Talking about Viable

We talk a lot about systems here - occurring in different contexts and representing different aspects:

System as a non-decomposable unit, i.e., the system can only be understood as a unit and is more than the sum of the components

A system is in interaction with its environment, its "ecological" niche.

Viable - Survival and Identity

Viability has a similar meaning to sustainability and could be understood simply as the ability to survive. However, this understanding does not grasp the core of the VSM's ideas.

Being viable means more than just surviving.

What is meant is that the organization (by analogy with an organism) retains its identity. An example of the opposite, "non-viable," would be a nation that disintegrates, leaving only a loose collection of bands and refugees. The people are still alive; they may even inhabit the same territory, but their common identity has been lost.

Therefore, conversely, we can say that a system wants to preserve its identity---and that in the case of organizations, we need to find an entity concerned with preserving that identity and evolving it as the environment (or ecological niche) changes.

Viable - Sustainable in its Ecosystem

We said at the beginning that you have to look at a system and its relevant environment - or niche - as a whole.

That is, a system is only viable if its environment persists. By integrating the environment (or business ecosystem), the term "viable" becomes synonymous with "sustainable."

VSM can contribute to the assessment of organizational sustainability. This is not only true for the focus we are traveling here - it does not become much more evident when we consider the applications in public domains, such as the design of health or education systems.

Consequently, we will closely integrate the consideration of the environment, especially the customers and the other stakeholders.

Until now, we have used the term "ecological niche" in a metaphorical sense of business and social interactions. In these times, however, we are becoming increasingly aware that the meaning of "ecological" is also true in the original sense: organizations are part of and play a role on this planet.

Viable - Adaptive, Resilient, and stable

Viable is found in a term field that includes several similar terms:

Resilient: a system can respond quickly, deal with disruptions, and preserve function. Resilient systems emerge from challenges that change. In contrast, robust systems remain unchanged, but they can usually absorb less stress before they break.

Adaptive: the system can adapt its function to new circumstances. In contrast to resilience, adaptivity has an active component: the system actively changes to remain viable.

Stable: a system maintains its identity; it has mechanisms to deal with changes, surprises, and other challenges without breaking. In cybernetic terms, it can absorb variety.

Stability does not mean the system is immutable---stability can be dynamic and include change while maintaining its identity.

Resilience and adaptivity are two sides of the same coin. Still, in practice, this is a constant challenge in organizations: If you translate "resilient" into "ongoing operations" and "adaptive" into "innovation," then it immediately becomes clear that we are dealing with goals (and to some extent people/functions) that are both necessary for survival but constantly produce options for action that conflict with each other.

The balance of these functions is necessary for sustainable survival and further development.

Adaptivity, resilience, and stability are part of a bigger picture:

• they ensure the organization's ability to learn.
• They need self-organization and are, on the other hand, a prerequisite for self-organization.

What does a viable organization need?

A learning organization is a co-evolving configuration of roles and tasks that is mutually agreed upon and revised each time its members require it to adapt to a continuously changing environment\ ---Angela Espinosa.

We have opened a vast barrel: adaptive and resilient, self-organization, stability, and identity.

This could lead to the assumption that many roles and tasks are defined in the VSM system. The fact that this is not the case contributes to the strength of the VSM: it does not require yet another adaptation of a new organizational structure but checks which decision-making and communication functions are covered.

Some functions are distributed across multiple roles or even departments; conversely, one role or position in an organization can cover multiple functions.

In the next chapter, we will introduce these functions with their VSM-specific names and contribute examples from a Lean scenario.