Powers of Ten

Purpose

Powers of Ten (inspired by the Eames film) forces teams to zoom in and out on a problem across multiple scales. By examining the same challenge at the level of one person, a team, an organisation, a city, and a society, teams discover systemic connections, leverage points, and blind spots they would miss at a single scale.

At a glance

• Group size: 4–12
• Duration: 25 minutes
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Facilitation style: Facilitator-guided discussion through scale levels
• Setting: Workshop room with whiteboard showing concentric circles or columns

How to run

1. State the challenge (3 min): Write the design challenge in the centre.
2. Define scales (2 min): Mark 4–6 scale levels around it. Typical scales: Individual > Team > Organisation > Industry > Society > Planet.
3. Explore each scale (15 min, ~3 min per scale): At each level, ask: "How does this problem manifest here?" "Who is affected?" "What forces operate?" "What solutions exist at this scale?" Capture answers on sticky notes.
4. Connect across scales (5 min): Draw arrows between scales where forces influence each other. Identify where a small intervention at one scale could create change at another.

Materials needed

• Whiteboard or large paper with concentric circles
• Sticky notes and markers
• Scale level labels

Pitfalls & common mistakes

• Staying comfortable at one scale: Teams default to their usual level (often team or product). Push deliberately to unfamiliar scales.
• Making it too abstract: Keep each scale grounded with specific examples and real actors.
• Skipping the connections: The value is in seeing how scales interact, not just listing concerns at each level.
• Too many scales: 4–6 is enough. More becomes unwieldy.

Inclusion & accessibility

• Label scales clearly and read them aloud.
• Use different colours for different scales to aid visual parsing.
• Allow individual reflection time at each scale before group discussion.

Variations

• Temporal powers of ten: Instead of spatial scales, zoom through time: now, 1 month, 1 year, 10 years, 100 years.
• Stakeholder powers of ten: Use stakeholder groups as scale levels instead of geographic scope.
• Reverse powers of ten: Start at the planetary scale and zoom in to the individual.

When NOT to use this

• When the challenge is tightly scoped and multi-scale thinking would introduce unnecessary complexity.
• When the team needs to converge, not diverge — this is an expansive exercise.
• When no one in the room has knowledge of the broader systems — provide reference material.

Source & further reading

• Eames, Charles & Ray — *Powers of Ten* (film, 1977)
• d.school, Stanford — "Powers of Ten" method card
• Meadows, Donella — *Thinking in Systems* (Chelsea Green, 2008)