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Leverage Points

COVID-19 Notice

Out of concern for the health and safety of our supporters, vendors, and local communities — and in line with orders by the State of California and local Bay Area counties — Sustainable North Bay will not be holding any events now or in the foreseeable future. Our program is built on the belief that live in person events offer exceptional return on investment, deepen existing relationships, and advance critical issues.

Right now, the most important thing all of us can do is focus our attention on personal safety and the safety of others in our community. 

Take care of yourselves. Be kind to others in need. And please continue to work and live within the means of our one beautiful planet.

Folks 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.

By Donella Meadows~

PLACES TO INTERVENE IN A SYSTEM

(in increasing order of effectiveness)

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

 

http://donellameadows.org - Leverage Points