Stafford Beer: the man who could have run the world

Rosemary Bechler
7 November 2002

Stafford Beer achieved the hardest of all pedagogic tasks: he changed the way people think. His
protean influence stretches from generations of inspired students, through Salvador Allende’s Chile, to
the collective brain of openDemocracy. A huge, life-affirming figure has passed, but his work will
long survive, says our international editor.

S tafford Beer, philosopher, scientist, poet,

painter, founder of Management
Cybernetics and world leader in operational
research, who has died at the age of 75, was much
economic survival, and loss of faith in established
authority – by, in short, complexity and change.
Some people ‘got it’: they joined the band of
friends and followers from around the world, and
larger than life. His handsome photograph in the
were rewarded by Stafford’s patient and loyal
Guardian obituary is entitled ‘Subversive
interest in their own efforts to apply what they
Showman’. If he fitted neatly into neither the
had learnt. They were inspired by his various
British establishment, nor the academic nor
favourite dicta, such as ‘Don’t bite my finger: look
indeed the business world, it was partly because
where it’s pointing’, or ‘You accuse me of using
of the sheer impact of the man – but also because
big words that you find hard to understand. But
of what he had to say.
you need big words for big ideas. And you should
His self-appointed task was to bring an often find it hard to understand.’
unwelcome message to whoever would listen,
Many more, who were nevertheless profoundly
including the twenty-two governments who hired
influenced by his work, found these admonitions
him as a consultant over the years, about the need
unfashionable and irritating, and his many books
for ‘effective organisation’ in companies, social
unreadable. They often failed to see the
services, great institutions, whole countries, and
indefatigable energy which he devoted to trying to
international communities, if they were not to be
make himself better understood: Stafford’s ideas
left behind by technological advance, threats to

www.openDemocracy.net 1
in Latin, in thirteen languages, in poetry, in a University of Sunderland in 2000, nevertheless
summary for business schools, as applied to car cut his own path. He made his way
engines, hospitals, prisoners or stars. determinedly down the academic food chain to
an undergraduate level where he felt able to
Understanding a dynamic system
work, untrammelled by the closed mind-sets of
Even in recent years, when the prophetic vision the higher reaches of the British academic
was accompanied by a bardic white beard and system. Rob for one, considered himself lucky.
much frustration at the shrinking amount of
‘What some people never forgave him for was
time he had left to do what he wanted, those of
that he was right. The Viable System Model he
us lucky enough to meet him will never forget
was teaching was the most effective model of
the feeling that you had been put on alert by a
any and every system that I’ve ever come across.
life-force far larger than your
In his most profound work, The
own.
Brain of the Firm and the Heart of
There are two of us in this office.
‘He altered Enterprise, he takes as his subject
Rob Passmore, currently people’s lives. He no less complex and dynamic a
wrestling with our marketing system than the human body itself,
plan, simply says: ‘He altered changed my life. to show how that system, in order to
people’s lives. He changed my I think about what be viable, must stand up in its own
life. I think about what he had to right: what kind of processes it
say on systems, every day.’ Rob’s he had to say on needs for effective decision-making,
encounter took place in the mid- development and implementation,
1990s at Swansea University,
systems, and what kind of measurement.’
having opted for a third-year every day.’ ‘Of course, Beer’s idea of a “system”
course in Managerial
was not that of common parlance, as
Cybernetics. ‘The first thing you
in a “sales system” set up to operate
registered was that he was absolutely different
like a machine in any eventuality. Beer’s
to any other lecturer you had ever met. He
“system” is completely dynamic. Take the
simply wasn’t harnessed to the system.’ His
circulation of the blood, for example. You
interests ranged across disciplines, cultures and
cannot map how that works in a static way, by
faiths. With the class swiftly divided over his
showing someone a picture of his or her veins.
‘showmanship’, Rob was one of those who liked
What you have to understand is the circulatory
the twinkle in Stafford’s eye as he helped
system as a system of control. Beer’s thinking
himself to another tot from the half-litre bottle
revolved around that.’
of ‘apple juice’, which everyone knew was the
white wine spritzer favoured by Lord Byron. ‘But there again, his notion of “control” was not
quite the same as anyone else’s. It wasn’t
They repaired to the pub to talk about the day’s
authoritarian. The system exists anyway,
ideas after every lecture, and were frequently
whether it works or not. And the trick is to make
invited out for sessions (perhaps including
yourself conscious of its workings, by seeing
Stafford’s own special brand of yoga and
how things change, each time they come past
Sanskrit readings) at the small stone cottage in
you. Hence his abiding interest in appropriate
Ceredigion, mid-Wales, which was his retreat
feed-back loops, and his constant emphasis on
once he renounced worldly possessions in the
the advantage to be derived from a system that
mid-1970s. Stafford, who was tremendously
gives the greatest possible autonomy of action to
proud when his many visiting chairs,
every level of its organisation, not just the top.’
presidencies and honorary degrees were capped
by the rare award to him of a DSc from the ‘Once I’d finished the course, I read all the
www.openDemocracy.net 2
books, and I’ve got signed copies of all of them, economy. I was part of a small left-wing
because I just knew that this was one man, a organisation that, as we hurtled towards the
great soul, who could not only change, but demise of the socialist state system, had become
actually run the world…’ increasingly interested in democracy, but was
seemingly unable to practise what it preached.
Chile: from theory to practice
Luckily, our leader had read Stafford’s books,
The nearest Stafford Beer came to the latter was and realised that this was also an organisational
the period in the early 1970s he spent as an problem. She was rewarded by Stafford and his
independent consultant to Chile’s president, partner and co-worker, Allenna Leonard, taking
Salvador Allende. From 1970, Stafford was a thorough interest in our fragile structures, and
working on a national communications system, adopting us as a guinea-pig to try out Stafford’s
a new cybernetics-based control latest participatory method for
system to be applied to the entire enabling large groups to solve
social economy of Chile. The death of their own problems: Team
Syntegrity.
It is still moving (not least Allende and all his
because of the inclusion of a A syntegration is a non-
marvellously evocative story close colleagues hierarchical, participatory form
describing Allende’s encounter only months later of conference, inspired by
with System 5 of Stafford’s VSM) Stafford’s realisation that all the
to read the third Richard left Stafford with an good ideas at a conference come
Goodman Lecture he wrote for from the corridors and the bars.
delivery in February 1973, in
abiding hatred for It is based on the mathematical
which he describes the planned the role of the US in qualities of an icosahedron
NOW and FUTURES systems (which we all began by making,
which would provide Allende’s the world with cocktail sticks and jelly
government with an instrument babies), and takes three-and-a-
for investigating the systemic half days, and thirty people. In
consequences of alternative courses of action. those early days in 1990, it took a little longer,
while enthusiasts sorted out the computer
Stafford is himself on an exponential learning algorithm. But the people who participated felt
curve, and his excitement is palpable. He is that what they understood there, they might
clearly aware that the regime is under attack never have learnt in two or three years of the
from all sides, but so proud of the experiment most conscientious decision-making. The
that is underway in Chile, and of the ‘lessons for agreements we secured were beyond the normal
humanity’ which he believes to be unfolding kind of ‘consensus’, as Stafford promised us
there. The death of the president and all his they would be. They were based on a much more
close colleagues only months later (which he thorough-going understanding of each other’s
learned from an Evening Standard newsboard) point of view, and some core insights which
left Stafford (see letters in the Guardian) with soon emerged from very different types of
an abiding hatred for the role of the United small-group conversation to ‘reverberate’
States in the world: and, for him as for so many throughout the whole event.
others, the strong sense of a destiny unfulfilled.
As Rob and I mull over what we learned from
A syntegrity of minds Stafford, the two of us realise all over again how
So I first heard of him as the man who had much pleasure was involved, and how simple
worked to include Chilean trade unionists in the some of the best ideas are. Take Rob’s favourite
decision-making processes for the Chilean anecdote for explaining how you assess a
www.openDemocracy.net 3
system’s ‘requisite variety’: Take a football pitch, we have both ended up working here. And we
and eleven people on one side. What do you will do what we can to introduce more Stafford
need in order to stop them from scoring into the proceedings.
millions of goals? Answer: eleven people on the
Nor are we alone in this. Thank goodness,
other side, which is why football is such a great
systems analysis is beginning to penetrate our
game…and why the thirty people at a
government’s corridors, as well as the high
syntegration need to be as ‘various’ as members
places and more creative places all over the
of one organisation can get, if you want to plan
world. (See, for example, Jake Chapman’s
effectively for the future.
recent DEMOS pamphlet, System Failure: why
Or take the concept best calculated to transform governments must learn to think differently.) It
any political organisation, the idea of the may be a rather immature version that has
necessary porosity of any viable system to its surfaced so far – one that simply fails to grasp
outside environment…‘Oh yes, VSM system the holistic implications of Stafford Beer’s work.
four’, interjects Rob, happily…. It seems But his friends and followers are also pretty
obvious. But take it together with ‘requisite indefatigable. So we will have to hope that his
variety’, ‘reverberation’, ‘recursion’, and a few work will continue. Because one thing is very
other vital processes, and nothing will ever be clear, at least to Rob and myself. If it doesn’t
the same again…. happen, the world will miss out on far more
than the unforgettable company of this
Rob and I wouldn’t want to give the impression
charming and unusual man.
that understanding Beer is easy after all. Like
most good things, it’s a life work. (For those 7 November, 2002
who would like to dip a toe in the water, we
recommend his 1992 essay, World in Torment:
Copyright © Rosemary Bechler, 2002. Published by
A Time whose Idea Must Come. The first one- www.openDemocracy.net. Permission is granted to
and-a-half pages make rather extraordinary reproduce articles for personal and educational use
reading at this dangerous moment in world only. Commercial copying, hiring and lending is
affairs.) prohibited without permission.
If this has been sent to you by a friend and you like
Nor can we honestly say that openDemocracy it, you are welcome to join the openDemocracy
is a viable system, yet. (Rob is working on our network. To subscribe, please email your full name
recursions as I write.) But it is no accident that to: subscribe@opendemocracy.net

Rosemary Bechler is international editor of openDemocracy.

www.openDemocracy.net 4