Where to push a system
Leverage points are places where a small change creates a large effect.
By Denys Kostin · Updated
Most effort goes to the loudest part of a problem. The best lever is often quieter: a rule, a metric, a delay or who gets which information.
Three places to check
- What is measured. People optimize the number they are judged on.
- Who sees what. Move information and behavior shifts.
- The delay. Slow feedback makes people overcorrect.
Learn more: What Are Leverage Points and how to find the right intervention point. Then see System Shaping.
Example: the metric that backfired
A support team is judged on tickets closed per day. Agents close tickets early, customers reopen them, and the queue grows. The loudest problem is the queue. The lever is the metric: measure tickets that stay solved for a week. Behavior follows within days, with no new tool.
Why good levers feel wrong
The best lever is often far from the pain. The queue is long, so the instinct is to add people. But the queue may be long because work enters with no limit. Capping what is accepted feels like doing less, yet it fixes the queue faster than hiring. Levers are counterintuitive because we look where the symptom is, not where it is made.
More places to look
- Goals: what the system is really trying to achieve, not what the slide says.
- Rules: approvals, limits, who is allowed to say no.
- Who decides: moving a decision closer to the information is often the cheapest big change.
- Speed of information: how long before someone sees the result of their action.
How to test a lever safely
Make it small, reversible and time-boxed. Say in advance what you expect to see and by when. For example: "If we cap work in progress at five items, cycle time should drop within three weeks." If nothing moves, undo it and try the next lever. A test you can reverse is a cheap lesson, not a risky bet.
Signs you picked the wrong lever
The change needs constant enforcement. People find workarounds within days. The metric improves while the experience gets worse. These are signals to step back to the loop and look again. To go further, read where to intervene in a system on paradigm.red.
Common questions
What is a leverage point?
A place in a system where a small change produces a large effect.
Where are leverage points usually found?
In what is measured, who sees which information, and the delays between action and result.
Why not fix the biggest problem first?
The biggest problem is often a symptom. The lever sits upstream, near the loop that creates it.