Metaphorum Conference 2025
Humans at risk? Applying the Viable System Model and Team Syntegrity for steering Towards Agency and Resilience in the Age of Alien Intelligence and Instability.
Manchester Business School, Manchester, UK
also online participation through Zoom
July 3rd - 5th 2025
Musical InvitationOrganised by Metaphorum https://www.metaphorum.org
Call for participation
Following from our learning in our last conference in Berlin 2024, we want to continue innovating in our conference design and approach, keeping the spirit of creativity, participation and engagement. This year, we invite you to attend in person or online to share your questions, perspectives, and ideas about challenges and innovations to organisational cybernetics and systems theories, in the current socio economic, environmental and technological contexts. We are inviting participants to discuss innovative theoretical or methodological developments, or insightful applications; and/or to suggest workshops to address particular questions or engage in specific conversations. The conference is an emerging design that aims to be as participative and collaborative as possible.
One of the ongoing conversations in our community is about how how to improve organisational resilience given that the global geo-political and economic environment is becoming increasingly stressed by wars, the catastrophic impacts of climate change, and social upheaval. Maintaining organisation's financial viability, improving sustainability, and contributing to social and environmental well-being requires increasing efforts. Resilience, the capacity to adapt, innovate and thrive amidst uncertainty while maintaining core values, is essential for long-term viability and sustainability. Exploring new paths for developing organisational resilience is a must, but there are not yet many proven approaches to achieve it.
Another conversation which is becoming central to our interests is understanding how artificial intelligence is becoming central to decision-making, and the existential challenge organisations are now facing: more than ever, there is a growing paradox between providing autonomy to social agents to develop their own potentials and creating a coherent and cohesive context to allow organisations to thrive and develop.
This conference explores how organisational cybernetic and systemic principles, [particularly Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) and Team Syntegrity (TS)], offer a comprehensive framework which can serve as the bridge between these two extremes: on one hand we observe unsustainable and vulnerable organisations, struggling to develop resilience and co-evolve sustainably with their niches. On the other hand, corporations and profit oriented organisations are now incorporating the latest technologies like artificial intelligence to increase their decision-making capabilities, but risk losing control or diminishing human agency.
Learning from innovations in VSM and TS theory and praxis, participants will gain insights into steering through complexity effectively, creating systems that empower humans while leveraging the potential of intelligent agents. We aim to provide a balanced mix of theory, practice and interaction, ensuring participants leave with actionable insights and a deeper understanding of cybernetic approaches to organisational design. The methodology for the conference will focus on creating a rich space for networking and white space conversations.
Our conference approach
Following our very exciting conference in Berlin, we want to keep the spirit of creating an interactive experience where presentations and opportunities to exchange ideas and interact are nicely balanced. Our methodological pillars:
- This will be a face-to-face and with some on-line participation, the on-line participation will be limited to presenting and/or participating in other speakers presentations (we can't guarantee full online participation in some of the planned workshops).
- During the conference, we will make sure we include time for thorough dialogue with the participants in each session, and in the breaks.
- We will invite you to present your ideas in creative ways and to engage the other participants – through poster presentations, pre-recorded videos (like a provocation to a rich debate) - and when convenient, short but engaging slideshow presentations.
- You are also welcomed to suggest a workshop or a facilitated conversation in a topic relevant to the conference's themes. We already have planned two workshops: a) a VSM Masterclass when we expect VSM students and practitioners to interact with VSM world experts and discuss their experiences applying the VSM and their theoretical and methodological learning; b) a Team Syntegrity taster, lead by Allenna Leonard and Juliana Alves, for novices to Team Syntegrity, to experiment the approach, followed by a (online) Keynote by Joe Truss on new developments on Team Syntegrity.
- At the online marketplace before the conference, the participants will vote on the most engaging presentations and workshops. The top 3 will be on stage as a plenary (at least 1 hour each) in the main room, one each day. All the others will be in break-out rooms (the duration of each talk will be 40 mins approximately - t.b.c.).
- You are invited to be creative in the way of presenting, e.g. by doing a game, a play, ... the choice is yours!
Selection criteria
SUBMIT YOUR PRESENTATION / ABSTRACT/ WORKSHOP PROPOSAL
- How is your presentation/abstract/workshop related to the topic of the conference, and/or to one of the conference's themes?
- What are the top insights/ideas/messages that you want to share?
- How do you want to engage with the participants in your session?
Timeline
Starting Call for Participation: March 13th 2025
Closing Call for Participation: June 20th 2025
Confirmation of acceptance: 2 weeks after submitting an abstract
Publications
Academic papers further developing the topic presented at the conference are welcomed! We will produce a special issue in Systems Research and Behavioural Sciences journal with the best papers from the conference (details to be announced shortly). There will be a 6 month period to complete the paper after the conference, including inputs from the conference’s conversations.
Click Registration to buy tickets
We offer four ticket types:
Professional ticket: £300. Choose this ticket if you can deduct the ticket price or get your costs reimbursed. This will apply for most professionals and academics.
Private ticket: £200. Choose this ticket if you are paying the ticket privately by yourself.
The ticket includes access to the conference and the knowledge graph, soft drinks, coffee, tea and pastry during the day, and a lunch option. Pre- and post-conference activities are not part of this ticket.
Students scholarships: available by request - £90 (food and drinks).
On-line ticket: £50