id: 1161,7L
title: Individual components are usually poor leverage points.
date: 2022-03-06

Individual components are usually poor leverage points.

Of all the concepts in a system, an individual element influences the system’s behavior the least. Where an element influences a higher-level concept like an interconnection, that specific element has more leverage. An element may be capable of influencing any leverage point, especially goals… but few rarely have this capability. Quality improvements therefore need a system perspective rather than a component.rM3

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    Donella H. Meadows and Diana Wright, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (White River Junction, Vt: Chelsea Green Pub, 2008). (See notes.)