Leverage points are places within complex systems where small shifts can create large changes. They are not always intuitive. The document discusses leverage points within economies, poverty alleviation, and ship navigation. It also analyzes where to intervene in systems, such as changing goals, rules, feedback loops, material stocks and flows, or parameters. Finally, it distinguishes between solutions that treat symptoms versus systemic interventions that address underlying causes, and provides models of the Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve and Cat Ba Island as examples of systems analysis.

1. LEVERAGE POINTS and
SYSTEMIC INTERVENTIONS
Professor Ockie Bosch
Dr Nam Nguyen

2. LEVER
 “Give me a lever long enough
…. I can single-handed move
the world”
(Archimedes: mathematician
and inventor of ancient Greece,
280-211bc)
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

3. Leverage points
 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 else
 Points of power (Senge, 2006)
 Not intuitive (Meadows, 2009)
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

4. Examples of leverage points
 Economy: interest rate
 Poverty alleviation: education
 Social justice: law enforcement
 Ship: the trim tab on the rudder
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

5. Places to intervene in a System:
(Read Meadows, 1999)
 The power to transcend paradigms: keep oneself
unattached in the arena of paradigms, to stay flexible
 The goals of the system: everything is twisted to conform
to 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 information
flows and changed the economic rules
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

6. Places to intervene in a System:
(Read Meadows, 1999)
 The gain around driving positive feedback loops:
Reducing the gain around a positive loop – slowing the
growth – is usually a more powerful leverage point in
systems than strengthening negative loops
 The structure of material stocks and flows (such as
transport network, population age structures): the
leverage point is in proper design in the first place
 Constants, parameters, numbers (such as taxes,
standards): spending more on police doesn’t make crime
go away
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

7. Solution vs Systemic Intervention
(adapted from Maani & Cavana, 2007)
Solution
Short term
Optimal
Content
Symptom
Systemic Intervention
Long term
Fundamental
Content and context
Cause
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

8. Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve - Preliminary Systems Model
Admin.
Structure
Planning
Government
Policies
Degradation of Poverty
Environment
Tourism
Livelihoods
Access to
Growth &
Education
Resource
Use
Revenue
Int’l Project
$$ Save the
Monkey
Int’l Project
Poor
Unsustainable
Loss of
Poor (e.g. Illegal hunting)
Not coordinated
Iceberg
Symptoms
$$$ for
alleviating
poverty
Patterns –
interactions
Systemic Structures
Mental
Models
$$$ for
ecology of a
threatened
species
$$$$ for
improving
production
?
Source: Bosch et al., 2007
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

9. Admin.
Structure
Government
Policies
Environment
Tourism
Livelihoods
Access to
Growth
and
Education
Resource
Use
Revenue
$$$ for fundamental
problems to address
issues systemically
Coordinated
Symptoms
International
Cooperation
Alleviate poverty
Sustainable
and
Improved
Improved
Better (Avoid illegal
hunting, fishing)
InPtlaengnraintegd
Planning
Leverage Point
Patterns –
interactions
Systemic Structures
Mental Models
$$$ for
capacity
building
$$$ to improve
revenue flow
from tourism to
local population
$$$$ for developing
an understanding of
local perspectives
Source: Bosch et al., 2007
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

10. Systems Model of Cat Ba Island
Attraction of
CB island
Service quality
Number
of
tourists
Biodiversity
Tourism
pollution
Available
underground
water
Use of
underground
water
Waste
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
NR
NR
conservation
Food
safety
Health
Life
expectancy
Immigration
Population
Educated
population
Student
population
Poverty
Cultural
values
Social
issues
People’s
awareness
Tourism
development
Lack of Integrated
planning
NGOs Governanc
e structure
Policies
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen