Places to intervene in a system

Updated April 24, 2019

From Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, by Donella Meadows:

PLACES TO INTERVENE IN A SYSTEM
(in increasing order of effectiveness)

  • Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards).
  • The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows.
  • The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, population age structures).
  • The lengths of delays, relative to the rate of system change.
  • The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against.
  • The gain around driving positive feedback loops.
  • The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to information).
  • The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, constraints).
  • The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure.
  • The goals of the system.
  • The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises.
  • The power to transcend paradigms.