game card what support the Green Mind needs from them individually — from the perspective of their respective Mind color. They then place it face down on the game board in front of them.

Round 3. The Green Mind explains to each Likemind what support it needs from the respective perspective to implement the described solution idea.

Round 4. Each Likemind reveals its playing card and explains what support it noted for the Green Mind in Round 2. The Green Mind decides whether to integrate the support into the implementation of its own solution idea or to do without them.

Round 5. If the green brain is satisfied with the support quality and convinced it can realize its own solution idea with the others’ help, it selects up to three teammates who have not adopted a Mind color. It asks each one for feedback and what it would consider if it were in the Green Mind’s place.

Closing: Once the Green Mind has processed or discarded all feedback, the game cycle is complete, and the responsible Green Mind can present the next solution idea. Before starting a new game cycle, the present Likeminds choose a new mind color.

The game ends as soon as all solution ideas have been presented by the responsible green brains and the collected support and hints have been processed. If there is insufficient time to process all solution ideas, the game continues at the next opportunity. Provided there are no dependencies, all achieved game results will be implemented.

The project hustle and bustle can now begin! Only with a more solid foundation of an implementation detail than before the game and a jointly built understanding about the way of the implementation.

[1] “The 6 Likeminds of VSM” can also be used individually, without other players. The game then functions like a checklist to reflect on the implementation of a solution idea in a structured way and to look at it from different perspectives.

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Andreas Slogar
Andreas Slogar

Written by Andreas Slogar

I write about the transformation process towards self-organised and agile organisations in the digital age using cybernetics and AI.

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