City System Archetypes and Intervention Points

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City System Archetypes and Intervention
Points
Gwendolyn Hallsmith Global Community Initiatives
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Stories, Diagrams, and Leverage

• Archetype Stories illustrate patterns of
  behavior
• Diagrams help describe the underlying system
  dynamics
• Leverage points demonstrate effective
  interventions

Describe
Understand
Change
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Vicious and Virtuous Cycles

• Vicious Cycles The variables feed off each
  other in a way that causes the system to spiral
  out of control.
• Virtuous Cycles The variables work together to
  continuously improve the system.

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intelligence pays
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strategic democracy
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Housing Solutions?
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Alternative Strategies
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AIDS Impoverishment Cycle
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Dynamic Equilibrium

• This system is in balance the forces that work
  against action are counterbalanced by forces that
  work for it. As one thing goes up, the
  initiative in the system to keep it going up is
  lowered.

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Limits to Growth

• The growth in an area at first leads to
  expansion, but when it hits a limit natural
  resources run out, staff cant handle more work,
  etc., then it causes expansion to turn into
  contraction.

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limits to growth
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Tragedy of the Commons

• People or organizations are acting as if they
  were the sole owners of a common resource, which
  means that everyone involved in the use of that
  resource is using it at a level that the resource
  cant sustain as demand grows.
• As demand grows, everyone is experiencing
  decreasing benefits from the use of the resource.

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Over-fishing the Banks
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Fixes that Fail

• The quick, obvious solution to a nagging problem
  has only made the problem worse over time.
• This is generally because the quick fix only
  deals with the symptoms of the problem, not the
  cause.

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fixes that fail
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worst first
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Shifting the Burden

• This is another case where a quick fix is
  selected to solve a problem, where the underlying
  cause is ignored.
• The quick fix, however, causes unanticipated side
  effects that over time weaken your ability to
  address the underlying cause of the problems.

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shifting the burden
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Crime
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Addiction
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Addiction, cont.
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Drifting Goals

• The gap between the established goals and actual
  performance is causing a lot of pressure to
  adjust the goal downward.
• Continued poor performance make it impossible to
  resist the pressure, and strategies begin to be
  introduced that move you away from the desired
  target.

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drifting goals
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Success to the Successful

• People are competing for limited resources, and
  the resources are being allocated to some people
  instead of others.
• As the group who gets the resources improves
  their skill at securing them, they are able to
  monopolize more and more, while the other group
  gets less and less.

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success to the successful
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Accidental Adversaries

• People working in partnership experience
  increasing levels of conflict as they start to
  compete with each other.
• Even if competition was never intended, when the
  system is structured so that one partners
  success can reduce the success of the other
  partner, increased conflict will occur.

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accidental adversaries
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Meta Systems
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Public Policy for Sustainability
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The Iceberg of Intervention
Problems
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System Intervention Points
Controlling the numbers Stored Assets, Stocks and
Buffers Infrastructure Design Time lags between
cause and effect Self-correcting
mechanisms Self-reinforcing mechanisms
Shifting Paradigms and Mindsets Setting Conscious
Goals Participatory Democratic Practice Rules and
Regulations The flow, accessibility, and timing
of information
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Controlling the Numbers
System Structure Rate of Flow

• Quotas
• Subsidies
• Price supports
• Limited Entry

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Stored Assets, Stocks and Buffers
System Structure Stocks

• Steambank buffers
• Conservation land set-asides
• Strategic Oil Reserve (and City Fuel Stores)
• Bank Accounts
• Grain Reserves
• Sand and gravel piles

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Infrastructure Design
System Structure Flows

• Separating stormwater from sanitary sewage
• Flood control dams and channelization
• Traffic calming measures
• Ecocity Design
• Monetary Systems of Exchange

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Changing Time Lags Between Cause and Effect
System Structure Delays

• Red light timing
• Nutrient loading
• Carbon dioxide buildup causing climate change
• Depletion of species quantity and diversity

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Adding Self-Correcting Mechanisms
System Controls Negative Feedback Loops

• Float valve in check dam
• Pressure relief valve in furnace
• Limiting cars allowed on roads with high air
  pollution
• Traffic-dependent toll system

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Adding Self-Reinforcing Mechanisms
System Controls Positive Feedback Loops

• Inspiring contagious enthusiasm
• Interest payments on bank accounts
• People to people grassroots campaign
• Time Dollars Motivating Community Service

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The Flow, Access, and Timingof Information
System Controls Information

• Sunshine Laws Guaranteed Access to Governmental
  Information
• Insider trading
• Monitoring indicators
• In-your-face electric meters

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Rules and Regulations
System Controls The Rules

• Fines and Penalties
• Precautionary Principle
• Life Cycle Accounting
• Internalizing Externalities
• Protective Laws Endangered Species, Human
  Rights, Health Regulations

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Democratic Practice
System Drivers People Power

• Rights of Opinion, Expression, Peaceful Assembly,
  Association, and Dissent
• Affirmative Action, Empowerment, Referenda,
  Conflict Management
• Community members development of zoning
• Community development corporations

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Setting Conscious Goals
System Drivers Moving in the Same Direction

• Creating community vision through inclusive and
  democratic process
• Increasing Support for Locally Owned Businesses
• Becoming the Worlds Most Sustainable, Livable,
  ______ City

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Shifting Paradigms and Mindsets
System Drivers The Invisible Framework

• Changing attitudes toward smoking and littering
  in the United States
• Race and society in South Africa
• Complementary Currencies as a leverage point

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Community Leverage Points
community spirit prevention programs early
intervention raising awareness
education conflict management
forgiveness non-violent direct action community
centers, indicators
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The Key
?
Opening Locked Doors

• Understanding the Map

KEY
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Exercise

• Pick a trend in Calgary that reflects an
  archtypical pattern of behavior.
• Identify some of the variables, feedback, and
  system dynamics that might be driving this trend.
• Draw causal loops to describe your theory.
• Identify and draw interventions that might change
  the dynamic you have identified.