Leadership by the Book
Dr. Dan Kaufman, Consultant
The Opposable Mind: Winning Through Integrative Thinking by Roger Martin, Harvard Business Review Press (2009)
As a long-time student of epistemology—the study of knowledge, its acquisition, and its evolution—and of adult development, I felt a keen interest in reading Roger Martin's The Opposable Mind. Over the course of the book, Martin, a former dean whose website proclaims “Thinking about thinking,” dissects the thinking behavior of numerous successful leaders and provides clear strategies for developing integrative thinking.
The problem that Martin's book tackles is how leaders—and, consequently, organizations—get stuck. Most of us rely on tried-and-true methods or settle for such weak compromises and cautious solutions that “progress” comes in fits and starts, with little or no forward movement. On the other hand, leaders who practice integrative thinking, as Martin has coined it, have “the capacity to hold two diametrically opposing ideas in their heads” and “produce a synthesis that is superior to either opposing idea while containing parts of each individual idea.”
The Future of Leadership
One only has to look at today's U.S. Congress or the fiasco of climate change to see how endless talk and attempts at comprise often don't get us anywhere. You can probably think of similar impasses within your own team or organization. Globally or locally, it's easy to imagine being stuck in the same morasses decades from now (if not already doomed by them). Given that, what does true change require? What might effective leadership look like in 50 years?
In essence, leaders must open themselves up. They must become true active listeners (not responders-in-waiting) and must be receptive to change—not to a systemic or process change but to change within themselves. To put it another way, the old model of the leader as all-knowing authority figure must give way to leaders who are comfortable with ambiguity, don't pretend that there's only one right way or that they have all the answers, and are willing to move from certainty to possibility.
Martin argues that we all come into the world with our own unique set of responses, a predetermined mindset or as Martin describes “factory settings.” It's human nature to (often unconsciously) hone that, for instance by collecting experiences that reinforce our view of the world or by being drawn to theories, people, and literature that give us “ammunition” to defend our views. Our mindsets become so deeply ingrained that we get to a point where we don't even see their limitations. Because our society rewards certainty and shuns ambiguity, we often feel as if knowing something in itself makes us right. The problem is that our particular view of the world is only our view. Based on our initial settings and our accumulated evidence, concepts, and assumptions, we each develop our own customized model or representation of reality. We also come to believe that our model is what is really “out there,” but in actuality, the model only exists within our own minds. Further, we don't recognize that every other human being has their own inner model of the world.
The underpinning logic here is that no truths are absolute, no beliefs pure, no knowledge static. As an undergrad, I tripled in philosophy, psychology, and sociology. In one philosophy class, we went all the way back to the known beginning of the field some 5,000 years ago. Some questioned the need to study the archaic views of early philosophers, but our professor explained that our task was to get inside each philosopher's mind. How did she construct that truth? How did he develop his view of the world? Being able to see through another's eyes is an important step in being able to recognize that, whether we agree with another's view of the world or not, there are other independent models of the world that are as logical as ours.
Possibility Over Certainty
Let's bring this back to the question of leadership. If you accept that you're not all-knowing and that what you bring to the table is simply your own view of the world, and if you can pair that with a raging curiosity about how a person with an opposing mind or a differing view came to their way of thinking, you will open yourself up to previously unimagined possibilities. You'll find yourself able to listen to others with a new and profound depth, and you'll set the stage for generative thinking and problem solving. Rather than being stuck in what you believe to be true and debating your view of reality, you can generate new possibilities through the integration of multiple ideas and transform our collective thinking.
Too often, we cling to certainty. We're so entrenched in our mindsets and comfortable with the status quo, we're not willing to expose ourselves to discord. This leads to behavior not unlike that represented in the saying that if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I'm sure you've recognized that our problem-solving frequently results in solutions that look amazingly like strategies we've tried again and again. We also champion “win-wins” that are, in reality, feeble compromises, rather than opening ourselves up to something completely new.
For me, struggling with concepts and ideas that are important to us is the fire that gets lit under adult development. Those who are truly committed to moving to a higher level of mastery as leaders must be willing to fight some internal battles, mentally and emotionally, and, at the same time, let down their defenses. It might not be easy or come naturally, but leaders who embrace integrative thinking can carve out a space for themselves and their organization where transformation and substantive, forward-thinking success can be achieved.
Strategies for Integrative Thinking
In the chapter “Mapping the Mind,” Martin discusses three tools that would serve any leader hoping to develop their integrative thinking.
Generative reasoning. Martin describes this as “a form of reasoning that inquires into what might be rather than what is.” Generative reasoning relies on what Charles Sanders Peirce, the founder of American pragmatism, called “abductive logic” (as opposed to inductive or deductive logic). As Martin writes, this process allows us to “leap beyond the available data to generate a new model.” Whereas inductive reasoning aims to prove that an existing argument is true based on available evidence and deductive reasoning relies on supplying strong evidence for the truth of an argument or conclusion, abductive logic or generative thinking looks into the future to identify what possibilities there might be.
Causal modeling. This is like reverse-engineering our thinking. We tend to think that our assumptions are accurate representations of reality rather than simply our personal beliefs. Causal modeling allows us to deconstruct thinking and become practiced at doing so, which is key to thinking more critically and determining the strengths and weaknesses of multiple models. The other side of causal modeling is the ability to imagine a future state we want to move toward and then brainstorming all the components that might influence, enable, or inhibit our getting there.
Assertive inquiry. Martin writes that “the antidote to advocacy is inquiry, which produces meaningful dialogue.” Instead of giving into our impulses to defend or advocate for our way of thinking, assertive inquiry demands that we turn our energy and attention—that raging curiosity—to understanding models that we are not familiar or comfortable with.
The strategies above are a real strength of The Opposable Mind, as is Martin's ability to explain his fairly complex ideas in a straightforward manner. You need not be a student of philosophy or psychology to appreciate this work. Leaders hoping to attain a higher level of development, thinking, and problem solving will be well-served by this book. Like reflection, learning to “think about your thinking” is a valuable tool. This is not the only model of forward-thinking, but it represents the idea that if we are to move past the status quo and if we are to keep pace with a fast-changing, complex world, then we must open our thinking through the acquisition of new habits of mind and communication.
For those of you who have attended POD's Leadership Agility Series, some of the above probably rings familiar to you. With a strong grounding in leadership agility provided by POD's adaptation of Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs' work, you could utilize Martin's book to build upon what you've already learned or to reinvigorate your pursuit of a higher level of leadership mastery.
Dan Kaufman is an experienced consultant and member of the University Consulting Alliance, a resource for UW leaders. He's interested in applying adult development theory to leadership coaching, uncovering barriers to change and growth, and creating cultures in which people, whether working in different departments of an organization or in different sectors of our society, work collaboratively towards new ideas that create shared value and equity for all involved. He also supports the development of organizational citizenship to strengthen employee engagement, satisfaction, and organizational reputation.
