This document discusses the Viable System Model and how organizations can maintain viability as they grow in complexity. It explains that as organizations add more processes and management functions, there needs to be coordination between these different parts to ensure coherence. Specifically, it states that a 'System 2' is needed to manage the 'vertical variety' or coordination between the various horizontal management processes, without reducing their autonomy too much and hindering their ability to manage their own processes. The key is for System 2 to ensure cohesion across the organization without becoming overly controlling.

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THE VIABLE SYSTEM MODEL – PART 2
“We will seek the source of effective organisation in the cybernetics of
natural processes - the brain itself.”
- Stafford Beer
Multiple Processes
As an organisation grows in size and complexity, more processes are involved and more
management functions are needed to make sure they are being managed properly:
If the organisation above has a surviving identity, or being capable of independent
existence, we can assume that this organisation is a Viable System.
“Viable System: Capable of independent existence”
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However, it is worth mentioning that this independence is not absolute; since no living
being is absolutely independent. Therefore, independence is a very subtle and
sophisticated notion and has been used here with some degree of tolerance and
leniency.
Each management process is dealing with its own horizontal variety in its own process,
and there is nothing to ensure that whatever one of them does is coherent with what the
other is doing.
As an example, if the Financial Manager maximises his efficiency by reducing the total
number of items being held in the inventory to near zero, this limits the ability of the
Sales Manager to maximise his objective by selling items to every customer as soon as
they ask for it and not making them wait for the items to get produced and delivered in
due course.
Should these multiple lines of management-process-environment act as an integrated
organisation, this means someone should be there to manage the vertical variety
between these multiple management functions.

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Horizontal managers need their ‘autonomy’ to exercise their requisite variety in order to
effectively deal with the exceeding variety of their processes; however, it comes to mind
that we might need a ‘System 2’ to, in turn, control the variety vertically. To somehow
control the different processes.
If the ‘System 2’ creates some rules to ensure the cohesion of the whole system, it will,
eventually, reduce the variety for horizontal management processes. Every rule will
create boundaries, a set of Do’s and Don’ts which will interfere with the autonomy of the
horizontal management processes; and therefore, impeding their ability to deal with their
own variety.
These horizontal managers need their maximum autonomy to be able to handle the ever-
increasing variety of their complex processes in related environments. And yet, by
introducing the ‘System 2’, we have effectively reduced this autonomy that they need
immensely!
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Important: Therefore, in order to ensure the viability, the organisation should be aware
of the outcomes of improper attenuation of the variety on this vertical axis.
If the variety is reduced too much, the horizontal managers will lose their ability to
effectively manage their own processes; and if it is reduced not enough, the cohesion of
the whole organisation will be at risk.
The System 2 provides a ‘service’ to make sure the cohesion is preserved and the
activities are aligned to each other.
The delicate point here is to understand that the system 2’s purpose is to ensure the
cohesion, not to ‘control’ and become a massive bureaucracy.
System 2 exists to coordinate activities in System 1, manage conflicts between System 1
elements, and implement decisions regarding common resources, services, and
information.