Viable System Model

• #cooperative
• #management
• #organization
• #structure

A structure used in many co-ops and the democratic revolution of 1970-1973 in Chile:

• has six parts, called systems
• they don't need to be their own offices or committees, just functions that all need to be carried out
• Systems:
  1. Activity: the part that actually does the work
  2. Coordination: connects each of the system 1s together
  3. Coherence: looks at all the system 1s and figures out how to make them work better
  • 3a: auditing: checks in on System 1s to get extra information about how things are running
  4. Strategy: look out into the environment, then plan for the future using these observations and info from system 3
  5. Ethos: makes big decisions affecting the whole org. Often involves answering questions that change the direction of the ship. May involve a general assembly and/or voting in a democratic system.

See also: The Tyranny of Structurelessness.