ViPlan Learning System

by Raul Espejo

The Viplan Software (Viplan Learning System) explains both Stafford Beer's Viable System Model and Raul Espejo's Viplan Method. It was developed in the 90s and is currently used by enterprises and educational institutions in different parts of the world, including the Open University in the United Kingdom. It is currently available in English and Spanish.

The Viplan Method has underpinned both Syncho's and Phrontis's use of the Viable System Model (VSM) over a number of years. This method offers an approach to diagnose and design an organisation's structure based on its vision, mission and strategy. It takes into account the varied viewpoints of the people involved in organizations and uses the Viable System Model to make structural issues apparent.

Though Viplan Learning System is for all practical purposes a book it is not intended to be read over a number of hours from beginning to end and then returned to its shelf; it is a learning system that invites you to reflect upon organisational issues and check them against the experience of Trident Engineering, a small UK company, and of course against your personal experience. Often you will need to re-read certain parts and move inwards, outwards, forwards and backwards in multiple layers of explanations. Learning from it implies an effort in systemic thinking; it invites the integration of ideas and concepts into a coherent body of knowledge.

Those of you who become engaged by the software's content most likely will continue a conversation with us on related topics. Studying the Viplan Software should trigger questions and also require clarification of the terms used in it. Once you have explored the use of this learning software you are invited to visit the Online Learning Centre at Syncho Research .

THE VIPLAN SOFTWARE now forms part of an online programme details of which will appear within 7 days. The cost of this programme is no more than the cost of an appropriate textbook.