{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/ask-whether-you-are-changing-a-parameter-or-a-rule",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9159",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Ask whether you are changing a parameter or a rule",
  "summary": "Parameter changes may leave the system's behavior-generating structure intact.",
  "kind": "question",
  "body": "Classify the intervention: number, buffer, flow, information, feedback, rule, power, goal or deeper assumption. Then ask whether a structural lever is more appropriate than another parameter tweak.",
  "limits": [
    "Leverage-point and information-value heuristics are prompts, not guaranteed effect sizes. Test interventions, monitor side effects and stop when evidence changes."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-systems-strategy-and-leverage-thinking"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-EA64347094A93DB4"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "Meadows' leverage-points framework widens intervention search from parameters and buffers toward information flows, rules, goals and paradigms while explicitly cautioning that the list is not a recipe.",
      "source_id": "RS-EA64347094A93DB4",
      "role": "contextualizes",
      "note": "The proposed ordering is a systems-thinking heuristic, not a universal causal effect-size ranking.",
      "locator": "Places to intervene and concluding caveats"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "When repeated tuning of targets, thresholds or staffing produces only temporary relief."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Leverage-point and information-value heuristics are prompts, not guaranteed effect sizes. Test interventions, monitor side effects and stop when evidence changes."
  ],
  "example": "Raising the defect threshold again changes a number; changing who sees defect evidence before release changes an information flow and decision rule.",
  "check": "The intervention is classified by mechanism rather than described only by size.",
  "question": "What exactly is being changed? · Which feedback loop stays intact? · Would changing information, rules or goals alter the recurring behavior? · What is the smallest safe structural test?",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-EA64347094A93DB4",
      "title": "Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System",
      "url": "https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9159",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9160",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/change-information-flow-before-adding-another-control"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-28D91C30CEA1CB4A",
      "title": "Systems and strategic leverage: feedback, flow, modularity, robust options, and information value",
      "url": "/collections/systems-and-strategic-leverage-feedback-flow-modularity-robust-options-and-information-value"
    }
  ]
}