Isabel G.'s Key Ideas from Both/And Thinking
by Wendy Smith, Marianne Lewis

• Life's complexity reflects our own.
• Vulnerability strengthens courage.
• Woundedness builds integrity.
• It's not either/or but this AND that.
• Messy problems present dilemmas with logical but opposed solutions.

Adaptive challenges lack roadmaps, unlike technical problems. Navigating paradox means shifting assumptions to hold contradictions together.

There are four types of paradoxes, involving competing tensions:

1. Performing paradoxes (goals)
2. Learning paradoxes (change)
3. Belonging paradoxes (identity)
4. Organizing paradoxes (structure)

For instance, learning paradoxes balance exploiting current success and exploring future innovation.

Belonging paradoxes raise opposing roles and values.

Without paradox mindsets, people get stuck in downward vicious cycles of either/or thinking: Rabbit holes (intensifying one pole), Wrecking balls (overcorrecting to the opposite extreme), and Trench warfare (each side attacking the other's stuck thinking).

Cognitive, emotional and behavioral traps fuel these detrimental spirals.

• Truth is not singular - there are multiple realities.
• "Yes, and" thinking respects others' views without agreeing.
• Build on alternate perspectives to expand thinking.
• Move from trying to control problems to coping amidst uncertainty.
• Paradoxes persist; they cannot be permanently resolved.
• Accept ambiguity.

Link tensions to higher purpose. Set vision passionately unifying opposites. Build guardrails ensuring both poles are represented.

Diversify stakeholders across paradoxes. Long-term vision sustains creative friction.

• Enable low-cost experiments to try possibilities.
• Use language and rewards to spur innovation.
• Evaluate before broader rollout.
• Continually revisit tensions - they evolve.
• Name paradoxes to honor discomfort.
• Conflict skills build comfort amid differences.

• Connect competing demands to individual goals.
• Train leaders in paradox mindsets.
• Help employees recognize tensions in their roles.
• Build skills in conflict and vulnerability.
• Make tensions tangible at individual levels.