The Four Quarters

Everything rises or falls on leadership — and that's as true of a place as it is of an organisation. Whether it's a neighbourhood, a town or a whole region, the shape of a place is set by its leaders. To have the biggest impact, we need to focus on the areas where the narrative of a place is actually being written.

Over years of connecting leaders across very different worlds, I've come to see a place's leadership as four strategic quarters: Church, Commercial, Civic and Community. Each shapes people and place in its own way — and none can transform a community on its own. Here's what the four quarters are, and why lasting change depends on them working together.

Knowing your place

The lens through which you see your community shapes what you believe is possible for it. What you call your place — hamlet, village, town, city or borough — quietly sets the boundaries of where you think it can go. Naming it well matters.

We saw this first-hand in Doncaster. Long before it was official, we chose to describe and plan for Doncaster as a “city” — using the term consistently in our planning from 2006, because we believed that was where it was heading. In 2022, Doncaster was granted city status — a milestone that had, in a sense, already been claimed in how we saw the place. The lens came first; the reality followed.

Within any place, culture is shaped by its key people of influence — the “movers and shakers” who make things happen. For better or worse, these leaders set the narrative and push a place in a direction. Understanding who they are, and which quarter they lead from, is where transformation begins.

Why all four, and why together

Most attempts at community change fail for the same reason: each quarter works in isolation. Business tries to fix things through enterprise alone. Councils reach for policy alone. Churches and charities each tackle the same needs from their own corner, often unaware of one another. Effort is duplicated, resources are wasted, and the deeper problems — which cut across every quarter — go unresolved.

The four quarters are interdependent. A thriving economy needs a healthy civic framework. Strong communities relieve pressure on public services. Faith and community groups reach people that institutions can't. When the quarters collaborate — sharing knowledge, aligning effort, crossing the old boundaries — change becomes possible that no single quarter could achieve alone. That's the whole conviction behind this framework: transformation is a team sport.

Putting the framework to work

The four quarters aren't just a way of describing a place — they're a way of diagnosing it. Ask of your own community: which quarters are strong, and which are weak? Where are they already collaborating, and where do they barely know one another? The biggest opportunities for transformation usually sit in the gaps between the quarters, where a connection that doesn't yet exist could unlock progress on both sides.

Wherever you lead — in business, public life, community work or the church — you sit in one of these quarters already. The most valuable question you can ask is not “how do I do more in my quarter?” but “who in the other three should I be building a bridge to?”

Champions and crowds

Leaders don't transform a place on their own. Behind every leader are the people who, joined together, create momentum and change — call them champions and crowds, or leaders and legions. Mobilising those crowds is part of what makes the quarters work.

One well-known way of doing this is the “cultural spheres” (or “seven mountains”) model, which groups society into spheres such as business, government, media, arts, education, family and religion. It's genuinely useful for gathering and equipping people around shared needs and aspirations, and it can build momentum within each sphere.

But there's a limit. The cultural-spheres model is activity-focused: it doesn't connect easily with the strategic leadership infrastructure of a place, so its potential to transform that place is always capped. The four quarters are different — they map onto how a place is actually led and governed, which is where the momentum for sustainable transformation is generated. And unlike sphere-based approaches, the quarters model works regardless of a place's size or demographic.