The Governance Matrix System Capacity High Sleeping Giant Battle Ready Comatose Shooting Star Low Political Salience High The Governance Matrix determines the readiness of a government system (national, state or local) to drive outcomes as a function of level of political salience (political will on a given agenda) and system capacity (people, processes and infrastructure). The system can move from one quadrant to another by change in either political salience (intentionally through advocacy or unintentionally through change in political environment) or in system capacity through investment in people, processes and infrastructure. The readiness of the system to drive outcomes in each of the four quadrants is described below: ● Comatose (Low political salience & low system capacity) - With low political salience and low system capacity, the system’s energy is spent on maintaining status quo - Change in political salience and / or system capacity is needed to ‘nudge’ the system into action ● Sleeping Giant (Low political salience & high system capacity) - With low political salience and high system capacity, ongoing incremental outcomes can be achieved - The real potential of the system can be ‘unlocked’ through political salience around an agenda ● Shooting Star (High political salience & low system capacity) - With high political salience but low system capacity, targeted short-term outcomes can be achieved - Strengthening system capacity is needed to increase breadth, depth and sustainability of outcomes ● Battle-ready (High political salience & high system capacity) - With high political salience and high system capacity, complex sustainable outcomes can be achieved - Such outcomes can make a fundamental lasting difference to the quality of life of citizens
