The Viable Map Workbook

Book excerpt: Beyond Budgeting is an idea that has been around for nearly two decades, and many members of the community have written books about the concepts and how to put them into practice. ​It has become clear, however, that companies attracted to these ideas have sometimes struggled to implement Beyond Budgeting, often because they have not understood the subtlety or the full implications of the ideas and how to execute change. In addition, those of us leading the Beyond Budgeting movement want to have the biggest impact on the world that we possibly can. And to do this we need to find a way to help as many people as possible to join us in putting these ideas into practice, without investing as much time and effort as we have getting to grips with them. ​The Viable Map is based on an idea that we have worked with for a number of years that helps people to describe their current management model in terms that made it easy for them to see what they needed to do to bring it into line with Beyond Budgeting principles. The original ideas have been improved and extended to create a methodology that helps managers and leaders to better understand Beyond Budgeting at a practical level, to describe their existing model, diagnose what is wrong with it and design a better one. ​The key idea in the book is that an organisation’s management model must be coherent, in other words be a good ‘fit’ both the nature of the environment in which it operates and the qualities of its people. ​Thus, its management processes (as defined by the Beyond Budgeting process principles) must be more adaptive when the environment is unpredictable and have a more devolved culture (as defined by the Beyond Budgeting leadership principles). The map itself is a simple grid upon which people can plot their Management Model and the book provides detailed guidance on how to do with with reference to typical practices and methods and how to help ensure coherence, in principle and in practice. It also describes typical ‘patterns’ to look out for, good and bad, and some real-life examples. In summary it will help people translate interest in Beyond Budgeting ideas into practical action and provides a methodology to help guide and coach companies through the transition.