Barack Obama's Integrative Brain
I found this blog post by Roger Martin at Harvard Business Review, www.hbr.org. Even if the writer's use of Barack Obama as an example is itself polarizing, the underlying concept of integrative thinking intrigues me.
To quote Mr. Martin, "This way of thinking — which at first blush can be mistaken for indecision — is characterized by a willingness to embrace conflicting ideas or models. I've seen this pattern of "integrative thinking" employed by a number of highly successful business leaders .... What I've found is that these leaders, rather than defining their job as choosing from between opposing ideas, are inclined to reject the choice and instead seek a new and better model."
As coaches in the workplace, HR professionals could serve our clients well by encouraging and developing this mode of thinking and problem solving.
Imagine how much more engaging and positive our work environment could be if we didn't allow "unacceptable trade-offs" and instead insisted on "breakthrough solutions" to our people and process issues.
Ensuring results will continue to be the challenge.
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The "willingness to embrace conflicting ideas or models" reminds me very much of several areas of physics. Think of the classic wave/particle duality of light -- both models are essential for understanding the curious behavior of photons. This is also one of the foundations of quantum mechanics, where systems will occupy two contradictory states at the same time, as exemplified by Schroedinger's Cat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat)
ReplyDeleteI think you're on to something here.