The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking
by Roger Martin, Harvard Business School Press, ISBN-1422118924
I first read about this book on Design Continuum's site, where they interviewed Mr. Martin. A quote from that interview struck me as something I should learn more about, which was Roger's description of what Integrative Thinking is:
Integrative Thinking is the ability to constructively face the tension of opposing models and, instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generating a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new model.
Day to day in my work life I often deal with trade offs and either-or situations ... so the idea that there is another (even better) way to think about things really made me decide to buy the book.
The book is made up of two parts, even though the table of contents doesn't break it into two. In part one, he defines the idea of integrative thinking and what it consists of, by looking at the process of thinking and deciding, details each of the parts and then gives good examples of integrative thinkers and how they approached some situations. The second part is made up of more examples and discussion on problem solving using case studies and interviews. Some of the companies discussed are: The Four Seasons, Proctor & Gamble, Red Hat, as well as a few other companies you would probably recognize. Throughout the book, there are many examples comparing and contrasting the approach to solving problems using integrative thinking and the more common non-integrative thinking (usually by using deductive and inductive reasoning) which really helped me understand the concept and think about how it applies to me.
Since this is a book about thinking, one of my favorite things to do, as I read the book I evaluated how I tend to approach problems and why. After reading chapters 1 through 4, I noticed at least two things I needed to consider better alternatives to: tending towards approaching situations in an either-or fashion and avoiding complexity. I think both of these things are ways to approach programming problems or logic that works with implementing code that shouldn't necessarily be carried over to how I approach other life problems (whether they be business or personal). What I noticed about these two things:
- Either-or maps directly to programming logic, even a the lowest level, in an if-else (or branch) boolean type conditions.
- Avoiding complexity is something that seems to come with experience - but is a general design concept that really gets at the fact you need to understand what you are implementing so well that you can factor the implementation into something that is a composition of simple parts.
Both of these things have their place in coding logic, but they can be limiting when carried over to other problems. Sometimes either-or isn't good, maybe there is a both option or some combination of the two that would make a better choice. With avoiding complexity, Roger brings up a great point with the following quote in which he is talking about some of the great business leaders:
... The leaders I have studied share at least one trait, aside from their talent for innovation and long-term business success. They have the predisposition and the capacity to hold two diametrically opposing ideas in their head. And then without panicking or simply settling for one alternative or the other, they're able to product a synthesis that is superior to either opposing idea. ...
The emphasis is mine. This ability to consider the complete problem with multiple possible outcomes all at once cannot be simplified without removing parts of the problem that may be important. When implementing code, complexity is not good in the final product - simple is better and cheaper to maintain. However in real life, complexity sometimes needs to be addressed and recognized for what it is, not trimmed down and specialized to the point that a solution may only be good for a small subset of the complete problem.
This was a great thought provoking book for me. If you are looking to approach problems in a new and better way, I believe this is a great book for you.