Places to Intervene

These frameworks help you consider where and how to intervene in a complex system and what influence you might expect to have on it.

Donella Meadows (1941–2001) originally described “leverage points” for intervening in complex systems this way: “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.”

The frameworks here all build upon or respond to Donella Meadows’ original work (Places to Intervene). The Intervention Level Framework makes Meadows’ framework easier to use for research and classification. The Action Scales Model is a mashup of Meadows’ framework, the Intervention Level Framework, and the Iceberg Model.  The Systems Change Tree is an adaptation of the Iceberg Model that features the interdependence of system levels.

These frameworks recognize the primacy of values, beliefs, and mental models as key drivers that shape behaviour and outcomes. Beliefs and mental models are framed as the invisible tip of the iceberg (Iceberg Model, Six Conditions for Systems Change), the heaviest weight on the scales (Action Scales Model), and the deep roots of a tree (Systems Change Tree).  The Four Shades of Change and Innovation label this part of the system, “narratives,” and the Intervention Level Framework suggests that this level is the hardest to influence but can have the most impact.

Another core theme is that visible symptoms, features, and characteristics are only surface manifestations of deeper, less visible underlying factors. Most of what strongly influences a system’s behavior is at least partially hidden, residing beneath the surface and involving elements that are not immediately (or possibly ever) apparent.

Frameworks in this collection