Training Program

How do you make decisions, how do you design the communication channels in your company? How adaptive, how controllable your company is depends on this. In many companies, this dimension is undervalued.

As the “state of the art” in organizational diagnosis, the VSM focuses on the nervous system of the organization, the decision-making and communication processes, and thus goes beyond the “normal” views of organizational charts and processes.

This third dimension of organizing offers groundbreaking new insights for a diagnosis and design of the enterprise. Properly designed, it turns dealing with complexity into a company’s strength.


The Training Program

With our training program on VSM, we provide an important building block for implementing System Thinking in organizations.

Certification

Learn more about the Metaphorum certification program:

VSM Coach three days

Basics and cardinal errors of organizing

  • How to avoid the typical cardinal mistakes
  • Why there is a need for a third dimension in organizing

Overview of the Viable System Model

  • The basic elements of the model
  • The principle of recursivity
  • Organization design with the VSM

Organization design with the VSM

  • Diagnosis and design of the superstructure
  • Diagnosis and design of the control/decision-making structure
  • Diagnosis and design of the communication structure

Brief diagnoses and aids

  • Patterns of dysfunctionality (pathological patterns) and how to cure them
  • Procedure in application projects
  • Complexity engineering tools
  • Assessment, goals and metrics

Organization

Course duration

3 days (each from 09:00 to 17:00)

Format

Interactive workshops with presentations, exercises and exchange of experiences.

Language

Course: German or English, Training material: German or English, depending on course date

Pricing

Course fees: 2.900,-€ plus. VAT

The price includes course material, lunch and beverages during breaks. For certification and membership purposes, your contact information will be shared with Metaphorum.

Note: Accommodation is not included in the price and must be organized by the participants themselves.

The Trainers

Martin Pfiffner

Martin Pfiffner (1965, Switzerland) has been working as a top management consultant for organizations in the business and non-business sectors for 25 years. He has many years of application experience in SMEs and corporations in various business sectors in DACH, Asia and America.

He earned his doctorate under Fredmund Malik and Peter Gross and supplemented his education by studying management cybernetics with Stafford Beer, the inventor of the VSM.

From the 1990s, he was responsible for the development of management cybernetics at the Management Zentrum St. Gallen under the direction of Fredmund Malik.

Since 2013, Pfiffner has been working independently for his company mp consulting.

Mark Lambertz

Mark Lambertz

Mark Lambertz was born in Düsseldorf in 1971 and works as a consultant and coach for companies that want to tap into the opportunities of digitization in these complex times. The human being with his needs and abilities is always the focus of his work.

He co-founded the digital agency anyMOTION in 1995 and led it for 20 years. During this time, the company grew to 60 employees and has since been ranked in the top70 in the Digital Rankings.

He has been working with VSM for more than 10 years, improving structures at large companies and at startups.