Viable System Model

CHALLENGE: By their nature, businesses are highly complex systems. It is hard for leaders to clearly distinguish between the complexity that is essential - at the core of what the business is, what it sells, who it sells it to - and the complexity that is accidental (everything else). When people in an organization struggle to deal with accidental complexity, it means that they are wasting time and effort that could instead be focused on dealing with what is essential. Great leaders are able to eliminate large portions of the former, and foster the latter.

APPROACH: The Viable System Model (VSM) is a powerful, science-based lens through which to view and think about your business. It makes crystal clear what is essential in your enterprise and what is not essential, so that you end up with your best minds and talent focused on dealing with what matters most. What should our strategy be? What markets should we address? How do we best serve this client type? What is this customer really trying to tell us? These and other equally important business questions are the ones leaders need their people to be grappling with  - instead of internal politics, turf wars, bureaucracy, silos, and other unneccessary complexity that is weighing them down.

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