On Friday 3rd November we hosted a visit to the Stafford Beer Archive from the 11th International Metaphorum Conference, this year entitled “Healing Organisations”. The conference was an opportunity to connect the theoretical concepts of Management Cybernetics and other Systemic Approaches with the practical realities of Healthcare organisation. Equally, the conference explored the wider connotations of organisational health and viability in institutions, businesses and government.
The Metaphorum Group researches cybernetic approaches to organisation, including those of Stafford Beer, Enid Mumford, Frederic Vester, amongst others. Stafford Beer’s contributions to cybernetics and effective organisation included modelling a generic “Viable System” which he systematically applied to businesses, institutions and government. The model was based on the human body.
The human body has the capacity to heal itself, to remain resilient in the face of extreme adversity and to reshape its environment. Our institutions – particularly those of health and welfare – appear also to display many of these qualities, yet the dynamic mechanisms of healing are poorly understood.
Over twenty delegates made the walk up the hill from the Quakers Meeting Room to see a selection of material from Stafford Beer’s Archive, including reports on the healthcare system in Ontario, the Canadian Air and Rail systems, papers on the organisation of the Manchester Business School and the ‘Sentient Ecosystem’, and two machines; the Stochastic Analogue Machine and the Algedonic Computer (pictured). They were all fascinated to have access to Stafford Beer’s personal library (held in the Special Collections & Archives Reading Room), and were given the opportunity to delve further into the archive with a trip to our secure archive stores.
Delegates were also excited to learn that The Falcondale Tapes, are now available to view online in the LJMU Data Repository. The Falcondale Tapes (1994) is a series of nine video tapes where Professor Stafford Beer initiates a small group into the world of systems and managerial cybernetics, including the viable System Model and Team Syntegrity, in conversation at the Falcondale Hotel, Lampeter.
In this informal and relaxed setting, Stafford introduces his ideas and recounts his life-long experiences to a group of participants, who were selected with little or no previous knowledge of systems and cybernetics, and were from all walks of life.
The conversations cover art, science, and philosophy on the one hand, and practical applications in society, government community, management and business on the other. The relaxed setting provided natural flow of discussion, and gave opportunities to review and explore ideas in a context unlike conventional lectures.
You can find out more about the Stafford Beer Archive on our webpages , or drop into the Reading Room to browse his library. You can view The Falcondale Tapes online now in the LJMU Data Repository.
LJMU Special Collections & Archives 