Diagnosing the System for Organizations

by Stafford Beer

"Stafford Beer is undoubtedly among the world?s most provocative, creative, and profound thinkers on the subject of management, and he records his thinking with a flair that is unmatched. His writing is as much art as it is science. He is the most viable system I know."
― , The Institute for Interactive Management, Pennsylvania, USA.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Business

178 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Kevan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the hardest books that I have ever tried to understand and, I am told, it is the most accessible of Stafford Beer's books.

To get as far as page 30 I have had to go and back and read Ross Ashby's Introduction to Cybernetics.

I have to read each page several times and then take notes and then think about it for some hours.

A friend whose intellect I deeply respect believes that Stafford Beer's ideas are very important for understanding organisations so I am going to try and stick at this but, man..., it's hard.

[Ed van der Winden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it once. I read it twice. Then I read some of his other books. I'm now reading it again and for the first time everything clicks. Not because it is not well written, but because the ideas are very much at odds to some of the ideas we're used to. I firmly believe however, that Beer's ideas are better in many respects than the more orthodox theories.

[Łukasz Lichota · Rating 3 out of 5]

Viable System Model is continues be interesting for me but I'm disappointed by this book. Despite the author's attempt to make it well thought educational piece it's super hard to understand, and many shortcuts are made. I was told it's better to understand this one after reading Brain and Heart so I may come back to this someday.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic accompaniment to Brain of the Firm and Heart of Enterprise. The clearest description of the VSM yet.