2X2 MATRIX: Splits Anything into Four Categories
It is likely the most popular managerial tool. With this tool, you can split any set into four categories and get granularity adequate for many work and life situations.
The easiest is to think of two characteristics and split each into “haves” and “have-nots.” Thus, you arrive at four groups:
One will have both.
One will have none.
Two groups will have one of the two characteristics but not the other.
One example we discussed in the course was the stakeholder matrix. We categorized them by their power and interest in our projects. Those with both were the key stakeholders; we would consider their opinions and wishes.
A lighter example might be categorizing people by their actions. These actions can benefit or harm themselves and help or harm others. People who benefit from their actions, as do others, are Brains. People whose actions hurt everybody, including themselves, are Fools. Bandits and Victims are the other two categories; you can guess the combinations.
The “Four stages of competence” learning model looks sleeker as a two-by-two matrix, not a pyramid. Consciousness and unconsciousness will be rows, and incompetence and competence will be columns. You progress from “unconscious incompetence” to “conscious incompetence,” then to “conscious competence,” and finally to “unconscious competence.”
You have likely already guessed that “have” and “have not” ideally fit the Cartesian world of rectangular axes, where you can have more and more of “have”—from the origin (O) to infinity. The same applies to “have not”—from the origin to negative infinity.