| Sixteen Box Models | Nine Box Models |
| Six Box Models | Four Box Models |
Neatly stacked
Tightly packed
Manageable
Convenient
Easy
Tidy
False
Coercive
Suffocating
‘We are strangers to each other,
Full of sliding panels,
An illusion show.
Acting well-rehearsed routines
Or playing from the heart?
It’s hard for one to know.’ N. Peart
I smiled reading this. Much as I am drawn to agreeing with you (my main work I do through a business called Deboxing, so you would expect me to I guess), I struggle more with the intention behind the design of some models that go for neatness.
And even if the model has some genuine merit and elegance as a catalyst for conversation, the intention of the facilitator can be the coercive and suffocating presence.
I see any model/frame/lens/tool as a means of starting a conversation, and hold it as lightly as possible as a rule. Then it doesn’t matter as much how many boxes there are.
Steve
I smiled reading your note – thank you for being in touch so warmly and articulately (is that a word….it is now).
I agree with your feedback and I would simply add that in addition to any model/frame/lens/tool there is something more. Something wonderfully frighteningly unpredictably necessary. I’m not exactly sure what it’s called – but it’s out there.
Have a super week Steve and thanks again for your note.
Sounds like we share some beliefs when it comes to the complexity and unpredictability of human systems. One of the quotes I use on my email signature is this – it talks to the thread of our conversation here a wee bit. Her book is worth a read as well.
“Human beings are complex creatures, and we need simple ways of grasping them to survive. But how we simplify – which shortcuts we take, which approximations we accept – demands close inspection, especially since these approximations so often stand in for the real thing.” – Annie Murphy Paul