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Don’t talk about the matrix
The first rule of the matrix is: Don’t talk about the matrix.*
Brandon, the manager of our strategy team, jokingly said that in a meeting recently. We were talking through a concept for a workshop that would help clients establish what we call their “lobby speech”—the six-to-10-word description of your organization and why it’s important that determines whether or not someone will even let you in the elevator with them to make your “elevator speech.”
And yes, matrices were involved as a way to organize thoughts. But Brandon’s point, to which we all quickly agreed, was that even if we were actually helping clients fill in a virtual matrix, we should never in the course of the workshop talk about said matrix.
Why not? Because matrices are complicated, and generally, folks want simple.
But no, you say, matrices are designed to make the complicated simple. And you’re right. But you can’t “talk” a matrix. A matrix is only a way to organize information. It’s what’s in the matrix that matters. And it’s not even what fills in the boxes, it’s what those contents mean. And yes, there needs to be a matrix (or its theoretical equivalent) to serve as backup for the brilliant conclusion said matrix has helped you draw.
If you’re in the business of helping people and organizations figure things out, then you likely have a lot of tools you’ve developed along the way to help organize your thinking, explain your processes, and provide input and depth.
Generally, though, people don’t fall in love with the tool (my father-in-law and his woodshop aside), they fall in love with what a tool does.
What should you be giving your customers and constituents? Not form, not content. Effect.
Are you?
*Apologies to Fight Club.
Categories Strategy and Management
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