{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/check-whether-the-goal-of-the-system-is-causing-the-symptom",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9161",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Check whether the goal of the system is causing the symptom",
  "summary": "People often optimize the objective they are given.",
  "kind": "question",
  "body": "Identify the effective goal revealed by rewards, dashboards and escalation behavior, then compare it with the stated purpose. Change measurement or authority if the two conflict.",
  "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 every local fix is rational yet the overall outcome remains bad."
  ],
  "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": "A support target rewards ticket closure speed, so difficult tickets are bounced instead of solved; the operating goal differs from customer resolution.",
  "check": "The analysis explains how the effective goal can generate the symptom.",
  "question": "What behavior does the current metric reward? · What trade-offs does it ignore? · What would a person do to win the metric while harming the purpose? · Which goal or guardrail needs redesign?",
  "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-9161",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9162",
      "type": "use_before",
      "url": "/knowledge/look-for-incentives-that-reward-the-failure-mode"
    }
  ],
  "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"
    }
  ]
}