Module 4 Leverage points and systemic interventions

LEVERAGE POINTS and SYSTEMIC INTERVENTIONS

Professor Ockie Bosch

Dr Nam Nguyen

“Give me a lever long enough…. I can single-handed movethe world”

LEVER

(Archimedes: mathematicianand inventor of ancient Greece,280-211bc)

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

Places within a complex system (a corporation, aneconomy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where asmall shift in one thing can produce big changes ineverything else

Points of power (Senge, 2006)

Not intuitive (Meadows, 2009)

Leverage points


Economy: interest rate

Poverty alleviation: education

Social justice: law enforcement

Ship: the trim tab on the rudder

Examples of leverage points


The power to transcend paradigms: keep oneselfunattached in the arena of paradigms, to stay flexible

The goals of the system: everything is twisted to conformto the goal

The mental model or paradigm out of which the system(its goal, structure, rules, parameters) arises

The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments,constraints): Mikhail Gorbachev opened informationflows and changed the economic rules

Places to intervene in a System:(Read Meadows, 1999)


The gain around driving positive feedback loops:Reducing the gain around a positive loop – slowing thegrowth – is usually a more powerful leverage point insystems than strengthening negative loops

The structure of material stocks and flows (such astransport network, population age structures): theleverage point is in proper design in the first place

Constants, parameters, numbers (such as taxes,standards): spending more on police doesn’t make crimego away

Places to intervene in a System:(Read Meadows, 1999)


Solution

Short term

Optimal

Content

Symptom

Systemic Intervention

Long term

Fundamental

Content and context

Cause


Solution vs Systemic Intervention (adapted from Maani & Cavana, 2007)

Admin.

Structure

Planning

Government

Policies

Environment

Tourism

Livelihoods

Access to

Growth &

Education

Resource

Use

Revenue

Int’l Project

$$ Save the

MonkeyInt’l Project

Degradation of Poverty

Poor

Unsustainable

Loss of

Poor (e.g. Illegal hunting)

Not coordinated

Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve - Preliminary Systems Model

Iceberg

Mental Models

Systemic Structures

Patterns –interactions

Symptoms

$$$ for alleviating poverty

$$$ for ecology of a threatened species

$$$$ for improving production

?

Source: Bosch et al., 2007


Admin.

Structure

Government

Policies

Environment

Tourism

Livelihoods

Access to

Growth

and

Education

Resource

Use

Revenue

International

Cooperation

Coordinated

Alleviate poverty

Sustainable

and

Improved

Improved

Better (Avoid illegal

hunting, fishing)

PlanningIntegrated

Planning

Leverage Point

Mental Models

Systemic Structures

Patterns –interactions

Symptoms

$$$ for capacity building

$$$ to improve revenue flow from tourism to local population

$$$$ for developing an understanding of local perspectives

$$$ for fundamental problems to address issues systemically


Source: Bosch et al., 2007

Systems Model of Cat Ba Island

Attraction of

CB island

Number

of

tourists

Service quality

Biodiversity

Tourism

pollution

Use of

underground

water

Available

underground

waterWaste

Tourism

revenue

Hotels and

Restaurants

Agriculture

pollution

Infrastructure

Other pollution

sources

New construction

Agricultur

e revenue

Investment in

agriculture

Access to

market

Information

and

communicatio

n

GDP per

capita

Livelihood of

Commoner

Misuse of

NRNR

conservation

Food

safetyHealth

Life

expectancyImmigration

PopulationStudent

population

Educated

population

Poverty

Cultural

values

Social

issues

People’s

awareness

Tourism

development

Lack of Integrated

planning

NGOs Governanc

e structure

Policies
