Action Scales Model

The Action Scales Model (ASM) is a framework intended for policymakers, practitioners, and evaluators to help identify and implement interventions within complex adaptive systems.

The ASM builds on systems-thinking frameworks, including Meadows’ Leverage Points, the Iceberg Model, and the Intervention Level Framework (ILF). Like these models, it highlights the interconnectedness of systemic elements and the power of different intervention levels. The development of the ASM prioritized simplicity and real-world usability to make it accessible for practitioners with limited systems-science expertise.

The ASM visualizes a system as a set of scales balanced by four interconnected levels:

• Events: Observable outcomes or behaviors
• Structures: The underlying physical, relational, or informational systems that produce events.
• Goals: The explicit or implicit targets driving system behaviors.
• Beliefs: Foundational norms, attitudes, and values shaping the system’s goals and structures.

While many interventions focus on event-level actions—quick fixes with limited long-term impact—the ASM emphasizes deeper, more transformative changes occur at the belief and goal levels, where the potential for lasting shifts in the outcome is greatest.