A Matrix of Urgency and Importance
I’ve been thinking about “the most important issue” in terms of a matrix (that I hope shows up) with the axes of long-term impact and urgency. Within each box there is a “most important issue” which I think is a more interesting discussion than which box is the most important.
Let’s start with low-impact, low urgency. I put buying new t-shirts as the epitome of this, because while I need new t-shirts as some point (or so my roommates tell me) there are just a host of more important things that always seem to come up (like eating- which falls in the low-impact, high urgency box.) This box is what you do on P-days, the unfortunate things that we must, and don’t like to do.
Low long-term impact, high urgency is what creates and perpetuates most of the stress in our life. This is laundry that needs to be done, the grumbling of your stomach, the answering of phone calls and door knocks. This is also the arena that many organizations target as immediate relief efforts. This is where clean water, clean food, and temporary tents after hurricanes come in.
High long-term impact, high urgency; I think very few things truly fall into this box, but medical responses, and military action generally fall into this. Matters of life and death take the form of flying bullets or fires, etc. The men and women who target this box are often who we hail as heroes and heroines.
Now high impact, low urgency is that box that is so important, and because of the low urgency rating, perpetually is under-addressed on the political agenda and in our own lives. This is education, global warming, coral bleaching, ending polio, the spread of AIDs, helping blue-collar workers. And too often, problems fester in this box until they grow and rise into the high-impact, high urgency problems when they are much more expensive to fix.
Within the high-impact, low urgency box, there are a series of problems that I am not going to attempt to rank in importance. Is eradicating polio as important as eradicating malaria? Education and equality for women?
However, learning how to create solutions to the problems and concerns in the high long-term impact, low urgency box is the arena that I think is the “most important issue.” These are the issues that we can have the largest impact on because as long they are low urgency, solutions are generally less expensive, and you have the time to figure out an intelligent and the best solution, a luxury that high impact, high urgency problems seldom allow. Solution creation is the most important issue, and that includes model and strategy creation and implementation. That is why social innovation rocks, it’s about solution creation. is where social innovation can have the greatest impact by solving problems, or keeping them out of the high-urgency box. This is where solutions have time to evolve into efficient solutions. This is where we lack man-power, publicity, and political sway, and thus where we will have the highest impact, making this the most important issue for me.
Great post. I really like this framework. One thing I used to wonder about all the time was why most of the church humanitarian efforts are relief efforts. It didn’t seem to make sense to me why they weren’t involved in more long-term development solutions (I know they are involved in some, but it just isn’t the focus). After having thought about it, I actually think it makes great sense. This way there is no creation of dependency. By definition, relief is a one-time effort. And it is extremely urgent – lives are on the line. I think this is a great way for the church to do life saving work without picking and choosing who to help (they can just help any disaster victims) and not need to worry about the problems associated with traditional dependencies of aid. But, at the same time, this largely prevents the church from focusing on the items of high long-term impact. Obviously the gospel does this best, but like you said, there are a lot of other issues that need to be addressed. I think that the Lord relies on us, the individual members of the church, to give our gifts and talents and focus to these issues. It is very difficult to do with the church as a whole, under current circumstances.
I love the way you addressed this question! That matrix is a great way to think about it society’s most pressing problems, and I think you totally nailed it.
Wow! You broke this down very simply. I really like this, and I think this is a wonderful way to categorize the problems and analyze how they are being addressed. Bravo! Trademark it brosef.
I like how in the end you came down to the most pressing issue being simply solution creation, or the issue of solving the issues. It’s funny because I think everyone would completely agree with you, but it’s not something that the normal person thinks of right away. Not saying you aren’t normal in a bad way, I’m just saying that you aren’t normal in the awesome way, as in you’re awesome. So here I go…I completely agree with you. I think this is the corner of Social Innovation that I want to find myself in, the area that focuses on strategy and practical, efficient implementation.
As for the matrix itself, well done. I love this type of matrix. We used it in our mission for nearly everything and it rocks. Although the interesting thing is that in most cases the whether or not it’s classified as low urgency or high urgency is very subjective. Like the examples you gave of polio eradication, education, coral, bleaching, etc., some people might view those as incredibly urgent, especially those people that are caught in the middle of those issues. I know you were referring to this part of the matrix on a broad scale, but it’s interesting to think that for some of the issues that WE think of as being not very urgent are a matter of great importance to others.
I definitely think that you are focusing on the right category (not to say that the other categories aren’t important for others to focus on). I’m excited to see where your passions, life experiences and talents take you within the subcategories.
I loved it when you said it in class, and I love it again.
Except this time, I actually understand it! Well said here. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m copying down your matrix and description. Thank you sir!
“Solution creation is the most important issue, and that includes model and strategy creation and implementation.” This was very clever. I feel that this accurately targets the problems we should be addressing. While the name of each problem may vary, each problem carries with it the attributes you discussed. Well said.
With this in mind, might we now begin to categorize the sub-issues within the bigger issues such as health, poverty, education, and hunger into this matrix? I feel like each major issue has certain problems/solutions that may fall into one of the other four boxes. Maybe it’s not just a matter of singling out a single box within the matrix, but addressing the boxes within the matrix in the proper order with the right vision in mind. I believe this matrix will be helpful as we prepare to tackle this problems with a holistic approach.
Truly, the more we iterate solutions, the more likely we are to solve.
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