Making organization choices frequently suggests selecting one course over another—but that doesn’t constantly requirement to be the case. Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis argue that leaders must relocation beyond “either/or” options and shot to come up with services that welcome uncertainty and paradox.
In this episode, you’ll discover how to reframe the concern you’re asking in order to get more imaginative responses. You’ll likewise discover how to shift your own internal thinking away from oppositional relationships and rather focus on interdependencies.
Smith is a management teacher at the University of Delaware, and Lewis is dean of the University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business. Together they’re coauthors of the book Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems.
Key episode subjects consistof: management, choice making and issue fixing, tradeoffs, reframing.
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HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR on Leadership, case researchstudies and discussions with the world’s top service and management specialists, hand-selected to aid you unlock the finest in those around you.
Making organization choices frequently indicates selecting one course over another. But that doesn’t constantly requirement to be the case. Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis argue that leaders needto relocation beyond “either/or” options – to come up with options that accept obscurity and paradox.
Smith is a management teacher at the University of Delaware, and Lewis is dean of the University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business. Together they’re co-authors of the book Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems.
In this episode, you’ll findout how to reframe the concern you’re asking in order to get more innovative responses. You’ll likewise findout how to shift your own internal thinking away from oppositional relationships and rather focus on interdependencies.
This episode initially aired on HBR IdeaCast in August2022 Here it is.
CURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Curt Nickisch.
For numerous in the organization world compromise and method go hand in hand. It’s all about choosing how to separate yourself and then carryingout that strategy with a laser-like focus. That suggests making some hard calls and tough compromise that by stating yes to one thing, we have to state no to something else.
Now that has frequently shown to be a effective and lucrative method. But today’s visitors state that picking inbetween various courses might suggest that individuals missouton some concealed possibilities. They state that we needto believe about things more holistically and that rather of thinking either/or, we must modification our stateofmind to more of a both/and method.
To talk about what that implies for people and business, we’re signedupwith now by Wendy Smith, a teacher of management at the University of Delaware, and Marianne Lewis, teacher of management and Dean of the Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati.
Together they composed the brand-new book, Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems. Wendy, thanks for coming on the program to talk about this.
WENDY SMITH: Thanks Curt. Nice to be here.
CURT NICKISCH: And Marianne, thank you too.
MARIANNE LEWIS: Oh, it’s such a enjoyment. Thank you.
CURT NICKISCH: Well, let’s start with a bit more about this concern, best? Why some individuals discover that subtlety difficult and like to simply make an either/or choice. Why is that so appealing, I think, in a service setting?
WENDY SMITH: We are wired to believe about the either/or. When we’re dealtwith with a choice that feels actually unsure, it produces stressandanxiety. We desire to decrease that stressandanxiety and the method to do it is to make a clear choice. And as psychology and researchstudy hasactually revealed us onceagain and onceagain, we desire to be constant with those choices.
And so we’re wired for either/or thinking which undoubtedly can be handy insomecases, however missesouton the larger photo of possible imagination and morecomprehensive and more sustainable options if we get into both/and thinking. Both/and thinking is looking at contending concepts and before making choices, before coming up with morecomprehensive options, doing a muchdeeper dive to comprehend each side, and then figure out how these 2 sides are synergistic, where the wholism is, where there is combination inbetween them before we make a choice, get drawn down one side and missouton an whole other side.
So, reliable companies requirement to both believe about what they’re doing today, their existing world, how they’re handling operationally and effectively, and they requirement to innovate and shot something brand-new and believe about modification for tomorrow. And if the company is going to be effective, they have to do both. They can’t simply focus on today or focus on tomorrow. Be truly great at their execution or be truly great at their development and researchstudy and advancement. They have to be able to do both.
CURT NICKISCH: Marianne, specifically now, in the context of the pandemic where a lot of companies are sort of battling their method through the unpredictability of the pandemic, leaders possibly have endupbeing more mindful of requiring to offer with paradox, best? And/or balancing stress. How do you believe that’s altered this otherwise extremely, how do you believe that’s altered the believing of trade offs versus both/and?
MARIANNE LEWIS: One of the things that Wendy and I haveactually seen in our researchstudy, and it’s been going on for over 20 years now, is that there are 3 elements that appear to heighten our experience of stress. And that is modification, plurality and shortage.
CURT NICKISCH: We kind of had all those in the pandemic.
MARIANNE LEWIS: Yeah, it was the ideal storm of all 3. What we discover with these stress, this yank of war that you feel in these actually challenging choices, they’re a double edged sword, ideal? On the one hand that sort of friction opens up all sorts of possibilities. I indicate, it can get your mind going. It can get your adrenaline running. As you stated, you might actually start to dig in and it can be actually incapacitating. It can be stressandanxiety provoking. There can be a host of things going on both in our mind, however likewise in our feelings that keep us focused on what we’ve been doing in the past. It can really drive us to heighten our present actions rather than modification. Or the other technique we see rather a bit, which I believe you stated as well, it can cause us to be paralyzed and so overanalyze to the point that we puton’t make a call.
CURT NICKISCH: So, when you’re sensation this, must you be scared of it?
MARIANNE LEWIS: No, when you’re sensation those stress, you really do feel it right in your gut. We understand what that’s like. In reality, one of the things that we discovered through so lotsof of our researchstudies is that paradoxical thinkers are those that truly believe in the both/and, discover convenience in the pain.
One of the leaders we talk about rather a bit in the book is Paul Polman, who I’ve been studying for rather some time. When he was leading Unilever he had such a paradoxical method in the Unilever sustainable living strategy. And when he would be offered concepts, options to issues and they felt actually cut and dry, he’d instantly stop and state, go back and discover more. Go back and discover the revers. Feel the stress, feel the pain and then let’s talk. Because if not, we mostlikely sanctuary’t pressed far enough.
CURT NICKISCH: There was a quote in your book that actually got me, the issue is not the issue. The issue is how we believe about the issue.
MARIANNE LEWIS: We usage that so much and it actually does stop us. And we discovered that in the work we can usage it to have truly important conversations with leaders to state, how have you framed the concern? Because issues are unpleasant. We put the limits around them. And as quickly as you’ve put the limits around them, you’ve set restrictions in what the options may be. So actually questioning that framing is a veryfirst action.
WENDY SMITH: Again, it’s not, we talk about altering the concern as the method into both/and thinking. We believe about it like when individuals desire to findout to practicemeditation, a long-lasting practice to discover. And the method into that is breathing, is taking the veryfirst breath and focusing on your breath. We believe about altering the concern as the meal into both/and thinking by moving up the method that we are framing, the method that we comprehend our issues.
CURT NICKISCH: Marianne, can you believe of like how altering the concern truly started a various kind of discussion?
MARIANNE LEWIS: Well, I’ll offer you an example that we’re seeing rather a bit now and is the concern of hybrid work. And what is the right mix of home and remote?
CURT NICKISCH: It’s both/and ideal?
MARIANNE LEWIS: It is both/and, however the difficulty of it, which I love that’s instantly where you’re at. What we’re discovering, and I’m curious where you’re seeing it as well, is that it’s not the finest of both worlds. In reality, it’s often extremely typically the worst of both worlds. Is that individuals are when they do come into the workplace for their in-person days, they discover that they’re in a ghost town, they discover that they’re in all remote conferences. They’ve simply browsed a commute and they’re believing, why am I here? Right?
But similarly, they’re finding that at home, they’re losing connections to individuals. They’ve lost the capability to read body language and to understand individuals well enough to comprehend the subtleties of that, it’s simply been too long. And at the exactsame time, the lines that haveactually been so blurred inbetween state household or life and work that really work begins to take over whatever as an example. Right? And burnout occurs to your greatest entertainers.
So, the example of how do you work through both/and, yes, individuals are asking what is the right mix? Well, to this point we’d state truly dive in and believe about what do you worth most from the chances to be in the workplace? And what are the restrictions? And do the precise exactsame thing on the home website. What do you treasure for the chance to have the deep work kind of chance area at home and what are its limitations? And how do you put those together to state for us, and even muchbetter for both for the company and for an private, what’s the right mix? Now we’ve opened so lotsof choices this doesn’t endedupbeing such a cut and dry concern. It endsupbeing nuanced. What’s the culture of the company, the method? And what’s the nature of our gifted laborforce? And how do we figure out that mix?
CURT NICKISCH: Wendy, in the book you 2 likewise composed about how both/and thinking can assistance break vicious cycles. Tell us more about that.
WENDY SMITH: Yeah. So, what we discover is that this either/or thinking leads us into a vicious cycle and sort of this down spiral where, as Marianne was stating before, it’s the worst of both worlds, not the finest.
CURT NICKISCH: And so, you’re neverever truly coming up with a service basically. Is that what leads to a vicious cycle? You’re sort of, I wear’t understand, we requirement to do more mission-oriented things. Or no we’ve been doing too much of that now back to earnings driving endeavors or I puton’t understand.
WENDY SMITH: . Exactly. It begins with what we talk about is augmentation or getting stuck on one side. We talk about as like falling down a bunny hole. So, we’re truly focused on, if you talk about a social business or socially accountable, duetothefactthat we’re truly focused on the objective oriented things. And we get so focused on that till we understand that we’ve got issues since we’re not making our numbers and we’re not economically sustainable. But we’re so stuck in the inertia of that one side, it’s difficult to shift and relocation. So, we talk about that as be