Find where the system has give.
An opportunity point is a condition in the system’s regulatory architecture where change is both possible and consequential – and where a well-designed foment can test what that opening may produce.
Not every opportunity can be seen from the desk.
The progression from obvious to occluded reflects how much engagement is required to recognize the opening. Click through the four levels.
Be honest about how deep you can work.
A useful opportunity point may sit at the level of instruments, information, regulation or intent. Necessary action at one depth does not automatically change the others.
Six configurations can reveal an opening.
Apply these categories to the strand map and Power Vista. They are prompts for judgement, not boxes into which every landscape must fit.
An opportunity point is a reading, not a guarantee.
Before committing resources, test whether the opening is consequential, reachable, receptive and ethically workable.
If this interaction changes, could it materially influence system heading rather than only produce an output?
Can the intervention or its partners reach the relevant actors and geographic range?
Is there evidence of give – alignment, tension, weakening, reciprocity or an emerging alternative practice?
Can the opening be tested without transferring unacceptable risk to low-power actors or violating rights?
Continue through connected concepts
Read the full Opportunity points chapter.
The full reading edition carries the complete argument, examples, references and methodological detail behind this page.
