This is the best article I’ve read on systems change. I’ve dropped the content below and would love to write it up in the Learning Library the next time I have capacity to do it.
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.
Read the full article below.
http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Additional Resources
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows