Law of Cohesion

“The Law of Cohesion for Multiple Recursions of the Viable System: The System One variety accessible to System Three of Recursion x = the variety disposed by the sum of the metasystems of Recursion y” (HOE 1979: 355). Appendix adds “for every recursive pair” (HOE 1979: 567). “Perhaps the most significant” of the book’s discoveries (HOE 1979: 275).

What Beer says

Organization creates “fragmentation which only its capacity to provide cohesion can offset” (HOE 1979: 335). Hierarchy glues by dependency; recursive logic needs a process: PLANNING (HOE 1979: 336). No treatise, Beer says, “contends that it is actually the ‘glue’ of organizational cohesion” (HOE 1979: 336). Planning: “a continuous, managerial, process of decision”; “plans should always abort before their time is due” (HOE 1979: 276). Autonomy to system-one, command “minimally used, consistently with maintaining cohesion of the viable system: it must not fly apart” (HOE 1979: 351). Takeover promises of untouched autonomy are “poppycock”; interconnectivity “inevitably takes up variety from the new subsidiary.” Autonomy “does not mean zero interference” (TBYT 2009, “The Viable System Model”: 149).

Where it sits in the model

First Axiom: cohesion inside one viable system. Law: cohesion between recursions (HOE 1979: 355). Algedonics are “its mechanism” (HOE 1979: 407). Pathological autopoiesis is effort beyond what the law needs (pathologies-of-viable-systems; HOE 1979: 411–412).

Textual notes

Body (HOE 1979: 355) vs Glossary: adds “for every recursive pair” (HOE 1979: 567) (pure-vsm-appendix).

Open points

Whether manuscript §13.4 stays; print ellipsis at HOE 1979: 351 is four dots. Draft not canon (overview).

Related

pure-vsm-part-ii-the-viable-system-model · viable-system-model · principles-and-axioms-of-organization · the-heart-of-enterprise · stafford-beer