Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity

17 Team Syntegrity

When I started to construct physical polyhedra with my own hands, it was truly a revelation to follow Bucky's route. An unwholesome mess of wooden doweling, panel pins, rubber bands, string, and glue, strengthened with gratuitous contributions from skin and beard, quite suddenly transformed itself into a polyhedron so strong that I could actually stand on it

(Beer 1990, p. 122)

17.1 Prologue

In 2010, Fürth, a German city of 114 000 people, was Bavaria's most heavily indebted city. A further budget deficit of 25 million euros was expected in the 2011 financial year. Local efforts to put things right had demonstrably failed and the situation appeared hopeless. Inevitably, higher authorities became concerned, demanded permanent savings of 13 million euros by 2013, and threatened to take over direct control of the City's finances. It was at this point that Dr. Stefanie Ammon, city councilor for organization and financial affairs, contacted the “Malik Management” consultancy. She had heard of their SuperSyntegration approach, based on Stafford Beer's “team syntegrity” (TS) methodology, and hoped it might help bring about a “miracle cure.” A Malik SuperSyntegration (MSS) was conducted over the weekend of 18 July to 20 July 2010, involving 32 participants. These included the mayor, employees from all branches of the city administration, and other stakeholders from private companies and public sector organizations. The results were spectacular, with Stefanie ...