Designing a 4MAT Sense of Self in Quadrant Two: Moving from Maestro (Right, Imaging) to Navigator (Left, Content Information)
We begin our discussion of 4MAT Quadrant Two with the third step of the 4MAT design: Image.
How does this Maestro/Right step of Quadrant Two operate on learners’ understandings of themselves and their self-image—especially since it comes just before the Navigator Left step, Inform (the verbal lecture and content information)?
This is the most frequent question I am asked about 4MAT Cycle Design: Why Image? Why this third 4MAT step, and why place it here as an entrance to Quadrant Two's content information?
The Answer
Think of this step as the enhancement and wrap-up of the FEELING experience created in Quadrant One. Image is a major brain commemorator. Learners visualize the concept-connected experience the teacher or trainer created for the Feeling step, bringing it back into conscious view.
As neuroscientist Antonio Damasio (2022) notes, images are the brain’s primary currency of thought; thinking, planning, and abstract reasoning are essentially continuous streams of manipulated images. In Damasio’s view, selfhood begins when the brain forms an image of the self interacting with, and being modified by, an object.
Revisiting mental images can tag an experience as truly belonging to me. Furthermore, sharing image choices with peers provides the bodily feedback that brings a sense of presence. The images learners see—and subsequently choose, regardless of the teacher's specific strategy—represent a genuine sharing of personal affect.
Moving from Image to Information
Remember, this Quadrant Two, Maestro/Right mode is one of the five required outputs for 4MAT Basic Training completion. It is immediately followed by the Navigator/Left mode of facts and information, which is usually lecture-driven with the teacher or trainer doing most of the talking.
If the trainer uses a successful experience strategy in the Quadrant One Maestro step, the learners' feelings will flow directly down into the content information of the Quadrant Two Navigator step. Ideally, this combines a subjective experience with the objective content being explained.
This third knowing creates a subject-to-subject personal relationship between FEELING and THINKING. It reconciles both brain modes, bringing learners into a deeper understanding that blends the two and removes the fatal duality of opposition. When teachers and trainers use 4MAT Design, learners come to see the combination of Feeling and Thinking as interdependent rather than conflicting.
There is something
about human consciousness that longs for unity and the productive tension of reconciling opposites.
If finding a true self means peeling back layers of conditioning, bodily awareness, and subjective experience to discover a persistent, conscious core—that is a journey uniquely suited to living, breathing human beings.
Quadrant Two Strategies
Perfect the Quadrant One Experience.
Take time to create your Quadrant One experience. Be absolutely sure it captures the major concepts of your core content (I realize this is no small task).
Design Visual Sharing
Set aside time to design how you will offer images for learners to share, allowing them to experience their collective power.
Connect Facts to Life
Throughout the input of facts and information, frequently suggest how this content might affect their own lives and spark future curiosities.
Empower Your Learners
Keep believing in the power of learners to move ahead of you, and coach them to do so.
