How to find the leverage points in systems to activate change
Last week I was lucky enough to spend 8 whole days in the mountains of Slovenia with a committed group of people studying biomimicry for social innovation. Working with Life’s Principles, we all spent time seeking knowledge and inspiration that would allow us to take a step further on our journey as activist for social, environmental, organisational and systems change.
Looking at the way in which nature manages ‘disturbances’ in the landscape — how avalanches, rockfalls and trees coming down pave the way for pioneer species to leap into life or clear a space for light to reach new growth — I was reminded of all the rich learning from Donella Meadows on the many leverage points there are for interventions in complex systems. Or how to ‘create’ a disturbance. So I borrow from her wonderful paper “Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System” to summarise and hopefully provide some correlating examples. I’ll follow her list in order from least effective to most effective even though many years ago she wrote a caveat that this list could oscillate and change just like nature does.
12. Constants, parameters, numbers
Examples include taxes of all kinds, ideas like the minimum wage, thresholds and allocations when applied to a system, the amount of money we spend on the…
