module 4 leverage points and systemic interventions
TRANSCRIPT
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
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Economy: interest rate
Poverty alleviation: education
Social justice: law enforcement
Ship: the trim tab on the rudder
Examples of leverage points
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
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)
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
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)
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Solution
Short term
Optimal
Content
Symptom
Systemic Intervention
Long term
Fundamental
Content and context
Cause
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
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
$$$ for ecology of a threatened species
$$$$ for improving production
?
Source: Bosch et al., 2007
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Admin.
Structure
Government
Policies
Environment
Tourism
Livelihoods
Access to
Growth
and
Education
Resource
Use
Revenue
International
Cooperation
Coordinated
Alleviate poverty
Sustainable
and
Improved
Improved
Better (Avoid illegal
hunting, fishing)
PlanningIntegrated
Planning
Leverage Point
Mental Models
Systemic Structures
Patterns –interactions
Symptoms
$$$ 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
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
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
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen