Observations on the development of cybernetic ideas in Colombia: A tribute to Stafford Beer

This paper is an account of management and organisational interventions in multiple institutions and enterprises in Colombia during the past 10 years, mainly influenced by Stafford Beer's ideas and work. It offers comments about the use of these ideas in three projects; particularly it focuses on an intervention in the National Controller's Office. These are accounts of failure and success. However, assessments of success and failure are tempered by difficulties in appreciating the complexity of social processes and our inability to see cause‐effect connections. The paper offers insights about concrete aspects of these interventions and the footprints they have left in the country.