RESIZE

When your problem feels stuck, change the size of the thing you're looking at by running six zoom lenses (Structure, Cycle, Actor, Link, Ensemble, Service) until a unit appears that you can actually control.

You've been tired every afternoon for months. You've labeled the problem "my energy," bought supplements, and nothing budges. The label is the issue: "my energy" is too big and vague to fix. Somewhere inside it sits a specific, controllable piece, maybe the 90 minutes after lunch, or the way your sleep varies across the week, but your current zoom level hides it.

RESIZE means changing the size of the unit you're analyzing until you find one you can actually control. The cue: the thing you've named is too coarse, too fine, or too far from the outcome to act on. Run six zoom lenses on it, called SCALES: Structure (what it's made of), Cycle (its rhythms over time), Actor (who's involved), Link (its connections), Ensemble (the larger system it sits in), and Service (what job it performs). Generate at least one candidate unit on three of those axes, then pick the one exposing a mechanism you can test, like "my blood sugar in the two hours after lunch." It works when the new unit suggests a different measurable intervention. Don't use it when zooming would erase individual variation or responsibility that matters, or when you're just zooming for novelty without changing the analysis.