Systems thinking is the ability to describe and/ or visualize a part of a complex reality , express that part of reality as a model, understand the model as a system, use the model to explain the behaviour of the system, anticipate the behaviour of the system, and evaluate its impacts on sustainable development, identify potential points of, and types of interventions, generate options to act, assess their impacts in the frame of sustainable development, and decide whether further actions are necessary or not.
What is the aim?
To enable learners to:
- understand what a leverage point is in the context of a system,
- understand there may be different leverage points with different functions in a system, and
- apply the understanding about leverage points to the system of the chosen topic to effect change.
Activities, tasks, and suggested learning methods
- To help learners understand the concept of a leverage point in a system, you may present the video Niki Lauda video (Minute 3.55)available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk0xgCpoqR8
Facilitate a discussion among the learners to identify different leverage point(s) in the story. (These include for example: the gear stick, attraction between people, character of the driver, capacity of the engine).
If it is not possible to use the Niki Lauda video, learners may just discuss how the speed of a moving vehicle, say a bicycle, a car or a boat can be controlled. For example, in a car, the gear stick can be understood as a point of intervention. In a boat, it is the paddle. Are there other points of intervention as well? (E.g., the accelerator, the brake).
- Next, help the learners to transfer their understanding of a leverage point to the cotton and jeans systems. For this, they may work in groups of four and use the concept maps they developed in previous steps, or the concept map provided in Figure 4 Model of the Cotton Jean System
Learners should identify such components in the cotton jeans system that influence the behaviour of other elements and the outputs of the system. These identified points may be leverage points.
Finally, the learners should mark the identified leverage points in their concept map (or the provided model).
Tip: Leverage points of different effectiveness may include for example,
- Quantity of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in cotton farms
- Farming techniques
- Local farmers’ groups decision to shift to organic farming
- Local farmers’ groups decision to limit the acreage for cash crops
- Source of metal for rivets (metal from mines or recycled metals)
- Design, such as to reduce materials usage and include more recycled material
- Preference for jeans made of organic cotton and recycled metal
- Preference for unbranded cotton trousers (instead of jeans)Tasks for the learners:
- Explain what a leverage point is in the context of a system.
- Identify the leverage point of the cotton-jeans-production-system.
- Cross check the suggestions among the learners.
The tasks in this Step may be supported by learning methods such as:
Suggested Further Leading Questions
- How to use these points of intervention?
- Can I influence the behaviour of a system in general and the cotton production-system in particular?
- Are there possibilities for different types of intervention?
- Who decides that an intervention should be made, and with what aim?
