Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System is a great framework by Donella Meadows
Long-Form Read
Observations & Applications
A lot of the time with technical organizations, it’s #3 Goals that causes consternation:
- one person’s goal is maximum performance,
- another person is balancing practical needs & performance, and
- another is trading off for other business needs.
It’s hard to converge on a solution when each person has a different implied goal, and when Goals are clarified, the getting to a solution seems easy compared to the work of goal clarification.
Other leverage points I like:
- #6 Info Flows – get the right info to the right people, and they’ll usually naturally sort out the problem
- #4 Structure/Organization – connect the right people together, and often the solution they come up with is more than the sum of the inputs
- #2 Mindset/Paradigm – usually everyone has a different idea of not only what the #3 Goal is, but also the steps to take to solve it. The problem-type identification and matching solution toolset is a really important framework/mindset/paradigm to align people on
Systems Leverage Points x Cynefin
I think there is a great complement between Systems Leverage Points and Cynefin
Cynefin dividing problems into domains –> #1 Transcending Paradigms and #2 Paradigms
Cynefin suggesting the course of action for each domain –> #3 Goals
Cynefin identifying Constraints in each domain –> #4 Structure / Self-Organization and #5 Rules