The best thing about 2×2 matrices, apart from their deceptive simplicity, is they help make visible the contradictions that need to be solved.
Here’s one we’ve spent a lot of our time worrying about over the course of the last few years:
In either/or world, people are generalists or specialists.
They are deep and narrow or broad and shallow.
Education is either deep or broad.
Data is either BIG or THICK.
| BIG (Broad) | THICK (Deep) |
| What is happening?
Specific & Focused Analysing the past Source Detailed Correlation Behavioural analysis: What people do Helps identify issues Reliability & Generalisation Optimization Shows a reality At a distance Algorithms do interpretation |
What does it mean?
Open-ended Designing the future Resource Holistic Causation Cultural analysis: How what they do connects to social meaning Helps inspire possibilities Credibility & Transferability Innovation Constructs a reality Close-in Interpretation is a collective process |
Most of us go through life assuming we can either have our cake or eat it. We’re expected to make choices: live in the top-left box in the 2×2 or the bottom right.
Being broad means being a source. Being deep means being a resource. Sources are many, resources are few. Sources compete on price, resources compete on expertise. When I want to source the latest Courtney Barnett album, I go to Amazon. When I need a resource to help me work out who’s the next best new artist of the year, I choose my local music shop, where they have a Sam that knows me and knows about what’s happening in the industry. Amazon is very scalable, Sam is not. At least not traditionally. It took her five years to get to know me and what I do and don’t like, and fifteen more before that getting to know the industry.
Traditionally I have to make the choice between breadth or depth. Buy something randomly on Amazon, or spend several years fostering a relationship with Sam.
But if I allow myself to contemplate the impossible – having my cake AND eating it – I realise the top right hand box is the place I’m supposed to get to.
QUINTESSENCE: the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies; the essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form.
It’s what PanSensic is all about. Big narrative. Giving managers and leaders the confidence to act. Extracting meaning from the past to help design the future.
Solving contradictions. Bigger And Deeper. Quintessent.