It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trimtab. Society thinks it's going right by you, that it's left you altogether. But if you're doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.

So I said, call me Trimtab."  -- R. Buckminster Fuller, Barry Farrell (Playboy Interview, Feb 1972)

In design science, the trimtab metaphor is used to describe an artifact, or system, specifically designed and placed in the environment at such a time, in such a place, where its effects would be maximized, thereby effecting the most advantageous change with the least resources, time and energy. Doing more with less.

It is this kind of thinking that will help us achieve change with much less wear and tear in our lives because being in the minority, we may frustrate ourselves to death if we try to make  change, force change, or impose change, as the elites do.  The elites have the resources and the channels we don´t, so we must find a way to turn those means around, without waiting for a chance to own and control them.  

I´d rather have ´the right to play my part´ influencing society, than owning or controlling a whole lot of power blings.  It will be a lot more satisfying to improve well-being by using somebody else´s system, than trying to keep, defend and maintain one myself.  

I have to hope that we will see change, if we practice it ourselves, act as role models and fine tune our beliefs enough, to apply them at the right pressure points.  More inspiration/in-spirit-action and less frustration.  Turn the negative against itself.  More ETenergy, less force.  Verrrry zeny, meta zeny...  

Buckminster Fuller referred to the function of a trimtab in nautical and aeronautical design to demonstrate how small amounts of energy and resources precisely applied at the right time and place can produce maximum advantageous change.

A large ship moving through the ocean has great momentum. Turning the rudder changes the direction of the ship but with great effort. Turning the trimtab -- a tiny rudder on the trailing edge of the main rudder -- causes an initial momentum allowing the main rudder to turn with less effort in pulling the whole ship around.

Buckminster Fuller said, "When I thought about steering the course of the 'Spaceship Earth' and all of humanity, I saw most people trying to turn the boat by pushing the bow around."

"I saw that by being all the way at the tail of the ship, by just kicking my foot to one side or the other, I could create the 'low pressure' which would turn the whole ship. If ever someone wanted to write my epitaph, I would want it to say 'Call me Trimtab'."
...
An emphasis on
individual initiative and
integrity with
    whole systems thinking,
    scientific rigor and
    faithful reliance on nature's underlying principles.
...
Solutions should be:
Comprehensive -- a clear demonstration of holistic systems thinking.
Anticipatory -- projectively tracking critical trends and needs; identifying and assessing long term consequences of proposed solutions.
Ecologically responsible -- reflective and supportive of nature's underlying processes, patterns and principles.
Verifiable -- able to withstand rigorous empirical testing.
Replicable -- capable of being readily undertaken by others.
Achievable -- likely to be implemented successfully and broadly adopted.

On http://bfi.org/ there is also a tribute to the exciting example of Paul MacCready:
"Doing more with less is a vital feature of a world that works, where our increasing demands are met, yet do not overwhelm the limits of the earth."

"If success or failure of the planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do ... How would I be? What would I do?"  -- Buckminster Fuller.