X_Sphere© Multidimensional Matrix

We are living in a context of global complexity, either we consider macro or micro scenarios, or situations, geopolitics, multinational corporates, local infrastructures, human organizations, intercultural relationships, or even individual behaviors. It is fundamental to approach any event as a “system” to define key points and the connections of the different elements.

The major evidence of this need, is found in the international exchanges – both physical and virtual – that are deeply changing economy, politics, societies and cultures all around the planet; or in the necessities imposed by the climate change, that affect different fields, levels, technologies and areas; or in the dynamics transforming the economy; or in the biggest migration flows ever seen by humanity in the known history. All those, by the way, are deeply interrelated. These dynamics does not happen just at the larger global scale, but also develop in organizations, industrial procedures and management, infrastructures planning and management, social interactions and exchanges, at local and at individual level.  As in Quantum Physics it is not possible to see the atoms and their particles, but we can perceive and assess the effects of the subatomic and atomic interactions, what we can perceive of the present complexity is a blurry, foggy, evertransfroming scenario, that in itself does not allow a clear understanding and effective decisionmaking to reach sustainable solutions. The key, here, is in the word “sustainable”: if we are interested in evolutionary, increasingly informing, new paradigms and configurations. What happens, inside an “event” is that there are actions and counteractions; as humans - and in particular within our Western culture - we tend to perceive counteractions that the environment or any opponent apply to our actions as a “problem” that we want to eliminate or at least avoid. Our “clausewitzian” temper push us to eliminate and destroy every possible obstacle, being it people, forces, philosophies, feelings, competitors. Hence, we go further away from a comprehensive vision, not only of the event in its wholeness, but of it inside a wider ambiance – adding even more complexity, naturally. At the opposite, recognizing complexity as a source, allows us to understand counteractions not as the origin of problems but as a part of “troubles” that represent resources and added information, being problems a static, definite element influencing the situation, and being troubles dynamics in themselves, flowing so within the event as an element with its own inertial force – a momentum - that we could turn to our advantage. A wiser Sun-Tzu strategy that we can embrace with profit. We, then, can approach the event as a “system” and scientifically building a systematization that allows us to define key points and, most important, the relationships among the different elements: flow charts and bi-dimensional matrixes are the most common tool to cartesianly seek for our results. Still, a comprehensive vision is generally lacking – or, at least, it is not immediately evident; more, the bi-dimensional matrix pictures static situations, with few determined outcomes. Simplification is the main issue and, unfortunately, often degrades into trivialization. Complicate is not complex, as banal is not simple. It is possible to pursue – and attain - simplicity into complexity. We are, so, feeling here a missing part, and the need to benefit from a more refined instrument that could help to improve both the analytical and the operational activities, increasing effectiveness and allowing us to save and better allocate our resources and energies. Rather than static models, as the pyramidal, or even the circular one (yet, this is already an improvement towards comprehensiveness) a fractal/holographic description of the system is more correspondent with the synergetical interconnections among the key points of the system. As an example, considering the dynamical flowing and the interactions among environment, society, economy and culture, all contextualized inside an ambiance that can be at the same time physical and virtual. Networks are meant to make “information” flowing among their keypoints and to overlap – and entangle – each other. A multidimensional matrix is useful to organize the interconnections, both intrinsically happening in a system, and with its outside context. How to design a multidimensional matrix? How to have this tool useful in every context, field, situation or event? Our X_Sphere© is a multidimensional, spherical matrix specifically thought to privilege connections and their flowing over the static key points that compose the system. The matrix as a resolutive tool to generate new patterns within a specific – of any kind - situation: being it geopolitics, multinational corporates, local infrastructures, human organizations, intercultural relationships, territorial and urban planning, virtual and physical flows management, industrial design, human groups interactions, security, crises & emergencies, consequences of natural or induced events, comprehensive sustainability, or even individual behaviors. A tool to approach complex situations offering a set of instruments for organized and timely answers. This kind of flowing processes management, can generate control actions, or shared activities, or it can generate new (flowing) patterns. With the X_Sphere© Multidimensional Matrix it is possible to support any kind of entity, social or individual, public or private, to solve management, self-evolution and communication problems; training the different sectors and personnel, developing studies, analysis, prevention, coordination, direct and indirect management, controlling contingencies, containing and solving crisis, elaborating media and communication response with a correct and positive communication of the activities and also, when needed, blending different organizations – also with substantial cultural differences, as civil and military ones, or international and local ones – harmonizing procedures and answers, monitoring, planning and designing all the required steps. The X_Sphere© is organized on three main axis, that determine six main components and a center, plus eight secondary references. Four main key points of the system (being it an organization, a process, a company, a social configuration, a physical territory, or a critical event) are set in the cardinal directions, on the conventionally “horizontal” plane, while two functional points are situated on the conventionally “vertical axis. This represent the regulator dynamics determining in which direction the actions are directed. All converge to the Center, where are set the final goals, or the desired achievements, and that is at the same time the “hologram reference beam” for the entire system. The arising of new patterns, in this systemic context, comes from the environment and from the interactions of the flowing dynamics among the four key points and the two functional ones. This requires a lot less inertia – a lot less energy and resources to manage the entire system, than acting on the key points directly. Concentrating our operations on the points, instead on the connections, it is economically – in a wider sense – costly and usually it gives not completely predictable, or even produces unknown, results, that lead to long term uncontrolled consequences. Changing one flow between two points, inevitably, changes the entire context. The flowing between the points is not indifferent, rather it determines altering the status quo or generating new paradigms, according with the chosen direction. It is important to allocate very carefully the components of the system in the right position, correctly coordinated with the other elements, respecting the rules of the spherical matrix that always ask to correlate at least three points. Even inside each key point it is possible to organize a spherical subsystem, individuating the subelements and applying the same rules of the main system, generating a fractal/holographic relationship.  One of the most important aims of this pattern is to avoid the systemic conflicts arising – and the critical events to happen, preventing them or at least to limit – and then to guide - their effects once they arise. The immediate advantages are, indeed, economical: less resources wasted, less destruction and damages, a shorter time of recovery in case of manifested events and, most important, less long term conflictual potentialities. All the data contribute to highlight the critical dynamics, on which it is necessary to intervene following the lower resistance line and maximizing the effects, altering the existing patterns. That as much as possible in a preventive phase but, if necessary, also on onset crisis, emergencies or conflicts – of any kind. We actually use complexity in itself as source of the interaction of the connections in themselves and at the same time for the harmonization – if not directly the solution – of the systemic complexity in itself. It is also possible to easily apply any existent methodology or analytical matrix inside the X_Sphere©. As an example, and just to name one of the best known planning instruments, it is possible to apply TOPFAS analysis inside the different parts, or to the elements of the spherical matrix. It is also possible to introduce pyramidal or circular schemes. We also individuate a three-level pyramid to describe hierarchies. In all this, we are convinced, it is through building a consensus shared by the widest number and the synergetics inside and outside the system, that we can guarantee stability and sustainability on the long term. That is the foundation of the intrinsic strength and the ethics of a community or an organization. The X_Sphere© matrix can contribute to management of Metropolitan areas, territorial and flows harmonization or control, design and planning, security, infrastructures protection, organization and inter-organization interrelationships, situational configurations, emergencies and crisis, and even of individual health or psychological issues. All the matrix can be managed on electronics, using database, spreadsheet and georeferencing softwares and automatically updated, but the human choice component is always fundamental, for the decision making process and the strategic concepts.