Some news on Metaphorum development and plans:

1. For those who didn't come, we had a very good conference in London this September, and Kybernetes offered both the Cybernetics Society and Metaporum, to publish a special issue with main papers from this and somefrom previous conferences of both societies. Allena Leonard and I are coordinating the special issue and we expect to have it ready in January/05. Once closer to the date we'll be announcing the content and structure.
2. We are organising the next Conference in Dublin, May 5th-6th/05.

   Paul Stokes will inform us soon on the structure and organization.

   Alfredo Moscardini, Leonie, Allena and myself have agreed with Paul on the main direction and purpose for this conference.

   Prof. Maurice Yolles, who has recently joined us in Metaphorum, is going to be with us in Dublin and will be presenting there his most recent research.

3. As some of you already know, when Metaphorum started (Syntegration 2002, Scarborough), a group of people living in the North of England started Cybernetics North as a society devoted also to honour Beer's work wanting to create a context for sharing the experience of practitioners using systemic methods and tools, (not only) cybernetics, in the UK and in particular in the North of England.

   Some of its founders and directors are also members of Metaphorum (Denis Adams, Robin Asby & Penny Marrington, Patrick Hoverstadt, Jon Walker & myself).

   Cybernetics North has alreday developed three conferences in Liverpol John Moores University on issues of sustainability of communities, regeneration and is planning a new one in health services for the summer 04.

   I have been commissioned by Cybernetic North to extend the invitation to all Metaphorum members living in the UK, to join us to this Conferences and also to a series of workshops that we're holding every month in Manchester Business School. For more information visit Cybernetics North

   Next seminar is this Friday and see the invitation below.

   Please confirm your attendance to Robin Asby at

4. Jose Perez Rios from Valladolid University and close collaborator of Stafford and Prof M Schwaninger has offered us his new software for collaboration purposes. I'll be setting up a networks for us and will communicate soon more news about this.

We'll come back to you with more news soon.

Angela Espinosa

CN Workshop Manchester Business School 19 November 04

Organisational Change; Mosaic Transformation, Ecocycle and the VSM

The session will draw on two threads, a piece of research by Patrick Hoverstadt on a methodology for managing organisational change and an examination of the concept of ecocycles as explained in Hurst's book on Organisational change: "Crisis and Renewal" presented by Denis Adams.

Patrick's input is based on field research of organisation-wide change programmes that analysed the widespread failure of some common approaches to large-scale organisational change. Three common approaches to change were assessed, including their inherent contradictions and their weaknesses in practice. Where change was successful, it was by the accidental adoption of a more organic approach to change, after planned programmes failed. Relates this finding to the concept of Mosaic Transformation in Biology, helped in the development of a new approach to organisational change designed around the Viable Systems Model and an organic approach to structuring change processes.

Stafford Beer was particularly excited about David Hurst's book on the need for methods of renewing organisations in order to help them survive. The renewal cycle was developed from the study of ecosystems by Holling and Zimmerman and was adapted by Hurst for modelling human systems. The resulting ecocycle process reveals 8 phases in the evolution of an organisation.

In many cases, change is only considered after disaster has struck, as in the case of a fatality on a previously known dangerous road. The need to amplify signals of threats and opportunities sufficiently and coherently enough to overcome institutional filters is a cybernetic issue worth exploring.

Stafford was convinced that the ecocycle model could be used in conjunction with the VSM and hoped that the managerial cybernetics community would develop a practical methodology to this end. So, 9 years later here goes!

The session is intended to present the two issues and approaches, and for the group to discuss, contrast and compare their cybernetics and to cross reference to their own experience in organisations.