Systems. Leverage points. The limits of growth and the growth of limits!

Systems thinking is a framework for understanding the underlying mechanisms that rule the interactions of our world and ecosystems.

If you are an educated, thoughtful, &/ motivated person it’s more likely than not that you are trying to start/change something in your: own/family’s life, organization, or maybe even the world.

Given this assumption, it is critical to understand the so-called ‘leverage points’ in systems so that your desired impact is more probable to occur than not. Donella Meadow’s (who was a researcher at M.I.T.) theory on where to intervene in systems synthesized the following 12 points (#12 being the most powerful):

Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards).
The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows.
The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, and population age structures).
The lengths of delays, relative to the rate of system change.
The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against.
The gain around driving positive feedback loops.
The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to information).
The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, and constraints).
The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure.
The goals of the system.
The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises.
The power to transcend paradigms.

To me what’s interesting is that the goal (a.k.a. ‘North Star’) is actually the third most powerful… In addition, I interpret the mindset (#2) as the culture of a system. Read more on Leverage points by Meadows here.

Notably, Meadows was part of the Club of Rome and became known for her work: “The Limits of Growth”. The book was published in 1972 and was based on a computer simulation that predicted the economic collapse of the global economy due to resource depletion. Given the 50 years and incredible global economic and lifestyle growth that have passed since I can confidently say that the assumptions in the model must have been widely off.

However, her work on leverage points should not be underestimated!

Interestingly, Simon Aegerter, a physicist/academic recently turned writer wrote a book called “Das Wachstum der Grenzen: Über die unerschöpfliche Erfindungskraft der Menschen” which in English would mean ‘The Growth of Limits: On the inexhaustible inventiveness of human beings”. As the title suggests Aegerter claims that the creativity and problem-solving ability of humans is larger than any one problem we face. i.e. humans will innovate out of a scenario that would lead to an economic collapse due to resource depletion.

The exact points and conclusions made by both authors need to be decided on by the reader (you) and society at large. However, Aegerter does touch on two critical points in my view. Namely, the goals and emerging mindset of the system (#2 and #3 in leverage points).

The way I read into his work is that humanity is all about experimentation and evolution. If we look at the world as a massive distributed and decentralized experiment (this is the underlying system) it’s honestly a magnificent and semi-magical perspective (which may even allow you to transcend this paradigm?). If we accept this goal and change our mindset to align closer to innovation being a motivating factor vs a doomsday scenario we may create less friction and even create our own experiments that are part of the grand species-level experiment.

The power to transcend paradigms, which is the most effective place to intervene in systems, is described as:

“That is to keep oneself unattached in the arena of paradigms, to stay flexible, to realize that NO paradigm is “true,” that everyone, including the one that sweetly shapes your own worldview, is a tremendously limited understanding of an immense and amazing universe that is far beyond human comprehension. It is to “get” at a gut level the paradigm that there are paradigms, and to see that itself is a paradigm, and to regard that whole realization as devastatingly funny. It is to let go into Not Knowing, into what the Buddhists call enlightenment.”

To better understand this, we can refer back to the post on the question of what value is. To transcend paradigms is another way of describing a break in the illusion of suffering. This is a time-tested path to increase hope (read “value”). Ultimately, I agree that viewing the problems of the human family through the lens of “The Growth of (Human’s) Limits” vs “The Limits of (Mankind’s) Growth” instills more confidence and desire in me (though it may be more fleeting and generate more insatiable appetite if it’s centered solely on the material/changing world?).

Finally, we must understand and remember that both “The Growth of Limits” and “The Limits of Growth” are still just paradigms that we must transcend and both have kernels of truth that we can learn from.