Most organisations I work with know something isn't quite right. The same problems keep coming back, people in different parts of the organisation describe it in ways that don't match, and nobody has the time, budget or appetite for a consultant to come in and tell them what they already half know.
…The first two OrgLens notes (1, 2) asked whether AI could turn what people say about an organisation into a useful health check.
The results made me cautiously optimistic: OrgLens could produce a structured description of an organisation and a plain-language report. It did, however, need software checks to verify quotations, catch contradictions, and stop important issues disappearing during editing.
…In my first note on OrgLens I asked whether an AI agent could diagnose an organisation using Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM). The answer was yes, more or less.
The reports were written for someone like me using terms such as System 3*, algedonic channels, and requisite variety. Those terms can be useful if you know VSM, but most people who might benefit from an organisational health check do not, and shouldn't need to.
…Systems thinking is a way of looking at organisations as sets of connected parts rather than as collections of individuals or departments. The Viable System Model, or VSM, is one approach within it. It asks whether an organisation has the parts it needs to keep going: people doing the work, ways of coordinating that work, checks on whether the work is happening, people looking ahead, and a way of agreeing what the organisation is for.
…After a great Day 1 I had high hopes for the second day of SCiO's annual conference. Although the opening panel session on Systems Thinking in Government inexplicably didn't get beyond introductions and positioning statements in the time allotted, the rest of the day was fantastic.
…When reading this post I couldn't help but think about Stafford Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) which I think is the perfect fit for an organisation made up of humans and AI agents. I've written about VSM numerous times as part of my postgraduate studies into Systems Thinking.
…