{"id":676,"date":"2015-12-09T06:24:53","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T06:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jamesrising.net\/blog\/?p=676"},"modified":"2018-10-13T22:24:45","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T22:24:45","slug":"top-500-leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jamesrising.net\/blog\/?p=676","title":{"rendered":"Top 500: Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is another installment of my top 500 journal articles: the papers that I keep coming back to and recommending to others.<\/em><\/p>\n

Few papers have had a larger impact on my thinking and goals as Donella Meadows’s article Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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\nFolks who do systems analysis have a great belief in “leverage points.” These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She then explains how to understand them and where to find them, with fantastic examples from across the systems literature: global trade, ecology, urban planning, energy policy, and more. Reading it makes you feel like a kid in a candy shop, with so many leverage points to choose from. Shamelessly stealing<\/a> a punch-line graphic, here are the leverage points:<\/p>\n

\"leverage<\/p>\n

I have a small example of this, which you can try out. Go to my Thermostat Experiment<\/a> and try to stabilize the temperature at 4 °C without clicking the “Show Graph” button until at least 30 “game minutes”. Then read on.<\/p>\n

I’ve had people get very mad at me after playing this game. Some people find it impossible, get frustrated, and want to lash out. It’s a very simple system, but you are part of the system and you’re only allowed to use the weakest level of leverage point: the parameter behind the thermostat knob. What would each of the other leverage points look like?<\/p>\n