Systems thinking for everyone
Everything is connected. Sometimes where you least expect it.
A bathtub, a rumour at school, traffic in your town, a company’s sales: they all follow the same few rules. LeverScope lets you draw them, play with them and find the levers that really make a difference.
Runs in your browser. Nothing to install. No account needed to start.
Try it: the bathtub
a live modelTurn the tap down a little. The water keeps rising for a while. Why? Find out.
What is a system?
Three building blocks explain almost everything
A system is a group of things that influence each other. Your body, a forest, a football team, a factory. To understand one, you only need three ideas.
Stocks: things that pile up
Water in a tub, money in a piggy bank, pupils who have heard a rumour, cars on a road. A stock is what you would count if you froze time.
Flows: what fills and drains them
The tap and the plughole, pocket money in and treats out, people starting and stopping to drive. Flows are the only way a stock can change.
Links: what influences what
Sunshine influences ice cream sales. Tiredness influences how fast you do homework. Follow the links in a circle and you find feedback loops, the engine behind growth, swings and surprises.
Surprising influences
Things you would not connect, until you follow the links
Each of these is a free model you can open, change and run. The amber link is the one most people miss.
How wolves can change rivers
Wolves scare deer away from the riverbanks. Trees grow back, roots hold the soil, and the river changes shape.
Open the model →More lanes, more traffic
A wider road attracts people who used to take the bus, until the drive is as slow as before.
Open the model →The homework spiral
Staying up late to catch up makes you slower the next day. Going to bed on time can get more done.
Open the model →The cobra effect
Paying for every dead snake made breeding snakes profitable. When the reward stopped, the snakes were set free.
Open the model →Too cold, too hot
Hot water takes a few seconds to arrive. Impatience plus a delay makes the temperature swing.
Open the model →Ice cream and sunburn
They rise and fall together, but neither causes the other. A hidden common cause is behind both.
Open the model →Who it is for
From the classroom to the boardroom
Pupils and teachers
Start with a bathtub, a piggy bank or rabbits and foxes. The learning pages work from about age 10, with questions to try and ideas for lessons.
Curious people
Why do diets stall, queues grow or rumours explode? Draw what you think is going on, press play and see if it behaves like real life.
Engineers and managers
Model a process, compare scenarios, let LeverScope search for the best combination of decisions, test how robust it is, and find which assumptions lead to failure.
Free to use, right in your browser
LeverScope is free. Open it, build your first model, or start from one of the models in the library.