FRAMEWORK
Leverage points as a ladder
🚦 Status🗂️ Library
🏷️ Topics
frameworksystemsmental_model
🧭HOW IT WORKS
In 📰 Leverage Points - Places to Intervene in a System Meadows lists twelve places to intervene in a system. I cannot hold twelve in my head in a meeting, so this is my compression into four rungs. The ranking is hers. The squeezing and its losses are mine.
| Rung | What it is | In my week |
|---|---|---|
| 4. Top | Goals and paradigms | Ship on the 18th against be usable on a Tuesday |
| 3. Upper middle | Information and rules | Who sees the exception count, and when |
| 2. Lower middle | Delays and loop strengths | How long a test takes to tell us anything |
| 1. Bottom | Numbers and physical structure | Dates, scope, headcount |
How I use it
- When someone proposes a change, ask which rung it is on.
- If it is rung 1, ask what would have to be true one rung up for the number to move by itself.
- Spend the argument there.
Use when: a discussion has been about a number for more than twenty minutes.
Not for: telling a team to change the paradigm. I can reach rung 3 on a good Monday. Rung 4 belongs to people with more tenure than I have.
The taught version is 🧩 Leverage points. What I decided is 💎 Changing a parameter is the weakest way to change a system.