Structure Changed Behavior

In Season 3 of The Wire, Major Bunny Colvin runs an experiment.

He designates abandoned areas as "free zones" where drug dealing is tolerated. The rest of the district gets aggressive enforcement.

The results are immediate.

Violent crime drops in the surrounding neighborhoods. Drug dealers experience fewer turf wars. The areas outside Hamsterdam become safer and more vibrant.

Colvin didn't change the people. He changed the structure.

Same dealers. Same addicts. Same cops. Different rules. Different behavior.

The experiment gets shut down. Colvin is forced to resign. The politics couldn't accept what the data revealed.

But the lesson remains.

You don't change behavior by changing people.

You change behavior by changing the structure they operate within.

This note explores Structural Constraint, one of four dynamics from The Momentum Engine. Structure produces behavior. Change the structure, change the output.