Leverage points
A list of the places where you can intervene in a system, ordered from least to most effective, from changing numbers to changing the way of thinking.
What problem it addresses
It helps you not to spend all your effort on the easiest changes, which tend to transform the system least.
Components
The numbers
Taxes, deadlines or amounts. They are easy to change, but change the system little.
Information flows and rules
Who knows what and what is allowed. They have more effect.
The goals
What the system works for.
The way of thinking
The underlying ideas that hold everything else up. It is one of the deepest points and among the hardest to move.
How it works
A system rests on rules, goals and ideas, not only on numbers.
The deeper the point, the more the system changes and the more it resists.
Designing well means choosing where to intervene.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Review a proposal and check whether it only touches numbers or also rules, goals or ideas.
Avoid
Sticking to the easy changes and expecting them to transform the system.
Don’t fall for it
The deep points have more effect, but also more risk: changing a goal affects everything.
Connections
Authors and works
- 1999
Donella H. Meadows
She proposed the list of twelve places to intervene in a system, from least to most effective.
- 2008
Donella H. Meadows
She explained systems thinking, including leverage points, in an introductory book.
Sources
Original sources
- Meadows, D. H. (1999). Leverage points: Places to intervene in a system. The Sustainability Institute.
- Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer (D. Wright, Ed.). Chelsea Green Publishing.
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