Book review: "The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix" iii
Business and healthcare share an ongoing fascination with integration. A several decades long preoccupation, I now see as a legacy issue. One, that is set to continue: a clear objective but tantalizingly always out of reach.
Not that I'm drawn to figures, but there's a double helix (figure 2.4, p.33) to illustrate the distinctions and dependencies that operate between:
INTEGRAL and MODULAR
products
VERTICAL and HORIZONTAL
industry
Pressure to
DISINTEGRATE - INTEGRATE
Hopefully, you can see what is going on here - the attraction, the fit? Chapter 2 on Form, Method and Mastery presents the foundations of what is to follow, with chapter 3 on the Eight Archetypal Dilemmas. While the context is business the insights here are applicable generally:
Head - Heart*
Inside - Outside
Product - Market
Change - Stability
Content - Process
As in Hodges' model, a situated perspective is called for and in designing 2x2 matrices the author's outline individual and group activities. Their step 3, 'Catalogue' - creating an inventory of interesting and important aspects of the situation is mirrored in Hodges' model - care concepts, patient or carer priorities - and general problem solving. A key difference in the business context is that the quadrants are not pre-defined but must be 'Named'. The critical question, Lowy and Hood write (p.68), is proof: "Are there four real quadrants?"
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| The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix |
A 'good' book makes / helps you think. In prompting the next blog post this is proof for me of a good book.
Here are the previous posts:
Q. What is Hodges' model? A. It is NOT a 2x2 matrix
Alex Lowy, Phil Hood (2004) The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix: Using 2 x 2 Thinking to Solve Business Problems and Make Better Decisions, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-1-118-00879-9
With many thanks to the publisher for my review copy.
*See also:
https://twitter.com/h2cm/status/1321177843863375883?s=20
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965