In her essay “Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System” (1997, revised 1999), systems thinker Donella Meadows ranked twelve types of intervention from least to most powerful. Shallow points include adjusting numbers like taxes, subsidies and standards. Deeper ones include changing material flows, feedback loops, information flows, rules, and the power to self-organise. The most powerful are the system’s goals, the paradigm or mindset the system arises from, and the power to transcend paradigms.
The counter-intuitive lesson: the interventions people reach for most often (parameters) are the weakest, while the highest-leverage shifts (goals and paradigms) are the hardest to achieve and the most resisted.