Last week, I wrote about an idea-generation strategy I regularly use in teaching called Juice the Brief.

This week, I’ve been working on an analogous method called Juice the System. This approach builds on the Systems Bookcase model, which we use to understand why systems behave the way they do and to identify opportunities for intervention.

The challenge with complex systems is that they often seem overwhelming—like walking into a messy bedroom where everything is scattered across the floor. The goal of Juice the System is to “tidy up” this complexity by sorting the mess into clear categories using the Systems Bookcase as our framework.

Recap – The Systems Bookcase model

The Systems Bookcase is a way to organise information about a system into ascending shelves on a bookcase. From bottom to top:

1. The Design Shelf

  • For anything tangible—what has been built or created.
  • Examples: buildings, infrastructure, physical objects.

2. The Operations Shelf

  • For rules, incentives, restrictions, and enabling or limiting conditions—the mechanisms that drive the system.
  • Examples: policies, processes, regulations.

3. The Mindsets Shelf

  • For attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs that underpin how the system operates.
  • Examples: cultural norms, biases, overarching worldviews.

4. The Goals Shelf

  • For the high-level goals of the system
  • Example: in our current paradigm in construction, to build things profitably and safely; in a more holistic paradigm, for humans and the living world to survive, thrive and co-evolve.

5. The Paradigm Shelf

  • Right at the top, the paradigm – the guiding philosophy of the whole system
  • Example: in UK and similar economies, the paradigm of continuous economic growth.

How to juice the system

To start, you’ll need some “mess”—raw material to sort through. This could be:

  • A report,
  • Notes from a site visit,
  • An audio recording or podcast, Or any other information source related to the system you’re exploring.

Follow these steps to organise the mess:

Step 1: Gather Inputs

  • Read or listen to your chosen input material.

Step 2: Sort Information onto the Shelves

  • As you go through, pick out elements and assign them to the appropriate shelves:
  • Design Shelf: Tangible outputs (e.g., buildings, objects).
  • Operations Shelf: Rules, incentives, restrictions, or enabling factors (e.g., policies, processes).
  • Mindsets Shelf: Attitudes, assumptions, or beliefs (e.g., cultural norms, biases).

Step 3: Infer Connections

The Systems Bookcase helps you uncover how layers of the system interact:

  • A mindset permits certain rules (operations shelf), which in turn result in specific designs (bottom shelf).
  • Ask questions like: what belief enabled this rule? and what process allowed this design to exist?

Why Juice the System?

The purpose of Juice the System is to make sense of complex, messy situations. By categorising information, you can identify patterns, understand interconnections, and pinpoint leverage points for meaningful intervention.

It’s like tidying a messy room—suddenly, everything is in its place, and you can see how it all fits together.

Whether you’re tackling a large-scale project or understanding the behaviours of a system, juicing the system gives you the tools to start untangling complexity.